Saturday, January 24, 2009

Grout Cleaning and TV

By Sam Weyland

The advent of the TV was flanked by the new medium by which various producers have used to peddle their wares. In particular, household problems like grout-cleaning have received special attention. Many products appeared, aiming at housewives who did not want to spend too much time on such a difficult but unspectacular chore.

There have been a large number of changes in our culture since then. Today, American women, empowered by the ability to earn alongside our husbands, are seldom thrust into the role of a pure housewife. As such, the archetype is not as commonly employed by television advertisements these days. Instead, they have an unspecified persona (or a housekeeper) acting as the cleaner of the house.

However, the dilemna that is grout cleaning has remained constant throughout these years. if it were only the tiles, which are admittedly trivial to clean, then it wouldn't be too much of a problem. But the grout in between them is composed of material that absorb the dust and muck that it encounters. You will quickly realize that cleaning with one mop simply won't do. Of course, you can't just ignore the grout; after all, they have been known to host bacteria, or even black mold, if left uncleaned.

So, as you can imagine, grout cleaning continues to attract a lot of attention, from special formulas out on the market to machinery specifically built to clean it. I advise caution with these things.

There are shelves and shelves of formulae out there that aim to clean the grout in between your tiles, from mundane, no-name brands to those that are most aggressively marketed. if going for these, I advise going for the cheaper ones. They're just as effective as their branded counterparts. Be careful, though. There are items from both sides of the fence that simply don't work.

Finally, I would advise against going for the more expensive heavy equipment. They are simply too difficult to handle; and misuse could easily lead to completely destroyed tiles. Instead, why not just hire a professional to do it for you? They know how to handle these heavy equipment best. - 15275

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