Cleaning moldy shower grout and caulk

The grout in showers is a perfect place for mold and mildew to grow.

The porous nature of grout and the constant wet area in showers gives mold a perfect place to grow and spread. Cleaning shower mold is extremely important to maintaining a safe and healthy home for your family and pets.

Many people see black ugly mold in their shower and do not believe that this can be a serious problem.

This can not be further from the truth. The mold that you see in the grout is just the visible mold on the outside of the grout. What is happening deep inside your grout and in your walls can be a much more serious issue effecting your home and health. Think of the visible mold as only a symptom of deeper problems inside of your walls.

Grout was never meant to be totally waterproof.

The idea of a tile shower design is that when you take a shower the grout will stop most of the water and then after you are done taking a shower the grout will dry out and no mold will form. What happens is that over time the grout gets saturated with water and never completely dries out between showers. When this happens mold starts growing in the grout.

Over time the grout will continue to be saturated with water and this water will start to accumulate behind your shower in the shower walls.

With a properly designed shower that has cement board for the walls the water can evaporate in the walls and can mitigate some of the mold buildup. A lot of problems can develop due to the increasingly common practice of installing tile over drywall or green board. Water will be absorbed by the green board and will soak into the green board just like a sponge. This water will never evaporate and mold will develop in your walls. Soon shower tiles will become loose and can start popping off of your walls.

Over time the greenboard will become so saturated with water and mold that the mold will start spreading from your shower walls into your joists and beams inside of your walls.

After your joists and wall beams start to get saturated structural damage can start to occur in your home. In addition to the structural damage the wet wood is a perfect place for termites and carpenter ants to live and breed. These termites and carpenter ants love wet wood and the inside of your walls makes a perfect place for them to form a large nest. Once one nest is set up in your walls the termites or carpenter ants can spread and your whole house can become infested with these insects. When this happens you will definitely need professional help to rid your home of these insects.

Toxic mold is a real problem and can cause serious health problems for your family and pets.

Toxic mold is referred to as a wide range of molds that occur inside of your home causing health problems to your family and pets. You do not have to have a full blown sickness to be affected by toxic mold. There is a wide range of ailments that can occur that you may not notice that are caused by the toxic mold. Anything from headaches, allergies, colds and flu can all be caused by toxic mold in your home. Therefore when you see black ugly mold forming in your shower it is best to deal with it immediately and not wait for mold, bugs or structural damage to occur in your home.

Moldy grout in your shower can be cleaned and removed with the proper cleaning techniques and procedures.

The first thing that you need to do is analyze your shower to understand exactly what is going on. Things that you should look for include:

• Is the mold in the grout or is the mold just forming in the caulk. Caulk is the elastic rubbery substance that is place where planes of tiles meet. Typically this is in the corners of the shower, between the walls and the shower floor, and between the tiles and ths shower enclosure. If your press something against the caulk and see that it is elastic then you can be certain that this is caulk.
• Are there any loose tiles in your shower. You can tap on the tiles especially near the floor to see if any of the tiles are loose and are about to become detached from the walls.
• Is the grout in good structural condition.

• What kinds of tiles are installed.

It is important to not use any type of acidic cleaning solution on stone tiles. If you have stone tiles then just use the alkaline cleaning solution on your tile and grout

Caulking that is moldy actually has the mold growing inside the caulking.

This is typical of many cheaper latex caulks and is a common occurrence in many showers. Caulk can never be cleaned and you need to remove all of the old moldy caulk and install new caulk in the shower.

If you feel that there are loose tiles in your shower or if the grout is cracked or missing then you are probably at the point where your tile shower needs to be repaired and re grouted.

Repairing and re grouting a tile shower can be a difficult process and if you are not an advanced do-it-yourself type person then you should probably seek professional help.

A professional level soap scum remover should be used to effectively clean up the soap scum without damaging any types of stone, ceramic or porcelain tiles.

The first thing that you should do is totally clean your shower with a quality soap scum removing product. MB-3 is used by many tile and grout cleaning professionals because it is the most effective soap scum remover you can buy. MB-3 is also safe to use on all types of stone, ceramic and porcelain shower tiles.

Most tile showers typically will always have some soap scum buildup on the tiles and grout. The soap scum can plug up the holes of the grout preventing water from properly evaporating. Use a scrub pad to scrub the tiles with the soap scum remover till all of the soap scum is removed. If there is a thick layer of soap scum on the tiles then it may be necessary to use a razor blade scrapper to scrape some of the soap scum off of the tile surface. Soap scum can be difficult to totally remove but the best way to get rid of it is with the MB-3 soap scum remover, a scrub pad and some elbow grease.

