Home Remedies For Cleaning Tile And Grout

Putting tile in your bathroom can significantly increase the value of your home. It looks beautiful and is highly functional in moisture producing environments.

On the flip side, it can be difficult to keep clean especially as most commercial tile cleaners do not clean grout.

Purchasing a product for the purpose of cleaning the grout can leave a film on your shiny tile.

Plus, you probably already have some of the best items in your home for cleaning tile and grout.

So Many Options

An online search for home remedy cleaning products will net many results. Some suggest using vinegar mixed with water, some lemon juice, others swear by toothpaste. These are all effective cleaning methods; however, they often require many steps and a lot of scrubbing.

Personally, I do not enjoy spending hours cleaning. I prefer methods that require minimal time and effort. Of course, it also has to be easy to make; I am not a chemist.

Three Little Ingredients

It may surprise you to learn that baking soda, vinegar, and water can be used either alone, or mixed, to clean many types of surfaces in your home. Tile and grout is no exception: it is effective and relatively simple to make:

1. Place some vinegar in a spray bottle.
2. Make a paste using baking soda and water.
3. Spray your floor with the vinegar.
4. Using a toothbrush, rub the baking soda mixture into the grout lines. This will produce some bubbling foam; do not be alarmed. It is the reaction of the vinegar and baking soda. Think of it as “scrubbing bubbles”.
5. Let the mixture work in for about 15 minutes.
6. Spray again with vinegar.
7. Rinse well using warm water.
8. Use a soft cloth or squeegee to dry.

Your tile should be shiny, and your grout should be clean and free of mold. If for some reason this method didn’t do the trick for you, repeat the process, but this time allow the mixture to set longer. You can generally allow up to 8 hours without causing harm to tile and grout.

Things to Remember

It is always wise to test any product on your tile prior to use. While this remedy works well, the vinegar has a mild acidic content.

If your tile has an adverse reaction to acids, do not try this method. Instead, use water in your spray bottle. You will have to scrub more, but it’s much better than ruining your tile. You can also try other methods that don’t require harmful chemicals.

Many experts recommend sealing your grout after each cleaning. Grout is made with sand and therefore very porous. Sealing the grout keeps moisture and mold from soaking into the surface. It is a laborious and time consuming process, so I wouldn’t recommend resealing after each cleaning session. Personally, I reseal about once a year applying several coats.

Using the method described above prior to resealing removes all the dirt, mold, and debris leaving a clean surface for sealer application.

Please call 316.413.5750 to set up your Tile & Grout cleaning, refinishing and burnishing appointment.

Hoarding Clean Up Service

Hoarding Cleanup Services, when completed properly, help the individual dealing with the hoarding disorder get their life back. If you need hoarding help, know a hoarder that is ready for a fresh start or have recently become responsible for a property that has a hoarding collection ServiceMaster by Best can help.

Our specialized hoarding cleanup team is made up of passionate and understanding professionals that recognizes this process takes time. We want to help everyone that lives or frequents an environment that has seen excessive hoarding by supporting them in deciding how they want to take control. If you are in, or near Wichita, Kansas, Derby, El Dorado, contact us for our courteous hoarding professionals to assist you.

Specialized Hoarder Cleaning Services

Hoarding cleanup is a service that helps you sort through all of your items. Hoarders seem to seek out help when their condition makes it hard to live, have people over and discourages them from enjoying the things they use to. A hoarding disorder can take over someone’s life…but with the proper help, restoration is possible. We will not only clean, sort and organize the collections but we can also give you tools and contacts to help you maintain the environment.

Hoarding Cleanup Process

Anxiety, embarrassment, loss of control, overwhelmed…these are all common and frequent feelings someone with a hoarding disorder experienced. Whether it be hourly, weekly, monthly or yearly, our team thinks any amount of time feeling like this is too much. The truth of the matter is not every item a hoarder saves will be useful in the future.

And our team can help with the process of determining if the item will cause more harm than good when left in your home. It is understandable to be sentimental about items, but not every item is worthy of a place in your home and too many items risk the health and life of everyone in the environment – family, friends, pets, even your safety. ServiceMaster by Best will help you find a balance and keep it.

Certified Hoarding Help

Bring your home back to a clean, orderly, healthy and organized state with the help of ServiceMaster by Best. We won’t pile bags at the end of your street, or trash everything. We have a method that will help you detach from the items that are no longer needed in your home. Doing so will allow the important items to have a place in your home that are easily accessible and proudly displayed.

Contact ServiceMaster by Best if you need hoarding cleanup services in Wichita, Kansas, Derby and El Doraro and surrounding areas at (316) 413-5750.

The Structural Drying Process Explained

When considering your partnership with a restoration vendor for your business, call Service Master by Best in Wichita 24 hours a day. The quicker you call us, the faster we respond. (316) 413-5738.

If you’re looking for a good recipe for disaster, take a beautiful home or building and just add water. Easy breezy. Indeed, huge amounts of water and moisture left behind after a water disaster event is bad news for properties.

