Cleaning grout between travertine tiles
Travertine is a beautiful natural stone which makes it an ideal natural stone for many types of stone tile installations. Travertine tiles are typically installed close to adjacent tiles with small grout joints of approximately 1/16 inch. Installing travertine in this manner will allow the beauty of the travertine to show through without the wide grout joints interfering with the natural beauty of the travertine. The use of unsanded grout and thin grout joints also allows for polishing and restoring the travertine if the polished finish of the travertine tile begins to become dull and lifeless.
Often times, the travertine tile will still look good, but the grout starts to get dirty and distracts from the beauty of the travertine. Cleaning the grout from travertine tiles can be difficult because you don’t want to damage the finish of the travertine while cleaning the grout between the travertine tiles. Travertine tiles are generally polished or honed to a certain level of reflection, and you don’t want to damage the finish of the natural travertine stone while cleaning the grout.
Travertine, like most other types of stone tile, can be damaged by acidic tile and grout cleaners. You should never use any type of acidic cleaner on travertine or it will etch the travertine finish. Many strong alkaline cleaners that were not designed to clean tile, grout, and stone can also dull a travertine finish. For the most effective cleaning results in a travertine tile installation, an alkaline cleaner specifically designed for cleaning tile, grout, and stone should be used.
An alkaline cleaner designed to clean tile, grout, and stone will react with dark dirt, grease, and grime in the grout lines and allow dirt and stains to be removed from the grout. You should mix the alkaline cleaning product with extremely hot water and apply it to the travertine and grout. Let the alkaline cleaner warm for about 20 minutes to react with all the dirt, grease and grime in the grout joints. You can then use a mop and bucket to rinse the dirt from the grout lines.
With dirty grout, you may be forced to agitate the grout lines with a soft scouring pad to extremely loosen dirt and grime in the grout lines. It is important to use only soft scouring pads to clean the grout between the travertine tiles so that it does not scratch the travertine finish. You can also use a shop vacuum or other similar suction device to help you remove dirty water from travertine tiles. This way, you can be sure that dirt, grease and grime are removed from the travertine and not just re-deposited in the grout lines when scrubbing the travetine tile floor.
Care should be taken when using any type of traverine shop vacuum extraction device. The hard plastic nozzle of a shop vacuum can create scratch marks when suctioned and dragged across a travertine floor. Also, the plastic body of the shop vacuum should not be dragged across the tile floor of a travetine because this can also cause scratch marks on the travertine.
Steam cleaning the grout in a travertine tile installation is also another option when cleaning the grout between travertine tiles. The steam will penetrate deep into the porous grout and allow dirt and grime to drain out of the grout. Travertine won’t be damaged by hot steam, so using a steam cleaner this way is a safe way to clean grout between travertine tiles. Steam cleaning travertine grout in this way can be a long and time-consuming process, and you may want to hire a professional stone cleaning and restoration company to clean the travertine and grout for you. Professional steam cleaning machines will be able to steam clean your travertine and grout to get your grout cleaner than you could have gotten with DIY stone and tile grout cleaning techniques.