Gross shower (grout, caulk), where to begin...

12 years ago

Our shower has tile on the floor and up the walls. The floor and lower part of the walls are disgusting. The grout is black in many places, pink in others (it should be white). The caulk is very black too and peeling up. Mold-o-rama, it's just gross. I'd love to rip out and re-do (don't love the tile anyway, and I don't think it was installed well), but that's not in budget, so we're hoping a major clean-up will suffice.

We are pretty clueless in the home diy arena, so I'd love some feedback here and how to best tackle this. I've done some forum perusing, and here's what I think our steps are...

1) Remove all the caulk using a razor blade.

2) Clean the heck out of the grout using a cleaner such as Shockwave (other fave cleaners??), but not bleach. A couple applications may be necessary (Should we expect all the black to go away?)

3) Seal the grout?? I'm fuzzy on this... will sealing help with the mold issues? What are favorite sealers??

4) Re-caulk with caulk that is anti-mold (favorite caulks??) Do we need to wait a while before putting in caulk - to be sure everything's dry??

Does that plan sound OK? What have I missed or gotten wrong?

I really appreciate your input - thank you!

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Comments (6)

User
12 years ago
You've missed the solid month of labor that this will be, the professional kneepads you will need to purchase, the multi tool you will need in order to be able to remove the grout, and all of the grouting tools you will need in order to regrout. And the large plus sized bottle of Aleve that you will need. You've just described one of the hardest most awful detailed work you'll ever do. It's brutal.

Really, it might actually be cheaper to put in new tile DIY. It'll certainly be easier on your knees and back. You'll end up buying most of the same tools, but you'll have them on hand when you want to do another bath or kitchen. You could probably tile your average bathroom for less than $200 in materials if you choose a plain tile and just jazz it up a bit with the pattern you lay it in.
Kitterlee
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Hollysprings. I think you might be talking about regrouting, which we're not intending to do (it sounds grueling!). We just want to make the most of our current tile and grout, and replace the caulking.
The old caulk has been ripped out this morning, and I must say things are looking much better already! Now for some cleaning...
Thank you!
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50% white vinegar/water in a spray bottle. I used to clean my bah weekly with Comet. Four times a year, at least, I would go over the grout and caulk with bleach gel and a scrub brush. I usually use vinegar and/or Borax for most other cleaning in the home but was stuck on Comet in the bath. One day I was fretting over needing to get more gel bleach for the molding grout lines and decided to spray down the tile surround with the diluted vinegar. No scrubbing, just sprayed and walked away. A little later I noticed the grout looked less mold speckled.. The next day, only the caulk showed some lingering mold. Since then I have switched to just Borax and vinegar to clean the tub itself before spraying down the tile surround with diluted vinegar. In the warmer months, I sometimes give the tile a quick vinegar spray after my showers as our bathroom is windowless.
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Although the rule says where tile abutts a dissimilar material, it's also industry standard to grout the tile to the drain.
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I think your plan is ok with exception to how you plan on grouting over the cracked tile. Grout needs a pretty good space to adhere, a hairline crack isn't going to take grout. I would be worried that crack will cause you a water leak. I know there are some experienced tile people who frequent this forum, so hopefully they'll chime in. I would also suggest you post the same response over on the bathroom's forum. There are some master tile guys over there. Anyway you can get a replacement tile that will match the existing tile? That would be the best solution, even if it's not an exact match. I think the crack in the tile needs to be fixed somehow before you can regrout anything.
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Why not use a clear caulk? Is that a big no no? It might have been 'correct' to match the grout to the caulk but I think the black looks wrong, like an excel spreadsheet with a bold outline around a group of cells...
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User
12 years ago
If you have such a bad mold issue, it is because your shower is not draining properly or is not waterproofed properly. It just wasn't built properly. You can clean the surface of the grout, but it will not be possible to get cleaner/mold killer to the base of the problem, which is under your grout and tile. Anything you do, will be a bandaid, at best. Sorry.

Aggressive cleaning may buy you a little time, but realize the longer you put this off, the worse your mold problem becomes in your walls and floor.
User
12 years ago
Alice is right. All of your labor is only a very temporary solution. You really need to do a quick plan to demo and create new. Read this forum about how to create a waterproof shower and get started!
mydreamhome
12 years ago
I agree that it sounds like you need to rip out & start over, but for a temporary fix...Use a razor to remove the caulk. Spray down with Tilex or other bathroom cleaner made for mold/mildew. Bleach in this case is not a bad thing--you will need it to kill what is growing now or it will simply come right back. Follow the directions on the bottle to the 'T'. Once everything is nice & white again, rinse it down, squeegee the surfaces including the floor & allow the shower to dry at least 24 hours. Then recaulk with a silicone based caulk that is waterproof. Wait another 24 hours before using the shower. Sealing the grout may help. Another tip is to use a squeegee on the tile (both walls and floor) after every shower--standing water is the medium that allows the mold/mildew to grow. Leave the shower door/curtain open to allow the shower surfaces to fully dry after each shower. Good luck to you!!
Kitterlee
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for all the replies!
Yes, we can see that redoing this shower entirely needs to move up on the list! We'll have to start saving for that.
In the meantime, you nailed it, we have a drainage issue - after each shower (2 per day), water puddles on the floor without draining. Until now, we've done nothing about this, but did purchase a squeegee today. I hope squeegeeing daily will buy us a bit more time.
Thank you!