After you have removed the soap scum then you now want to use an acidic tile and grout cleaner to kill the mold and thoroughly clean up the grout.

The acidic cleaner should be one that contains Urea acid and is specifically designed for cleaning tile and grout. One of the more common acidic tile and grout cleaners containing Urea acid is Stonetech's Restore. Turn on the fan and use adequate ventilation and spray the acidic cleaner on the grout joints and scrub away at the grout joints. You should see the grout joints lighten up as they become clean and the mold is killed and removed with the acidic cleaner. Keep scrubbing and cleaning the tile and grout until you get the grout as clean as possible.

After you are done cleaning the tile and grout with the acidic cleaner you need to re clean the entire shower with an alkaline cleaning solution like Stonetech's Klenzall.

The alkaline cleaning solution is needed to further kill any remaining mold and mildew from the grout. Additionally you do not want to leave your grout in an acidic state after using the acidic cleaner. If the grout is left in an acidic state then it can start to wear down and get eaten away by the acid in the acidic cleaner. This is why it is important to re clean the entire shower with an alkaline cleaning solution to neutralize the acid in the grout.

Typically there will always be moldy caulk in a moldy shower.

After you are done totally cleaning your tile shower then you need to remove all of the moldy caulk from your shower. Use a razor blade scrapping tool to remove all of the caulk in the shower. You should use some isopropyl alcohol to further clean any remaining caulk from the tile and grout in the shower. Removing the moldy caulk is not fun and there are no quick tricks to removing caulk. Just continue scrapping away all of the old caulk until you are confident that all the old caulking has been removed.

After you have thoroughly cleaned out your shower and removed all the old caulking you should let your shower dry out.

It is important that all the grout thoroughly dry out to kill any remaining mold inside of the grout. You should take at least a couple of days or even a week to totally let your shower dry out. It is best to use a dehumidifier and place it in the shower and close all the doors and windows in the bathroom and let the dehumidifier run at maximum capacity. If you do not have access to a dehumidifier then you can place a fan in the shower and let it run to help dry out the shower.

After you have dried out your shower then it is important to seal your shower with a good penetrating solvent based silicone grout sealer.

A solvent based sealer should be used on the shower grout because it will penetrate deeper into the grout and provide more water proofing protection then a water based sealer. Also the sealer should be a silicone grout sealer because silicone grout sealers provide the most water resistance then any other types of sealers. One of the best solvent based silicone tile and grout sealers is the original Miracle brand Impregnator 511. For shower grout you should apply a few coats of sealer on the vertical walls to ensure you achieve good penetration with the sealer.

After you are done sealing your shower grout you should caulk between the wall planes, the walls and the floor, between the tiles and the shower enclosure and around any fixtures like soap dishes and towel bars.

You should use only 100% silicone caulking to caulk your shower. Do not use any other type of latex, siliconized or adhesive caulks. All of these non 100% silicone caulks will grow mold and mildew in them and become black again within a few months. Some of the better 100% silicone caulks include GE II and Laticrete Latisil 100% silicone caulks. If you are not good at caulking you should tape up about 1/8th of an inch around both sides of the areas to be caulked and apply the caulk, smooth the caulk with your finger and pull away the tape Then you can go back over the caulk with your finger to smooth the bead and make a beautiful caulk joint.

It is important to do regular cleaning and maintenace of your tile shower to prevent mold and mildew from regrowing in your shower grout.

After you are done showering you should wipe down your shower to remove any excess water from your tile and grout. This will allow your grout to dry much quicker so that mold does not have a chance to grow. Remember that no sealant will prevent all of the water from being absorbed by the grout. Therefore it is necessary to give your shower the most chance to dry out between showers. Using the exhaust fan while showering will also help you to keep the shower dry and mold free.

You should use a pH neutral cleaner designed for tile, stone and grout to periodically clean the shower.

A pH neutral cleaning solution will clean the shower without breaking down the sealer or damaging your grout. You should not use any type of aggressive acidic or alkaline cleaning solutions for regular maintenance cleaning of your tile shower. These aggressive cleaning solutions are not meant for regular maintenance cleanings and over time will break down the grout sealer. Also if you over use the acidic cleaner it can start to break down the grout. Stonetech also makes a quality pH neutral all purpose stone and tile cleaning solution.

Remember that depending on the frequency of usage that you may need to go back and repeat the cleaning, sealing and recaulking process every 3-5 years.

All grout sealers will wear down over time and it is important to be proactive in cleaning and killing the mold in your shower to maintain a safe and healthy home.