How to Clean Marble Question

[eyemommy]

How do you clean the grout in a marble tiled shower?  We have a newer home with a marble (honed calcutta gold) shower where the grout seems to be getting "dirty" even though we are using a squeegee to dry the walls and floors after every use.  What type of product should be used?  Something different for daily/weekly usage vs. occasional heavy duty cleaning?  Thanks!

[Mark D.]

Even if a grout sealer has been used on the grout, dirt will get trapped in it. You can clean grout joints with non-toxic oxygen bleach. Mix it with water and simply pour it onto the grout. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes or so and the grout will be ready for a very light scrubbing and final rinse. Oxygen bleach is color safe as well!

Sealed or unsealed, grout joints darken. The only way to really seal the joint is to bury it under a 1/4" of acrylic, but that isn't a feasible solution.

Mark

[eyemommy]

Thanks Mark!

I still have a couple of questions.  I am not sure what an "oxygen bleach" is or where to purchase it......suggestions?  Also, as I have no idea if the marble has been sealed or not, will the oxygen bleach hurt the marble?  I don't want to seal the marble (my next project) until the grout is clean!  Thanks for your help.

[Mark D.]

You need to do the lemon test and see if the stone sealed. We have this up as one of the first topics. When you are ready to seal it get Hydrex. It is easy to apply and will protect your stone's polish from acids (like orange juice) etching the polish. It will also make it stainproof - think of it as Skotchgard for stone! Here is a link:
http://www.defusco.com/glues-epoxy-polyester-etc-hydrex-sealer-c-82_502.html

The oxygen bleach may lighten the stone, but that is doubtful. A lot of store bleaches for clothes are oxygen bleaches - just check the labels. You want to buy a powdered oxygen bleach and make a water based solution with it. Here is some info on oxygen bleaches:

"Oxygen bleaches are materials that release oxygen for cleaning and bleaching of stains and dirt upon addition to water.  There are three types of oxygen bleaches sold in the consumer market, hydrogen peroxide, sodium percarbonate and sodium perborate.  While hydrogen peroxide is a liquid, sodium percarbonate and sodium perborate are powders.  Sodium percarbonate is used in deck, carpet, household and laundry cleaning products.  Sodium perborate is also a powder and is used mostly in automatic dishwashing and laundry products as a hot water bleaching agent.  While sodium perbcarbonate has the highest solubility in water, sodium perborate is more storage stable in detergent formulations.

Powdered bleaches are made by treating natural soda ash or natural borax with hydrogen peroxide.  These materials can absorb the oxygen while remaining free flowing solids. Upon dissolving in water, they release the oxygen.  (One popular infomercial seen on television claims that their oxygen bleach takes the oxygen right out of the air which is totally false!!)  Pure sodium percarbonate contains about 13-14% oxygen and sodium perborate contains about 10-15% oxygen. They are currently being manufactured in the United States, Korea and China.  While Asian bleaches are generally lower in cost, the US produced bleaches are the most consistent in composition and performance."


That being said, buy the good stuff with better materials in it and less filler. This should make cleaning your grout easy and not time consuming.

Mark