Hi, I've been following some threads about tile and see that there are some knowledgeable people here. I have a question! I had tile installed approx. 7 months ago. Although I loved the light color grout at first, I now wonder what I was thinking. The tile is in a high traffic area of my home and has become dirty and I was unable to find anything to get it clean. In addition to scrubbing with a brush and cleaners, I've tried Grout Magic as suggested by the tile store. I still thought it looked dingy and clearly was much dirtier than the grout in a pantry where there is no foot traffic.

I hired someone to steam clean it. He actually used a type of high pressure water sprayer followed around by a nozzle that sucked the water back up. After this he applied some type of spray-on sealer from a bottle. Well, when it dried, I thought the grout looked no different than before it was cleaned. The color seemed inconsistent as though still dirty. He said the sealer would cause it to look darker but was very willing to come back out to try again.

Today he came back and repeated the process. He said the sealer was water-based so the hot water would remove it. I told him to not seal it again. I would prefer to look into a colorant (have read up on this on this forum and this sounds like the way I should go)

Now, while waiting for the grout to dry, I'm closely examining it and wondering if the high pressure method has caused any damage to my grout. I'm seeing a more porous look than I've noticed before, although it's entirely possible that I just haven't really looked at it so closely before. I'm concerned...could blasting with hot water at high pressure have possibly damaged the grout.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts.