How to Keep Your Grout as Gorgeous as Your Granite
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- How to Keep Your Grout as Gorgeous as Your Granite
Originally published by Pretty Opinionated, August 10, 2018
Raise your hand if you spend a lot of time thinking about your grout! Unless you install tiles for a living, I’m guessing your hand is still down, right? Grout isn’t really something that we sit around pondering, but it really is an important part of your home. See, while the tiles may be the first thing people see when they look at your floor, counters, and so on, the grout is the glue that holds the whole look together…literally!
Cleaning grout is a monumental task for any type of tile, but when you have granite or other natural stone, it’s even more of a challenge! The wrong grout cleaner can wreak total havoc on your gorgeous (and expensive!) stone. Most cleaners are just too abrasive for granite and can leave ugly etch marks in it, which are pretty much impossible to fix without calling in a professional. Other less abrasive cleaners just kind of cover the dirt so your grout looks clean but really isn’t. Blech, right?
So, what can you do to get grout that’s as gorgeous as your granite? That, my friends, is where Granite Gold Grout Cleaner® comes in!
If there’s a company that knows natural stone, it’s definitely Granite Gold®. The family-owned company has more than 55 years’ experience in the stone-care industry! If you have granite, chances are you’ve used Granite Gold® cleaning products to keep it looking beautiful. Now, those same experts are making it easier to tackle the tedious task of cleaning the glue that holds your tile together.
Granite Gold Grout Cleaner® is stone-safe cleaner that removes grease & grime, like oil and soap scum. It’s tough enough to use on even the grungiest grout, yet gentle enough for pretty much any tile material, including granite, marble, and even glass. It’s also safe for colored grout! You can even use it on plain old laminate tile, so you don’t have to buy separate products for every surface in your house. It even comes with a stone-friendly scrub brush to make quick work of dirt.
I also love that Granite Gold Grout Cleaner® is non-toxic and free of ammonia. It’s designed to be safe on food-prep surfaces, which means it’s also safe to use around my cats and dogs. It’s even planet-friendly since it’s biodegradable!
Cleaning with Granite Gold Grout Cleaner® is really fairly straight-forward and simple.
If you’re thinking about skipping the sealer step, think again! Skipping the sealer not only leaves your grout vulnerable to stains, it can also allow nasty things to grow- like mold and bacteria. Think about it: germs LOVE moisture, and since grout is so porous, it’s absorbing water every time you shower, brush your teeth, or wash your dishes (depending on where it is).
Granite Gold Sealer® works just as well for sealing that grout as it does for your granite counters and other surfaces because it builds a barrier against soil build up and stains. They even have Granite Gold Sealer Wipes® to make it even easier to keep germs out of your grout.
Check out their video for a better visual of how to clean grout!
I gave it a try in our bathroom, which has the nicest floors and counters in the house. Go figure, right? I guess my landlord spent a lot of time in there and wanted it to be nice? We have colored grout that hides dirt pretty well. My mom (who as you may know lives with me) is kind of a neat freak and I wasn’t expecting much dirt to come out of the grout. I was really surprised by how much was hiding there!
We also have a stone wall surrounding our wood stove. For the life of me, I can’t remember the type of stone. I asked my landlord recently and he told me, then I promptly forgot! Something like mixed stone. Whatever it is, it’s real…and the grout that holds it all together it is a real pain to clean!
It’s important to note that Granite Gold Grout Cleaner® will not remove stains from your grout. I’m not talking about that dirt that looks like a stain, I mean those really deep set-in stains that have been sitting there for a while, really sinking into your porous grout.
No product can completely obliterate those deep grout stains, sorry. You’re a lot better off replacing the grout, then sealing it (along with the stone around it) with Granite Gold Sealer® to help prevent stains in the first place.
Ready to try it out and make quick work of grout cleaning? Head to the Granite Gold® website to learn more and to buy Granite Gold Grout Cleaner®, along with their other fabulous cleaning products! Granite Gold® products are available at Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowes, The Home Depot, Walmart, and grocery and hardware stores throughout the U.S.; check the store locator at GraniteGold.com
Granite flooring and countertops look great, particularly if the stone has been honed and polished to a glossy finish, but when a cloudy film forms on the surface, you get the opposite effect. With haziness and cloudiness on granite surfaces, there are various levels of causes and severity. In most situations, this is something you…
Open floor plans that merge family rooms with the kitchen continue to be very popular among homebuyers in 2019. According to national home builder Lennar, this preference for open floor plans makes the kitchen a strong focal point, which means we can expect interior design trends such as center islands and countertops made of natural…
Grouting is part of natural-stone tile installations. The only way to avoid it is by opting for joined panels instead of tiles, and this isn’t recommended for flooring applications. Contractors generally expect that some grouting material, whether it’s mortar or silicone-based, will get on the tiles, which is why many of them carefully work in…
“Foot selfies” are the latest Instagram and Pinterest trends, and they have a strong focus on flooring aesthetics. Interior designers are loving this digital photography trend, and they’ve noticed that natural-stone tiles are taking the lead, particularly marble, slate, limestone, and granite. You can never go wrong with natural-stone tiles for your living spaces. They’re…
In North American homes, kitchen islands have been a strong aspect of open floor plans since the 1950s. Interior designers believe soldiers coming back from World War II noticed tables moved into the center of Italian kitchens, which often merged with living rooms instead of having separate dining spaces. For home builders, open floor plans…
Grout lines are an important aspect of just about all tile installations, whether they’re used for flooring, decorative backsplash details, shower walls, or surrounds. Even though grouting work doesn’t really help much in terms of tile stability, there’s a very good reason for making sure at least some space is left between tiles: protecting the…
A good way to tell how long an interior design trend is bound to last is by looking at celebrity real estate listings. In 2019, Tamra Judge, star of the Real Housewives of Orange County reality TV show, listed her Southern California home for millions of dollars, and the property featured quartz countertops. Something else…
