Help with Tile & Grout Cleaning needed!

[Greg Cole]

I am looking for an effective way to clean tile and grout with 200 psi portable extractors. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. (besides getting a truckmount of course! shiteatinggrin )
Thanks
-Greg

 

[Mikey P]

On well sealed grout and stone you'll get good results by scrubbing and rinsing with low pressure.


It's when the soil has absorbed into the surface that you'll find the heat and high pressure mandatory for pro results.



Problem is Greg, you don't know how well it was sealed until AFTER you've cleaned it.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I hope you are kidding. You are seriously going to let your porty subs hack out grout cleaning with. Well I guess they are hacking out carpets so why not grout. Even with a truck mount and killer chems the grout needs to be stripped and scrubbed. Then again you could always just use a mop bucket and deck brush. In all seriousness you probably could clean with 200 psi portables but you will need to do a lot of preparation and scrubbing. So yes it can be done. It will just take 5 times longer.

 

[Erik]

Buy an electric power washer from Harbor Freight.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Buy an electric power washer from Harbor Freight.

Yes get a portable with auto pumpout and an electric power washer and you will be set. I forgot about that.

 

[Chris A]

On my old TM I could only get about 700 PSI, and with a lot of scrubbing, I could get most grout clean, it was just very very slow, I woould say a water hog type pressure pump may be your only option.

 

[Greg Cole]

Buy an electric power washer from Harbor Freight.

Yes get a portable with auto pumpout and an electric power washer and you will be set. I forgot about that.

Spinner or Gekko if they use the power washer?

 

[Chris A]

Buy an electric power washer from Harbor Freight.

Yes get a portable with auto pumpout and an electric power washer and you will be set. I forgot about that.

Spinner or Gekko if they use the power washer?

Spinner, Spinner, Spinner... The Gekko-style tool is utterly worthless.

 

[sweendogg]

.... except you could offer to wash down the vinyl pretty effectively at 200 psi and a gecko! :idea:

 

[J Scott W]

A Water Otter can boost incoming water pressure to 750 to 1000 PSI. The portable would have to be used for extraction. Dependinging on the size of the tank, it could fill pretty fast. So you might also want a auto dump option on the porty.

My suggestion would be to go with a 175 RPM floor machine and a brush with multi-length bristles. This allows the bristles to do a better job on the recessed grout lines. Then use the porty and a tool with a rubber squeegee head to rinse and extract after agitating wiht the floor machine.

 

[John Olson]

Scott is dead on as always. You can do a very good Job with just a grout brush and a mop and bucket. It will take you a very long time unless you are not concerned with the results just the $$$$.

If your only concern is to get the money out of the home owners pocket and into yours then here is how you do it.

Buy some Prochem Tile and Grout Cleaner or Viper Venom. Lay it down strong and thick with your mop and bucket.

Take your Grout brush and scrub as fast as you can east,west,north and south.

Take your two jet wand with a Glide on it and rinse the Floor

Change your mop head and give the floor a last step rinse with a neutral cleaner and collect your money

If cheating your customer isn't how you want to do it then you can't do it with a 200 psi porty. At least not anyway that will be profitable to you and fair to the home owner.

You can however get a portable capable of tile and grout and carpet cleaning with heat for under 3500.

 

[Greg Cole]

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Scott is dead on as always. You can do a very good Job with just a grout brush and a mop and bucket. It will take you a very long time unless you are not concerned with the results just the $$$$.

If your only concern is to get the money out of the home owners pocket and into yours then here is how you do it.

Buy some Prochem Tile and Grout Cleaner or Viper Venom. Lay it down strong and thick with your mop and bucket.

Take your Grout brush and scrub as fast as you can east,west,north and south.

Take your two jet wand with a Glide on it and rinse the Floor

Change your mop head and give the floor a last step rinse with a neutral cleaner and collect your money

If cheating your customer isn't how you want to do it then you can't do it with a 200 psi porty. At least not anyway that will be profitable to you and fair to the home owner.

You can however get a portable capable of tile and grout and carpet cleaning with heat for under 3500.

Ok- you win! Damn good post. Obviously the customer must be happy or I won't bother offering the service. I already knew it wouldn't be good for breaking it loose- just needed to hear options I may not have already thought of.

I am tied between their buying electric pressure washers and spinners or buying buffers and gekkos. Either way - they are looking at spending about $1k in order to do it. Not bad if he can make an extra $300- $450 a week on top of the carpet cleaning.

$3500.00 is alot to ask a contractor to stomach on a porty. For that- he could go buy a used TM or make a good down payment at Jon-Don.

What does everyone that hasn't posted so far think?

 

[Scott S.]

water otter (1200 psi)
Sx-12
gekko tool
porty with auto dump is a must.

viper venom
spinergy 11
viper renew
tile and grout brush
and a kit to reseal the grout once cleaned.

i wouldnt go with much less than that because you will be far to slow unless you have a little kitchen to do.. you can also clean concrete driveways and patios if you get the water otter and the sx-12. you will make more money if you can reseal the grout also.. plus it will be easier to clean next time..

 

[Ryan]

http://www.***************/store/mytee- ... -4649.html

Have them check ebay too I've seen some new looking m-12's go cheap.

M-12 + Spinner could be had for under $3k before shipping. Plus your sub will have a nice heated porty to do carpet with.

 

[Gary T]

Order some TxCon 4800 for man made tile and some TOG Stone Prep for the stone. The 4800 easily out cleans the venom, spinergy, and Prochem products especially if you have no pressure or heat. I have used them all side by side. Really do not waste your money on expensive brushes for a 175(unless you are doing very large areas), they do not work very well on recessed grout lines. I have used them, in residential and small commercial you are far better off with a stiff grout brush on a pole. You don't need to apply much pressure.