Problem Solver: Grout Whitening Pen

If the grout looks icky, the tile (and the whole bath) looks icky too. Sometimes grout can get discolored and no amount of cleaning and scrubbing seems to improve things.

A friend of ours was constantly battling the grout in her old condo and used one of these whitening pens (2 pack, $12.95) and was very happy with the results.

It's called Grout-Aide and is anti-bacterial and anti-mold, non-toxic and odorless. It is water-based and fast drying to a waterproof finish/seal. Each marker covers 175 lineal feet of grout.

Definitely not the most glamorous product ever, but from what we've seen and heard, it works!

Available at Solutions.

Comments (5)

Oh I am so happy to have ventured over to AT Chicago! I just posted a question about bleach-free grout cleaning and this looks like just the ticket! Thanks so much!

Ooh... mama wants!

I have a big French-style kitchen with blue-blue tile and white-white grout in my current apartment. We inherited some pretty nasty coffee or tea stains (at least, that's what I'm hoping they are...nasty/gross.) and I tried using these pens. They're great, but I don't think they do anything that a toothbrush and bleach wouldn't accomplish at a fraction of the price.

You need a lot of this goo to do a mid-size kitchen. If you have a small section of tile to do, 1 or 2 pens should do the trick.

If you're tackling tough stains or have a lot of space to cover, go for the old-school bleach menthod. The pens are expensive for the amount of bleach you get and it just seems silly to use them for a bigger job when a gallon of cheap-o bleach is just a couple of bucks.

Just my 2 cents. :)

A good stain remover for grout is a tube of toothpaste and an old toothbrush. This works really really good on tiled floors where the grout has turned dark over time.