When real estate listings make news headlines, it’s either because they’re historic, spectacular, or expensive. With regard to the latter two, you can almost always expect to find natural stone as part of the property description being highlighted. In September 2019, a Chicago home designed by George Frederick Keck in 1936 was listed for $3.5…
In Rome, a very interesting piece of architecture is located near Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, in the district once designated to host the 1942 World’s Fair, which was never celebrated because of World War II. Known to tourists as the “Square Colosseum,” the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is an imposing and austere building that pays homage…
Granite flooring and countertops look great, particularly if the stone has been honed and polished to a glossy finish, but when a cloudy film forms on the surface, you get the opposite effect. With haziness and cloudiness on granite surfaces, there are various levels of causes and severity. In most situations, this is something you…
Open floor plans that merge family rooms with the kitchen continue to be very popular among homebuyers in 2019. According to national home builder Lennar, this preference for open floor plans makes the kitchen a strong focal point, which means we can expect interior design trends such as center islands and countertops made of natural…
Grouting is part of natural-stone tile installations. The only way to avoid it is by opting for joined panels instead of tiles, and this isn’t recommended for flooring applications. Contractors generally expect that some grouting material, whether it’s mortar or silicone-based, will get on the tiles, which is why many of them carefully work in…
“Foot selfies” are the latest Instagram and Pinterest trends, and they have a strong focus on flooring aesthetics. Interior designers are loving this digital photography trend, and they’ve noticed that natural-stone tiles are taking the lead, particularly marble, slate, limestone, and granite. You can never go wrong with natural-stone tiles for your living spaces. They’re…
In North American homes, kitchen islands have been a strong aspect of open floor plans since the 1950s. Interior designers believe soldiers coming back from World War II noticed tables moved into the center of Italian kitchens, which often merged with living rooms instead of having separate dining spaces. For home builders, open floor plans…
Grout lines are an important aspect of just about all tile installations, whether they’re used for flooring, decorative backsplash details, shower walls, or surrounds. Even though grouting work doesn’t really help much in terms of tile stability, there’s a very good reason for making sure at least some space is left between tiles: protecting the…
A good way to tell how long an interior design trend is bound to last is by looking at celebrity real estate listings. In 2019, Tamra Judge, star of the Real Housewives of Orange County reality TV show, listed her Southern California home for millions of dollars, and the property featured quartz countertops. Something else…
When real estate listings make news headlines, it’s either because they’re historic, spectacular, or expensive. With regard to the latter two, you can almost always expect to find natural stone as part of the property description being highlighted. In September 2019, a Chicago home designed by George Frederick Keck in 1936 was listed for $3.5…
In Rome, a very interesting piece of architecture is located near Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, in the district once designated to host the 1942 World’s Fair, which was never celebrated because of World War II. Known to tourists as the “Square Colosseum,” the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is an imposing and austere building that pays homage…
Granite flooring and countertops look great, particularly if the stone has been honed and polished to a glossy finish, but when a cloudy film forms on the surface, you get the opposite effect. With haziness and cloudiness on granite surfaces, there are various levels of causes and severity. In most situations, this is something you…
Open floor plans that merge family rooms with the kitchen continue to be very popular among homebuyers in 2019. According to national home builder Lennar, this preference for open floor plans makes the kitchen a strong focal point, which means we can expect interior design trends such as center islands and countertops made of natural…
Grouting is part of natural-stone tile installations. The only way to avoid it is by opting for joined panels instead of tiles, and this isn’t recommended for flooring applications. Contractors generally expect that some grouting material, whether it’s mortar or silicone-based, will get on the tiles, which is why many of them carefully work in…
“Foot selfies” are the latest Instagram and Pinterest trends, and they have a strong focus on flooring aesthetics. Interior designers are loving this digital photography trend, and they’ve noticed that natural-stone tiles are taking the lead, particularly marble, slate, limestone, and granite. You can never go wrong with natural-stone tiles for your living spaces. They’re…
In North American homes, kitchen islands have been a strong aspect of open floor plans since the 1950s. Interior designers believe soldiers coming back from World War II noticed tables moved into the center of Italian kitchens, which often merged with living rooms instead of having separate dining spaces. For home builders, open floor plans…
Grout lines are an important aspect of just about all tile installations, whether they’re used for flooring, decorative backsplash details, shower walls, or surrounds. Even though grouting work doesn’t really help much in terms of tile stability, there’s a very good reason for making sure at least some space is left between tiles: protecting the…
A good way to tell how long an interior design trend is bound to last is by looking at celebrity real estate listings. In 2019, Tamra Judge, star of the Real Housewives of Orange County reality TV show, listed her Southern California home for millions of dollars, and the property featured quartz countertops. Something else…
When real estate listings make news headlines, it’s either because they’re historic, spectacular, or expensive. With regard to the latter two, you can almost always expect to find natural stone as part of the property description being highlighted. In September 2019, a Chicago home designed by George Frederick Keck in 1936 was listed for $3.5…
In Rome, a very interesting piece of architecture is located near Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, in the district once designated to host the 1942 World’s Fair, which was never celebrated because of World War II. Known to tourists as the “Square Colosseum,” the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is an imposing and austere building that pays homage…
