silicone replacement Archives - Greater Manchester Tile Doctor

Cleaning a Ceramic Tiled Shower Room in Romiley

The pictures below are of a White Ceramic tiled shower cubicle at a property in Romiley that was installed twelve years prior. The home owner had cleaned it regularly with household cleaning products but were unable to improve the dirty and mouldy grout and the silicone seal around the edges.

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Before Cleaning in Romiley

The owner was most concerned about the discolouration of the grout and had never been happy with the silicone sealant between the shower tray and tiles which had been poorly applied and for the most part smeared over 3cm up and down over where the bead should be.

I visited the property and recommended that the best course of action would be to apply a White Grout Colourant over the grout which would seal the grout in and protect it from further staining as well as making it much easier to clean. Grout is cementous and as such its rough surface easily traps dirt as well as making it easier for mould to take a hold.

A few miles east of Stockport Romiley was for centuries an agricultural area, until the late Victorian era when it grew into the popular residential area it is today.

Renovating a Ceramic Tiled Shower Room

I started by cleaning the grout using the Tile Doctor Pre-Treater which comes with the Tile Doctor Grout Colouring Kit, I also made use of a professional steamer with a special grout cleaning attachment to get the grout as clean as it could be. The Tile Doctor Pre-Treater is also slightly acidic, so it etches the surface of the grout to improve the bond with the grout colourant. I rinsed the shower wall with water to remove the soiling and then dried it with a soft cloth and heat gun. The White Grout Colourant was applied using a small brush, taking care to wipe off the excess from the surface of the adjacent tile as I went.

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Window Before Cleaning in Romiley

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Window After Grout Colouring in Romiley

Sealing a Ceramic Tile Shower Room

Whilst waiting for the Tile Doctor Grout Colourant to dry I started to carefully strip away the old silicone using a sharp Stanley knife and scraper. This is a slow job and you have to be careful not to damage the shower tray or the tiles with the blade. The old sealer was smeared all over as you can see in the pictures- so it took me two hours of scraping to remove all the sealant.

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Silicone Strip Before Replacement in Romiley

They really had made a poor job of applying the seal. The ceramic tiles were slightly textured which didn’t help. Once that was cleaned off and replaced with new silicone the bathroom looked transformed. The silicon just needed to dry for 24 hours before they could start using the shower again.

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Window After Cleaning and Grout Colouring in Romiley

My customer was very happy. As you can see from the pictures the shower room now looks clean and tidy and like new.

Professional Restoration of a Ceramic Tiled Shower room in Greater Manchester

Mouldy Ceramic Tile Grout Before and After Cleaning Eccles

Mouldy Ceramic Tiled Bathroom Restored in Eccles

1 Comment / Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Eccles Tile Cleaning, Work History / Kevin Parry

An elderly couple from the Greater Manchester town of Eccles were in touch recently regarding their Ceramic Tiled Bathroom, they had a big problem with mould build-up due to a broken extractor fan and wanted it removing. Mould grows in humid conditions and with the extractor fan out of action it soon started to spread. If you have been reading my blog, you will have seen some of the bathroom transformations we have completed over the years, so I was confident we could resolve the problem for them and paid them a visit to take a look.

Mouldy Bathroom Before Restoration in Eccles

You can see from the photographs that the tiles were in good physical condition, but the grout and silicone mastic sealant was stained with shampoo dyes and mould spots, the worst part however was the ceiling which was covered in mould growth. I ran a test clean on the bathroom wall grout and ceiling which went very well so we quickly agreed on a date to clean the whole bathroom.

Cleaning a Ceramic Shower Cubicle

They say you should always start at the top and work down so my first task was to treat the mouldy bathroom ceiling with Tile Doctor Duo Clean which although marketed for use on grout it worked just as well on paint to remove the mould. When done with ceiling I moved on to the wall tiles spraying on Duo Clean, letting it soak in for ten minutes, working it in to the grout with a stiff brush and then rinsing off with water.

With four walls of tile and grout and a ceiling to clean the overall cleaning process took two days to complete and at the end of the second day I turned my attention to the silicone sealant. Taking care not to scratch the bathtub I carefully stripped out the silicone in-between the tile and bath with a sharp knife. Duo Clean works on silicone as well but you do need to catch it early so often the easiest thing to do is to replace it rather than clean it. I replaced the silicone with a good quality mould and bacteria resistant silicone.

When I returned on the next day I carried on with the Top/Down approach by turning my attention back to the ceiling which I painted with a white moisture resistant emulsion paint.

Mouldy Bathroom After Restoration in Eccles

With the ceiling freshly painted I then took another look at the grout which although clean was not a perfect white anymore and looked dull and uninviting. We do find this can happen with grout, especially if it isn’t the subject of a regular cleaning regime. There is a remedy though and what we find works well in these cases is to recolour the grout with an epoxy-based Grout Colourant which not only rejuvenates the grout it also protects it for years to come.

Grout Colouring Bathroom Wall Tiles

There are ten colours to choose from in the Tile Doctor range of Grout Colourant however in this case I felt the best outcome would be to use a White colourant to match the tiles and restore the original look of the bathroom.

The colourant is easily applied directly to the grout and in this case, I applied two coats with the aid of a small brush making sure to remove any excess that comes into contact with the tile. After applying the colourant, the bathroom transformation was complete, and it looked like a new installation.

It was a lot of work however I was really happy with the outcome and so were the clients who even left me a nice tip. The last thing to sort out is the extractor fan, however they will need a different tradesman for that job.

Bathroom Tile Renovation in Greater Manchester

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