Water can seep into walls, floors, basements, and even ceilings, promoting the disintegration of architectural components. Furthermore, the presence of water and moisture can also encourage the growth of molds and bacteria, putting the health of your loved ones at risk.

After a water disaster, humidity levels indoors tend to rise, creating a distinct foul and musty odor that is very hard to remove. Sometimes, however, water damage is not very apparent, leading property owners to believe that remediation procedures are no longer necessary. Nonetheless, if you don’t have the expertise nor the tools necessary to evaluate the extent of water damage in your property, it is best to get the advice of a professional restoration company.

Ideally, comprehensive structural drying should be performed in the property within 24 hours. The steps include procedures to remove the floodwater, evaporate the remaining moisture, dehumidify the air, and track moisture levels to ensure that the drying process is thorough.

• Water Extraction – This involves extracting most of the floodwater out of the property using special water pumps.
• Evaporation – Increasing the rate of evaporation is done with the help of air moving machines or air flow equipment.
• Dehumidification – Dehumidifying machines will also used in order to counterbalance the humidity being introduced by the evaporation procedure.
• Moisture Mapping – Moisture mapping will be conducted using moisture meters, thermal imaging devices, and other technologies in order to accurately determine the moisture levels around the property.

Depending on the severity of the water damage in your property, additional procedures may be required. These include deodorization and disinfection if your property was affected by black water flooding, as well as reconstruction if the water damage is so serious that certain parts of your home or building needs repair or complete replacement.

If you want to know more about structural drying service and water damage restoration, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with ServiceMaster Clean in Wichita by calling 316-413-5738.

Include Air Duct Cleaning in Building's Maintenance

With the fall maintenance season approaching, it’s time to consider what’s necessary to get your heating system ready for winter. When you call for preventive maintenance on the heating equipment itself, it would also be wise to schedule a commercial air duct cleaning. The air ducts in your commercial space have no doubt been directing cool air into your facility all summer long. Before winter gets here, have the ducts checked and cleaned by a professional duct cleaning service. You’ll see significant benefits in heating system efficiency and performance, consistency of heating, and indoor air quality.

The Need for Commercial Air Duct Cleaning

If the air ducts are not maintained and kept clean, you can experience problems such as:

• Dramatically reduced indoor air quality: Poor IAQ results when airborne particulates enter the ducts through gaps between sections and are then distributed along with conditioned air. Accumulations of dirt or other deposits inside the ducts can also be loosened over time and blown out into your facility.
• Problems with employee and customer health: Reduced indoor air quality can cause health problems related to airborne particulates or disease that can be more easily transmitted through faulty ducts. Material such as mold, animal or insect nests, dirt, and rodent droppings in the duct work can have significant effects on respiratory health.
• Wasted energy and money: Clogged, loosened, or damaged duct work can let conditioned air escape unused as the air travels along the duct network. This wastes energy and money, both because you’ve lost air that’s already been heated or cooled, and because more air must be conditioned to sustain indoor temperatures.

Benefits of Commercial Air Duct Cleaning

Commercial air duct cleaning offers substantial benefits for businesses, manufacturing facilities, offices, retail stores, and other commercial buildings.

• Improved indoor air quality: Clean ducts will not contain any materials that can be sent into your indoor spaces along with conditioned air. After a duct cleaning and inspection, loose sections will be reseated, connections will be sealed, and the chance of particulate infiltration will be reduced. Your indoor spaces will smell fresher and cleaner, which will make them more appealing to employees and customers.
• Improved facility safety: Any potentially hazardous or flammable material will be removed during a duct cleaning. Accumulations of dust, oil, or other material that could cause a fire will be scrubbed away.
• Less waste of energy and money: Clean ducts will provide a clear and open pathway for conditioned air to travel into your indoor areas. There will be no blockages that can interfere with airflow. Air leaks will be sealed and conditioned air will not be able to escape from the seams and connections in the duct network.

What to Look For in a Commercial Air Duct Cleaning Company

Ask your HVAC professional if his company also does duct cleaning. If so, have your duct work evaluated. If not, ask for a referral to a reliable source for a commercial air duct cleaning.

• Check references and reputation of any company you’re considering hiring for duct cleaning services.
• Ask if the cleaning company belongs to any professional industry organizations, such as the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA). Membership in such groups indicates a company that is likely concerned with upholding ethical standards and industry’s best practices.
• Make sure the duct work is inspected thoroughly and that you are given a report on the condition of the ducts before cleaning begins.
• Ask questions about the process until you understand what will be done and what the results will be.
• Get a written contract, signed by you and the contractor, that specifies exactly what will be done during the duct cleaning process.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about Plumbing, HVACR, Fire Protection, and Alarm Systems in Mechanical, Commercial, and Residential settings.

For more information on commercial air duct cleaning and its many benefits, or to view projects we’ve worked on, visit our website!