Sunday, August 12, 2007

Selleys grout whitener.



ive used this product twice just to get done my bathroom and my kitchen.
My kitchen floor lacks in grout and the grout is the old 70s or 80s black grout. I like white, its easy to see when the floor is dirty/clean and dark grout just makes the kitchen look really yucky. (perhaps black grout is ok with better matched tiles than our white and brown flecked squares..)










my bathroom grout is heavily soiled with i don't know 30 years of existence and no care? 100% bleach did nothing to the grout! it was stubborn, old and staying put!

So how did the selleys stuff go?
first off this stuff 270g at woolies and k-mart goes for $7.49 (not cheap but in comparison with other stuff ive found its alright) i thought that some paste/grout would be better than some liquid cleaner as some tiles were missing grout and the grout is very low in the kitchen.

Its time consuming to do large areas.. a kitchen alone will take a day and a bathroom perhaps 2 days (walls and floor) the floor must be 100% dry.. the directions say the floor must be dry and i found that if the floor was wet the stuff didn't stick/dry very well. im afraid of washing my floors actually coz the stuff does lift very easily its like a chalky paint when dried u can scratch it and it would come off. i believe the remove the excess before 2hrs is in result of the cure stage, as in it starts to cure at 2hrs and must not be wet for another 24hrs. i say this because its very easy to get wrapped up in applying it and finishing the job all in one shot. but u really need to split up the floor/walls that need to be done so u don't go past the 2hr mark. even if u miss some of this stuff during the cleaning excess stage it doesn't matter a good scratch with a fingernail or some elbow grease and good cloth will remove it. also from clothing a good scratch and it should come clean, a good soak would also work a treat!

in all, this product doesn't smell bad or stink your house out. It comes easily off clothing, painted walls, tiles... its not hard to understand or apply.

a few tips i found handy
* use gloves definitely, be mindful of your feet, carpet and clothing
* apply in one direction e.g vertical run your finger down to smooth the line and see how much the excess can cover further.. (floor) and then run your finger across the opposite e.g horizontal and you should make the excess fill the horizontal line
* when doing a floor and its hard to apply to the areas underneath the bench/cupboards leave them for last. when you are able to roll up the tube a bit and its smaller it makes the job of getting the tube to apply the whitener in those places much easier.
* after applying smooth/smudge any excess on the tiles till its smooth. remember u have to clean off the excess later.. the higher and more excess on the tile the longer and harder it is to remove when your exhausted! lol
in all this stuff really needs a actual sealer in my opinion, something to keep it from not being removed when cleaning your floor.
its absolutely amazing in the small grouts of walls! and around the shower so im not sure why it does poorly on the floor. it does not whiten as to say the grout, it more or less replaces your grout with this stuff over the top. if u scratch this stuff u will see that ugly floor again!
Its a great workout, will work your butt, arms and thighs to the highest degree (for squatting for hours)
a great quick fix solution to making your grout whiter!..

3 comments:

maria said...

I will keep this post in mind! Info like this can be very helpful! I couldn't manage this job physically right now - but if ever I think 'grouting', I'll come back here, I'm sure of it! Well done on rolling your sleeves up and sharing your experience/knowledge! :-)

Clean Pros said...

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Thank You

Unknown said...

I was looking for a step by step guide like this to figure out how to deal with my tile and grout cleaning. However, I'm not able to perform this task physically that's why I hired a cleaning company called Golden Line Green Care. After their polite technicians were done, my tiles looked like brand new! Later I found out that they are the top-rated tile and grout cleaning Toronto at HomeStars!