With your floor tiles laid, your tile grout formed and fully cured after a minimum waiting period of two weeks since it was first applied, and all your fixed furnishings and tile baseboards completely installed, you now have one more task left to do.
This of course is to finally seal the grout and give your floor the necessary waterproofing qualities and protection it requires.
Before actually sealing the grout though, you should first check to see whether the grout has been stained by water or dirt in anyway since it was first spread.
If you choose to seal the grout before removing any stains prior, then you will be left with those stains on your floor for good once the sealant has been applied.
During the two week period the tile grout had a chance to breathe and settle properly, it may have become dirty in certain areas during this time.
There is a number of grout cleaning products on the market which are specifically designed to remove these stains, such as TileLab Grout & Tile Cleaner brand for example.
As a personal preference though, I prefer to stick with Stain Solver as my own recommended choice, but these products are only really necessary to use if a simple wipe with a damp cloth is insufficient to remove the stains.
To try and prevent these stains from ever happening in the first place though, the best thing is to keep the room out of bounds for this curing duration.
If it must be used however and is a necessity, then just restrict everyone who enters the room to not wearing shoes, and try to keep water spillage and splashes to a minimum.
Socks or bare feet only should be the rule around rooms with floors of unsealed grout, as well as in the case of unsealed marble or granite floor tiles, in order to preserve their condition before final protection.
As well as numerous brands of grout and tile cleaner, there is also a countless amount of grout sealers available to choose from.
Grout sealing of tiled floors in my opinion should be done on a regular basis of once every one to two years.
This is just to maintain that the tiled floor remains waterproof throughout it's lifetime, and it is a fairly simple and effortless job to achieve also.
Regular low-end tile grout sealers will do the job fine if this basic routine is adhered to, however there are some grout sealing products available which claim that one sealing can last a lifetime or up to 5-10 years.
I have honestly yet to try these products, and also wait long enough to see whether they are true to their word.
These can be quite expensive as compared to the regular grout sealing brands though, so on a personal note I would highly recommend that you save your money and stick with the annual replenishment method using the cheaper grout sealants.
I've no complaints so far in using any of them.
With your grout clean and your choice of sealer already in hand, you are now finally ready to seal the grout.
But just before you do, wipe down the whole floor for preparation with a damp cloth and warm water and wait until it dries.
You don't want to seal in any of the water when you apply the grout and floor tile sealant, so make sure it's warm so that it evaporates a lot faster.
This of course is to finally seal the grout and give your floor the necessary waterproofing qualities and protection it requires.
Before actually sealing the grout though, you should first check to see whether the grout has been stained by water or dirt in anyway since it was first spread.
If you choose to seal the grout before removing any stains prior, then you will be left with those stains on your floor for good once the sealant has been applied.
During the two week period the tile grout had a chance to breathe and settle properly, it may have become dirty in certain areas during this time.
There is a number of grout cleaning products on the market which are specifically designed to remove these stains, such as TileLab Grout & Tile Cleaner brand for example.
As a personal preference though, I prefer to stick with Stain Solver as my own recommended choice, but these products are only really necessary to use if a simple wipe with a damp cloth is insufficient to remove the stains.
To try and prevent these stains from ever happening in the first place though, the best thing is to keep the room out of bounds for this curing duration.
If it must be used however and is a necessity, then just restrict everyone who enters the room to not wearing shoes, and try to keep water spillage and splashes to a minimum.
Socks or bare feet only should be the rule around rooms with floors of unsealed grout, as well as in the case of unsealed marble or granite floor tiles, in order to preserve their condition before final protection.
As well as numerous brands of grout and tile cleaner, there is also a countless amount of grout sealers available to choose from.
Grout sealing of tiled floors in my opinion should be done on a regular basis of once every one to two years.
This is just to maintain that the tiled floor remains waterproof throughout it's lifetime, and it is a fairly simple and effortless job to achieve also.
Regular low-end tile grout sealers will do the job fine if this basic routine is adhered to, however there are some grout sealing products available which claim that one sealing can last a lifetime or up to 5-10 years.
I have honestly yet to try these products, and also wait long enough to see whether they are true to their word.
These can be quite expensive as compared to the regular grout sealing brands though, so on a personal note I would highly recommend that you save your money and stick with the annual replenishment method using the cheaper grout sealants.
I've no complaints so far in using any of them.
With your grout clean and your choice of sealer already in hand, you are now finally ready to seal the grout.
But just before you do, wipe down the whole floor for preparation with a damp cloth and warm water and wait until it dries.
You don't want to seal in any of the water when you apply the grout and floor tile sealant, so make sure it's warm so that it evaporates a lot faster.
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