Got Dingy Grout? Here’s How to Refresh Your Tile Grout for Under $14!
Hi Hipsters! It’s Lina, one of Collin’s sidekicks.
Have you ever tried a product that was SO good, you just had to tell everyone about it?
Do you have dingy or stained grout?
I do! Even after getting the grout professionally steam cleaned in our home, it still never looked clean, and that has always bothered me. In a perfect world, I’d love to replace our flooring downstairs all together, but that’s not a very budget-friendly decision!
After doing some research online on the subject of grout sealing, I decided to try this highly rated product called Polyblend Grout Renew from Home Depot.
What is Polyblend Grout Renew ?
It’s an all in one grout colorant and sealant that lets you easily UPDATE or CHANGE the color of cement grout joints. Polyblend Grout Renew is formulated with both stain resistant and fade-resistant pigments, and I love that it’s also mold and mildew resistant.
They have a bunch of colors available to get the look and style you’re trying to achieve. I personally like the look of contrasting grout and tile, so the color I decided on is called Antique White.
Wow, what a difference! My flooring looks new.
I love how crisp and clean the grout lines look now. It makes such a big improvement!
To apply, follow these easy steps:
- Clean the grout very well using a scrub brush, and let dry.
- Apply Polyblend Grout Renew with a toothbrush or small paintbrush.
- Wipe any excess that gets on the tile with a damp rag or paper towel before it dries.
- Last, let the grout dry completely.
The color really does last!
One afternoon about 4 months ago, I used Polyblend Grout Renew on the bathroom floor to test out the product before I proceeded with the entire downstairs tile. I’m happy to report back the color looks the exact same today! Plus, I only used about a quarter of the bottle to do the bathroom, so one bottle goes a very long way!
Currently, we’re in the process of applying it to our entire downstairs tile. You could apply all at once, but it’s a pretty labor intensive project being on the floor for that many hours. We prefer just to apply a little at a time, and eventually, it’ll be complete!
It’s so simple even my 12-year-old can do this project!
I have a little helper anxious to earn a little extra allowance money, and he’s even been inspired to maybe start his own business someday re-sealing grout!
If you’re in need of a grout makeover like me, I’d definitely recommend this helpful product!
Although completion can be a little tedious depending on the size of space, if you have a DIY spirit and want to save money by completing the task yourself, the results are highly satisfying!
It’s also worth noting you can use Polyblend Grout Renew anywhere you happen to have tile in the home, such as on counters, floors, and bathrooms. So awesome!
Looks great! Thanks for the tip.
I’m intrigued. Your flooring looks good. Don’t know if I can do that here with three little ones and an infant. Curious how long does it take to dry? 🌺
It actually doesn’t take long at all. The bottle says 24 hours to cure. Honestly we’ve walked in it carefully a couple hours after applying and it’s fine. Hope that makes sense! I gate off the dog in another room while we apply.
With 4 kids our grout has seen better days, especially in our bathroom and laundry room. I’ve used a similar product and it works and looks great.
Thank you! Perfect timing. We are cleaning our house to try and sell. We have been trying to figure out what to do about our grout!
Same here, We are cleaning the house to put for sale in a week or 2, and our grout doesn’t look good at all. We were just thinking what can be done to it to make but look fresh. Thank you
I actually prefer darker grout and adked for it to not be white!
That’s great! There are dark colors available too.
We had white grout in our entry way with light color tiles. I used a dark gray grout “paint” and it looks great!
Dark grout with light tiles sounds beautiful! I don’t care for glaring white grout unless the tiles are light as well or it tends to make the tile look worse.
It’s like you are reading my mine…I was just looking for a product to help with budget!!
Pictures look great, but what did you use to clean the grout previous to applying the Polyblend Grout Renew?
The bottle recommends their brand of cleaner. We just used soap and water – I think the point is to start with dust free clean floors.
Lina, just curious what you would replace your tile with, if you ever do replace it?
Hardwood floors or wood looking tile. ❤️ I do like the durability of tile.
Ok, thank you!
This looks great. Quick question though. You state to clean your grout first before applying this product. Besides the scrub brush, what else do you use to clean the grout?
I used Scrubbing Bubbles foam Bathroom cleaner. And it was very nice ,clean.
I used this and it works great! A tip: a baby wipe takes it off of the tile easily if it has already dried.
