Is there any floor tile grouting that stays white?

[womanofdulwich]

I really want to use light coloured floor tiles but when I've tried this before the grouting always goes dirty. Any top tips you home improvers?

[Annette Curtain]

Try these

( they hide the dirt beautifully )

http://www.exotic-footwear.ru/big_jpg/clown.jpg

[womanofdulwich]

these would be great but they look a bit too showaddy waddy to me.

[Alan Medic]

Emmm........close the windows and don't walk on it.

[womanofdulwich]

any helpful advice appreciated please.

[Huguenot]

The only good advice is don't do white grout I'm afraid wod.

Grouts are porous (like a sponge) so the stain is within the material itself. No amount of scrubbing the surface can remove stains like these.

You could try for expensive non-porous grouts, but they're very difficult to obtain and have other problems, or you could try using a sealer like 'Grout Armor', or even sealing the entire floor - which will turn your kitchen into a skid pan.

Most of these have odd chemical properties though, so spilling the wrong stuff on them or using the wrong cleaning agent will result in permanent stains anyway.

You'll find yourself scrubbing the floor every couple of days, buying expensive steam cleaners for a slightly better clean - but you'll never be satisfied, it'll drive you nuts and break up your marriage. ;-)

Don't do white grout on floors.

[womanofdulwich]

huguenot, thats what I did not want to hear-( but what 2 otehrs have said) I dont want black floor tiles-what a bout a cream colour- to go with travertine type tiles? do you reckon that would be as bad?

[Huguenot]

As a general rule of thumb the lighter it is, the more likely stains will show.

Don't forget that travertine is porous anyway - so you should be sealing your floors at a minimum annually.

Travertine tiles tend to hide stains well because the tile istelf is variable, so the eye is tricked into thinking a stain is part of the existing pattern:

http://theheavenlyhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Travertine-flooring.jpg

An alternative might be to get tiles that are so close fitting the grout is virtually invisible.

http://www.bestremodelingkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/Travertine_Stone_Tile.jpg

You always need some spacing to prevent cracking.

[Moos]

I have light grey tiles with light grey grout. I also have a four-year-old and a baby at the "experimenting with food" stage. I scrub (bits of) the floor every day, cursing. But my floor looks clean enough, and the grouting is still the right colour. Not sure there's any perfect solution - although wasn't there a woman in the 50s who invented a self-cleaning house?

[Huguenot]

Frances Gabe. Seems a bit grim though...

[trizza]

A tile fitter I was chatting to recently (when he fixed my bathroom) said that some people are using white silicone as grout - laying the tiles quite close then using a razor blade to cut the silicone so it is level with the tiles. Good white silicone is difficult to stain.

That said, i'm not at all sure how this would look or whether it is achievable/practical.

As others have said, using white grout on the floor is a probably a bad plan.

[Huguenot]

Silicone could probably work on the walls - I'd be very wary of using it on a floor though?

[red devil]

Moos and Hugo have got it right, best to go for a non-white matching tile and grout, with thin tile joints.

I've used white tiles with a grey grout on bathroom walls which looked very smart, but the tiling and grouting has to be spot on to pull this look off.

Silicone a no-no...

[candj]

We have limestone slabs on the walls and floors in our master bath with matching tile grout that had to be mixed to match but works perfectly - sort of a cream colour and two years on is still the same colour. Perhaps you can have this done? Limestone maintenance on the other hand is another issue ...

[Moos]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> Frances Gabe. Seems a bit grim though...

That's her! Thank you. Agreed, most uncomfortable. But cleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaan.

Not that I'm weird, or anything.