Smoke stained grout

Jun 28, 2005 7 Replies

I am looking at doing some touch up work to get my dad's house up for sale. He is a heavy smoker. The white tile in the bathroom and the white grout are a dingy yellow color. Other than removing the existing grout what can I do? Michael


Try a little bleach in the cleaning water.

Try a Bleach/water solution. Cleanser also works well with a scrub brush and lots of elbow grease, or if possible making a cleanser paste to stand on the grout several hours.

Don't blame it on smoking blame it on not cleaning! Did you try cleaning it?

[snip bottom quotes]

That's a good suggestion. Lime-away, which is similar, may also work. However, the OP was on about tobacco stains on grout, so I think neither would be effective. And, just my experience, I've found cleanser or bleach better on tile grout.

I had the exact same problem when I bought a new house. I used something called "Tile Grout Coating," which I found at the hardware store.

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It coats over the grout stain. I put it on about six months ago and it still looks fine (I didn't use it in the shower part yet, but the rest of the bathroom gets humid and a little wet too, with no ill effect). I was kind of surprised it worked.

Good luck.

Dave

Not another post from an anti-smoker !

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