Great tip! Thanks for sharing 👍
Baby wipes are the best. We still use them for everything at our house. Daughter is older, but I always keep them full stocked all over our house.
I just use a cheap manual medium toothbrush, baking soda, and water to clean my grout. That is less than $3 since water is included in my rent. It will have to be redone before I eventually move out. I did my kitchen floor grout around two weeks ago, and it is bright white. I did my bathroom floor grout in early 2016, and it is now offwhite. It is still brighter than the tan/beige tiles. I will probably redo my bathroom floor grout sometime this year.
I used this in two previous homes and it came out great. I did buy the bottle with the brush attached and made it a lot easier and quicker to apply.
Oh awesome! Interesting – I’ll have to look for that bottle.
It looks amazing!
Wow what a difference!
I used the off white color on my kitchen about a year ago and it is starting to fade in heavy traffic areas. Still the best product I’ve found so far. I do have four kids so our kitchen is a busy place. It is time consuming to put on. I did it in small amounts over several weeks.
Yeah, I’ve used this stuff and grout dye from The Grout Dye Company a couple of times over the years and it does eventually flake out or wear away (for me, it’s usually in the spots where the tile or mortar is not quite even, so my CrossWave digs a little too hard into the grout). Last year when I redid all of my tile grout, I also added a clear sealer (Aqua Mix Sealer’s Choice Gold) on top of the Grout Renew to improve the stain resistance and fading (that was a major undertaking since most of my home is tile and it required double the grout “painting”). That seems to have helped A LOT. The grout will still get dirty just because no mop can effectively get in the grooves and scrub out the grout perfectly, but when you do clean it, it’s hardly any effort – you can basically just use a rag, no hard scrubbing with a brush – and I never get stains like I used to when the kids would spill something like juice or tomato sauce.
Oh my gosh, I’m doing this now. We had a water leak behind the wall and when we redid our bathroom I changed colors. I got this to change my grout color from a brown color to a gray (Delorean Gray) color to match my paint. It is fantastic! Very easy to apply. The color looks great. It says it takes 24 hours to dry but mine dried almost instantly.
Perfect!! Thanks for sharing.
Which color did you use? I have similar color tile.
Looks amazing! Have to try this out!
i just use bleach and a qtip.
This is more like a paint, not a cleaner. Sometimes grout isn’t sealed or the sealant has worn away, so it stains permanently or wears unevenly, or it’s been painted with grout dye before and just needs to be refreshed.
We have….I don’t even know what to call it lol. Tile with wavy sides (no straight edges)and our grout is very deep. This would take a long, long, long time in my house lol.
That’s how mine is. I got cheap artist paint brushes at DollarTree. They worked perfectly. I kept a paper towel and wet rag handy for when I painted on the tiles and it wiped right off the tile when it was wet or with a little muscle after it dried. I actually got a little sloppy and just painted away at some point snowing I would wipe it up later LOL. (Test a small section to make sure your tile has enough finish to it that the paint doesn’t stick). You could do small sections at a time like I did. It’s well worth it!
*knowing not snowing
Thanks Malinda! I’ll mention it to my husband, maybe a summer project!
This stuff is awesome! I’ve done it in every room in the house. It does fade and needs to be redone, but has made a massive difference in my home. I had loathed our beige tile with dark grout since we moved in. Used the grout renew and now am finally happy since the grout looks so fresh and clean. I’ve spilled red wine on the tile floor, upped it up without any impact to the grout. Not even a hint of a stain. Well worth the cost! And I second the comment about using baby wipes. I do a few lines, then wipe off whatever got on the tile (you want to do this right away because if you wait…. it takes a fingernail or a razor to get it off)
Thank you, Lina!!!
You’re welcome!
Which color did you use? I have similar color tiles
Antique White
Can this be used in the shower tile grout?
Yes – if you click on the Home Depot link there’s a ton of more info and video. Thanks!
This is great, my kitchen floor has off white color tile from 20 years ago. No budget to change it soon as we have chosen to remodel other parts of the house, but this will make my kitchen floor look a lot cleaner. I hate to scrub and see the next day grout looks as if it wasn’t clean ( big family and dog).
Yes! I tried everything too, and it’s frustrating.
Thank you, Lina. I enjoy every idea you come out with, to make our lives easier around the house.
