Cleaning/whitening grout on bathroom tiles.

[Fontella]

I'm in the process of redecorating my bathroom and I've got white bath/shower tiles and the grout is horribly discoloured. I bought some 'Grout Reviver' but it's crap! It's in a bottle with a round sponge dispenser like shoe whitener, so most of what you use gets wasted anyway as it's all over the tiles.

You have to go over and over the grout several times, back and forth, back and forth and it eventually lightens it up a bit, but nowhere near what I was hoping for. And at this rate one bottle will only do a few tiles - nowhere near the whole lot. It would cost a fortune, even if the stuff was any good, which it isn't.

There surely must be a better way. Anyone know of any products or homemade solutions for whitening grout.

Mix bicarbonate of soda with bleach until it's a thick paste. Rub it all over the grout with a toothbrush, and then leave it over night. Rinse it off and repeat, it should come up lovely!

(PS I buy my bicarb in bulk from a Chinese supermarket, it's soooo much cheaper that way as I use it for loads of stuff around the house!)

Bleach with bicarbonate really works but makes sure you ventilate the room! I even wore a mask for this.

A steam cleaner with small nozzle is brilliant, of just bleach on a toothbrush.

^ exactly what she said, except mix the bicarb with vinegar (just bog-standard clear vinegar, the kind you get for 20p in the supermarket). You don't even have to leave it overnight, just give it a good scrub with the toothbrush and the dirt will literally fall off. My shower grout was orange/black; it's now white and has stayed that way!

Oops, cross post - 'she' = MrsMushrooms!

I'll probably get flamed for this (and I know it's not environmentally friendly but I hardly ever do it), but I put straight bleach in a spray bottle and spray it all over the grout, tiles and all. Leave it a couple of hours and then rinse off. Voila! Mask up and ventilate!

Bleach

Domestos Grot Buster is fab for this. It's very thick bleach with a tiny pointy nosle perfect for running along grout lines. Leave for longer than it says on bottle , brush a bit with a toothbrush, shower off and voila! Next morning it is even better!
I bulk buy this stuff whenever I find it as our shower room is not well ventilated and prone to "pink" mould appearing if Windows not opened daily.

Thanks all.

I carried on with the 'grout restorer' as I had paid for the stuff, but I've just gone back in and had a look after a couple of hours, and it's done bugger all. What a waste of money!

I'll try that Grot Buster bleach and toothbrush and see how I go.

I would recommend HG Grout Cleaner This stuff is amazing, i used it on my bathroom tiles and it works a treat. To top it off use a sturdy bristle brush to get in those hard to reach places and you will clean your bathroom tiles right up:-)

Hope that helps:-)

I would recommend HG Grout Cleaner

Picked some of this stuff up at B & Q yesterday along with some HG Scale Away as I live in a hard water area and basic, taps, loo, everything all have scale stains. Just used both and my bathroom is gleaming.

So easy to apply - it comes in a spray dispenser and the Scale Away creats a foam as soon as it hits the surface. Left it on for a couple of minutes around the taps, plug holes etc. Used an old toothbrush to work it around the base of the taps etc - and the grunge just melted away.

The HG Grout cleaner is in the same kind of dispenser, but remains a liquid, and sort of runs down the grout ridges between the tile. I sprayed the whole lot, left it a few minutes and then went back over with the toothbrush - then rinsed off the tiles with the shower spray and it's come up lovely.

Can definitely recommend both products and not expensive!