I spent today getting back to square one in the laundry room.
Not square 1 really– just back to where I was before I spilled a half gallon of paint on my floor, spread it out by using the floor as a paint tray, letting it dry and trying to scrap the paint out of the grout. (Didn’t work.)
I had some orange paint stripper in my garage so I thought I’d give that a try. Spread it all over with my chemically protected gloved hands — and let it sit for 30 min.
Then I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed with a steel bristled brush.
It looked like it was working so I cleaned up that goop with paper towels and then put a little more orange stuff on the spots that I’d missed. This is the point I got excited that it was working!
Scrubbed and wiped some more and rinsed and wiped and repeated a few more times. YES!
My house smells like an orange juice and chemical plant. But — DogGonit my tile and grout are clean! Protected my lungs, eyes and hands with serious gear — ’cause I’d like to keep them working well for as long as possible!
I still HATE the grey grout with this tile and am going to change it. I just didn’t want to change it with globs of high gloss paint.
Has anyone had any luck painting grout a color they WANTED to paint it? That’s what I’m planning!
If anyone could do it YOU could! Awesome to see…and yes, protecting yourself from all the chemicals is top priority. I soo wanted to see what you would do–you ROCK! I am glad it cleaned up for you:)
Oh you poor thing! I have done this before 🙁 Not a fun cleanup that’s for sure. Glad you got it all off 🙂
This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I said “oh you didn’t clean the paint up?” during the house tour the other day did it? 🙂 It looks awesome!! I’ve used those paint grout pens three or four times now and I have a couple right now to try to even out the grout color in my bathroom since we didn’t mix the grout/sealer mix completely and half is white and the other half has a grey tint :-/ I’ve always had good luck with those but they usually only come in white, black, grey, etc.
We just had our grout color-tinted and sealed. It looks soooo nice and clean. I love it, and it costs $1-$2/sq. foot. Our tile is 12″ so it’s only $1 per tile.
http://www.grout-works.com/index.html
Hi Sandra,
I recolored two bathroom floors and a tile shower with Mapei Color Refresh. They sell a limited color selection at Lowes. I ended up buying some at a fancy tile store where they hd a bigger selection. I also mixed some colors together for a custom color. It totally changed the look of the tile!
Nancy
I had the same thing happen in our upstairs bathroom, not long after we had replaced the tile. I wiped it up as much as possible, but didn’t manage to remove it from the grout. I wonder if it’s too late now to do what you did. I thought about just painting the rest of the grout to match, but a tile guy told me that isn’t a good idea because moisture can get under the paint, then not be able to evaporate back out. I’m still tempted, though.
used grout paint on our guest bathroom last summer…I had always hated how the white tile looked with dark gray grout. the project was labor intensive (we have the tiny hexagonal tiles on the floor and subway tile all the way up the wall) but totally worth it. looks like a brand new bathroom!
Wow, it looks llike that nasty accident never happened!! Did you come up with this solution on your own? One of the comments above mentions contacting a professional tile place to find out about changing the color of grout. I was just wondering if you thought to contact a place like that to solve your spill problem? You can’t be the first person this has happened to, but you’re sure the cutest and most clever to use the spill as your makeshift paint tray!!
I know grout can be painted but we haven’t had it done yet. A contractor renovated our bath room and used non matching grout where he had to add more of the existing tile.. Now they are telling me the only way to fix it is to paint the grout. I have heard from multiple professional sources that the paint should last about 15 years. But when I have something done I want it to last a lifetime not a few years. So Sandra, I am anxious to hear what finally happens with the grout in your laundry room. If you paint yours I will probably let them paint mine. Or maybe I will do it myself.
Grout Renew by Polyblend from Home Depot worked wonders in my kitchen. The previous owners had installed terra cotta tile with antique white grout, but you could only see the “white” in a few places because it was a disgusting dark grey everywhere. I painted with the grout paint, sometimes 2 coats if I felt it wasn’t covering enough, and the kitchen looks great. I’ve had luck mopping and removing very surface staining so far. The kitchen, which is about 250 sf, took me forever to complete, but it was worth it!
Thanks Colleen, I’ll look into that.
For small grouting areas like this, get a grout saw for a few bucks. It looks sort of like a screwdriver with a box cutter blade on the end and you can remove all the old grout in about an hour. Not a lot of fun but a it’s good cardio workout and then you can put in whatever color you want without having to try to stain or paint it.
I purchased a condo last year. The bathroom tile seems to have been painted with white wall paint. When I step out of the shower onto the rug and then next forget and step on the floor where my feet are covered with white dots of paint. I’ve used a steel wire tile brush but still get little white dots on my feet and on my black bathroom scale. Any ideas what to do?