That’s so sweet – thanks Yar!
The product we use to make everything white and clean is citric acid! It works on rust stains, grout, clothing!
Not a fan of the dark grout that is so popular now with subway tiles (*Fixer Upper*) I like a clean, classic look – contrast is not so important to me. Glad to know a product like this exists and that it works well.
I had no idea this existed! I have plenty of grout that needs this, lol!
Same!
My house is almost all tile. I’ve scrubbed so many times I have spots all over where I’ve scrubbed so hard it’s pulled up the grout. Would I be able to use this would it fill in the spots with no grout. Or would I need to grout the spots before using it ?
No – I think you’d need to grout first. This is more like a liquid paint. I believe this brand also has an actual grout.
I have tile back splash, would it work for that do you think?
Yes I do!
I used this four years ago in our bathroom. I applied to our flooring, walls, and shower tile in two bathrooms. It took FOREVER. Do not let it dry on the tile itself because it is labor intensive to take it off. It was really worth it. Our walls and our floor still look really good. I have to keep doing touch ups in our shower because my cleaning takes it off where I’ve scrubbed too hard after awhile. I’ve been impressed with how well it has held up. I still have a decent amount left in our bottle.
If your grount lines are really fine, this project is a nightmare. I used the tiniest craft brush that I could find and it took me many hours to do all of our tiny grount lines. I’d do it again because it was worht it, but know what you’re getting into. In my experience it dries VERY quickly. I could only do one or two tiles at a time before I had to go back and clean up the grout line before it dried onto the tile. We let it cure for 3 days before we took a shower in each of the bathrooms.
YoungHouseLove has a great blog post about using this and what to realistically expect. Worth the hassle, for sure!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I bought this last year and redid all the tile at church. It had been over 18 years. It still looks as good as new. I am so glad I bought this. You can’t really put it on real well with a toothbrush, so I used a small paint brush.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tip!
Is the grout supposed to be white?? Ours has always been a very light gray and we bought our house new is that not normal? Ty
Grout comes in a variety of colors. My kitchen tile is gray with light gray grout. It has really bad stains though! I really need a new floor, so many cracks and the grout is cracking from age. Ugggggh!!!!
Grout comes in all sorts of colors, it is just personal preference. In fact the product Lina uses has dozens of colors to choose from besides the white she used. A light gray is a very normal grout color. This product is more just if you want to change your color or if it is getting old and even a deep clean isn’t helping the grout not look grungy.
Grout comes in so many different colors and it’s more about personal preference. Our tan tile with dark gray grout always just looked dirty to me. So it’s up to you and what you like! 🙂
Wow, great tip!
Thanks Justine!
Y’all have the best tips! 👍🏼
Ummmm yes please can you tell your 12 year old i will hire him yesterday lol…i so need this in my life my fire place is marble and the grout looks yellow so I will be trying this wish me luck !!!!
Good luck! 👍 Let is know how it turns out. 😊
Om my God,thank you for sharing!
We have tile floor in the kitchen and bathroom…and I hate the dark grouts!!! I’m definitely going to try it.
I’m a professional tile and grout cleaner with my own company and use this brand as well as others. Being that said, the grout needs to be cleaned and prepared properly. If it is not, the color seal will eventually flake off and then you will call someone like me to fix it. Please pay for someone to properly clean and prepare it. I would have no problem if you wanted to seal it yourself because it definitely is a tedious job.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I had no idea anything like this existed and it will come in handy for sure!!
You’re so welcome!
We’ve used this a couple years ago in our first home before we rented it out. Still looks great! Very time consuming and tedious but worth every minute.
Thanks so much for sharing!
I just finished upgrading all the tile and faucets
during my bathrooms and shower.
Grout
OMG! Thank U so much for sharing. We have those tiles in 3 bathrooms, Kitchen & Dining Room. I’m so going to try this.
YAY! Send me a before and after pic! Lina@hip2save.com – I love seeing these projects ❤️
Lina – how has this held up over the past year.
Pretty good actually! There are a few spots of heavy traffic that are a little darker, but happy overall!
Our kitchen tiles were applied shoddily- like the tiles itself are fine but the contractor didnt do w good job cleaning and thwrefore we have grout patches on the tiles that I cant stand. I wonder if this would help make the tiles look cleaner?