The bathroom tile looks so good, y’all, but it wasn’t that way until yesterday. Some of you who have been reading longer than 3 years or so probably remember a post about grout haze after we finished laying our faux wood tile floors. So what’s the deal with another post on removing grout haze?
Well, even though we’ve been working on our home for awhile now, we’re still learning new and better ways to do things, and we just have to share. This is a simple little tip, but it’ll save hours of scrubbing. And if you saw it on our Instagram stories yesterday, no spoiling it for everyone else!
There are only a few things you’ll need:
• Orbital/ROS/palm sander
• ScotchBrite green scrubbing pads
• Spray bottle
• Distilled vinegar + water (1:3 ratio)
Most orbital sanders have a velcro surface where the sanding pads attach. This actually sticks really well to the bristly texture of a ScotchBrite scrubbing pad. So all we did was stick two pads on the bottom of the sander and cut around them to get rid of the excess.
Now the pad doesn’t work exactly like velcro, so you may need to swap the pads out as they begin to fray during use, depending on how big your tile job is. Mine worked fine for our bathroom, but they started to slip toward the end so I wanted to set proper expectations.
Mix the vinegar and water in a spray bottle, spray it on the tile and give a few quick passes with the sander.
While our previous grout haze experience seemed easy, this time was a breeze. We had the entire shower area done in less than 5 minutes. I gave it a quick spray with the handheld shower head and it sparkled.
So this is, by far, the easiest way we’ve found to remove grout haze. But who knows! Maybe we’ll learn another way in another 3 years and write another post. Do you have any special grout haze removing secrets, or upcoming tile projects where this will come in handy? Anyone else gotta try to use this technique for just cleaning the shower (why not!)  Let us know and stay tuned for more bathroom progress tomorrow – it’s finally almost done!
I just used this method on a wood look floor tile that just never quite cleaned up the way I wanted. As it was floor tile, not wall, and NON-sanded grout I was able to slightly modify my method from this. I used no water, but added a Dust Extractor to the sander thus removing the powder completely without any wet residue that you used your shower to remove. When working with no water or other lubricant, you have to be very careful what type of tile you are working on as there is a higher chance of marring the surface. A tile with any gloss at all should not be cleaned without a liquid or there won’t be gloss for long. Thank you for this demo as I have been trying for some time to figure out how to get that last bit of haze off the floor.
Can you please share what color grout you used for the subway and for the tile flooring? I’m currently doing something similar, and at the point of picking the grout colors. White or gray? Hard to know which is best! Thank you!
This was Delorean Gray grout from Lowes.
This is so delayed, but I’m grateful for your step-by-steps. We actually finished (still finishing/touching up) our basement and added a bathroom for guests using much of your ideas/wisdom. Why reinvent the wheel when you two are so fantastic at it!?! The tile grout you/we used says no sealing is necessary. I was wondering if you did it anyway or if you wish you had after all this time of use? I will try to keep finding this page to see if you reply. Thanks so much!
We didn’t, and have had no problems!
Thank you and good to know!
When we tiled our large master bath shower we had some remaining haze on the marble floor tiles (while the white ceramic cleaned up easily). I used my orbital sander with the buffing pad attachment, no water or additional steps other than to vacuum up the dust after I was done, it was like a miracle to me… Just a thought on another way to do it if you ever tile again… which I’m sure you will.
This is an interesting idea. Just have it a whirl and… I’d add the caveat that it works way better with larger tile than smaller mosaics (having done both just now). The grout lines on the mosaic tend to chew up the scrubby much more quickly, resulting in a combo scrubby/grout haze. Relatively easy to wipe up… but maybe faster not to have used the power tool to begin with.