Is It Worth Sealing Grout After Cleaning
Cleaning tile and grout floors has become more challenging then ever for homeowners and building managers, property owners. The tile itself is not as much of the problem but the grout. Cleaning grout by hand can become very laborious and after a cleaning the big question is should we seal our grout floors?
The answers is yes, absolutely and today we are going to go over the reasons sealing can prevent permanent staining and make tile floors much, much easier to clean.
What Types of Grout Are There?
For a successful tile & grout cleaning project it is important to pay attention to the type of grout installed. In fact, in most jobs, the grout is the main problem and attracts dirt the most.
There are two basic types of grout: cementitious and epoxy. The texture of cement-based (cementitious) grout can be either sanded or unsanded.
Cement based is mostly what a homeowner would see in their kitchen and bathrooms, it looks like, well cement and if sanded you can see the tiny pebbles, grit.
Epoxy is popular in more commercial buildings, especially restrooms. You can tell because it looks like plastic and if you tried to scrape it with a key it would feel and shave off just like plastic.
Now that we pointed out the different types of grout we are going to go over the different sealer options.
Impregnator Sealer
These are the products you will mostly see in home centers like home depot or a local tile store.
Impregnator sealers or some people use the term penetrating sealer are designed to penetrate below the top surface of the grout; and deposit solid particles in the pores of the stone or to coat the individual minerals below the surface of the stone. Water, oil, and soil are restricted from entering the stone.
This is completely different from a floor finish or wax you might be used to seeing on vct floors that provide a shine and lay on top. A penetrating or impregnating sealing absorbs into the grout.
This is a little technical I know but the important part is reaching the areas below the surface, that is the part we can’t see that can be several centimeters thick. If we can coat those areas then a large drink spill will be repelled and just lay on top to be mopped up or wiped with a cloth.
