Grout & Tile cleaning

[Brid tiler]

Hi all , it’s been years since last posted for advice and your methods .
My question is this ;
After grouting on large floor areas all I have ever used for final clean off is a hand held groat boy flat sponge and making passes down the length of the room covering approx 2 tile widths (lets say average 800x800 floor tiles )
With a croached back bent motion walking backwards. Then changing water and then repeating another 2 rows down the entire length of room.. repeat repeat … once tiles dried out and slight water grout haze left I then repeat whole process again to finally have a clean and finished floor ..now I’m in my maturer years its pretty back breaking hard work..
I know I should probably invest in grout boy and sponge with a handle and pole .. which is the best and what would you use and recommend.. also I’m also researching about the shark steam mop to maybe make life a lot easier for the final clean.. maybe initially pass over with my sponge pad making sure of my perfect grout smoothing and then once dried instead of repeatedly passing over the whole floor with constant water changes with grout boy sponge .. jst use the shark steam mop with its x2 spinning soft sponge heads to clean off the haze film on tiles with a little press of the water steam .. does anyone else think this could work 🤔
Sorry for the long winded post and many thanks for any responses in advance….Steve

 

[Dan]

I don't think steam. I wouldn't go down that route on a fresh floor.

The washboys pay their way. But an actual wash human boy (or girl of course) would beat any machine or mop lol so maybe get an apprentice? Need pass on those skills man, we need more trades.

You're going diagonally with those strokes aren't you? It prevents you pulling grout back out and spreading it back on the clean tile. I think you mean you're physically going up or down a run. So might be teaching you suck eggs there.

 

[Dan]

Ps. bloody hell mate been with us nearly 10 years! Nice one.

We're the best UK tiling forum look, google says so. Haha

 

[Bridtiler]

I don't think steam. I wouldn't go down that route on a fresh floor.

The washboys pay their way. But an actual wash human boy (or girl of course) would beat any machine or mop lol so maybe get an apprentice? Need pass on those skills man, we need more trades.

You're going diagonally with those strokes aren't you? It prevents you pulling grout back out and spreading it back on the clean tile. I think you mean you're physically going up or down a run. So might be teaching you suck eggs there.

Hi Dan , thanks for getting back to me .
Yes I do the first initial cleaning of grout off with a diagonal motion across four lines to remove access grout with hand held washboy hand held float sponge and then once done an area I actually go back over joints to fine tune / smooth with jst a damp sponge to made perfect joints .. Its the once all dried I wanna make life easier removing the misty residue water so it actually takes like a couple of passes over whole floor area once grout lines are dried and stable with multiple water changes . Yeah I don’t really wanna use steam as to I think that would soften grout back up but was thinking jst the odd squirt here n there and jst let the oscillating pads of a steam shark remove the light dusty dried water residue… I’d probably best stick to groutboy only then … for an upgrade system would you recommend the “ Raimondi washboy pedalo “ ?? Or can anyone else reading this post suggest the best washboy system rather than jst my hand held method ?
Many thanks in advance,, Steve

 

[Dan]

Had to Google that.

https://www.thepavingexperts.co.uk/product/raimondi-pedalo-large-floor-washboy-kit/?ref=TilersForums

That would totally work mate yeah! Didn't know they existed mate.

 

[bsc ceramics]

Do the last wash off with your wash boy sponge really slowly to get the best results