Old tile washed with vinegar solution...

[COBALT]

My parents have 12" ceramic tile set back in the early 80's in a 6' x 12' hallway. It uses a dark sanded grout that's about 1/4", and it's held up extremely well over the years.

Someone doing some house watching for them thought it would be smart to keep my parents' dogs in this hallway, and they made one heck of a mess out of it. To clean it up the lady watching the house used an unspecified concentration of vinegar and water to clean the tile by scrubbing the entire surface. When my parents got home my mom was complaining about cloudy looking tile. After some use of some tile cleaner she was able to make it look good again.

My worry is the grout. I have a feeling the reason it was "cloudy" was the solution lifted grout out of the grout line and spread it all over the tiles. I asked my mom if she had resealed and she said she hadn't yet.

I know a vinegar solution can be used to clean grout haze off tile, but what about a scrubbing of the entire surface - tile and grout all at the same time? Wouldn't this damage the grout? Does it only depend on how much vinegar was used? I've told her to be prepared to reseal the grout soon...

I also wanna have something intelligent to say to this woman. She acted like my parents didn't know anything, or being silly to be worried about their tile, and insists that this is the best way to clean tile - her "special cleaner"...but I'm doubting it.

[Jason_Butler]

I seriously doubt that anything set in the 80's would be affected by vinegar.

Not sure what type of cleaner was used but vinegar is not likely a culprit

Jason

[COBALT]

Hmmmm...ok. Maybe it was just residue from the solution.

[John Bridge]

Corey,

I agree with Jason. One vinegar cleaning won't hurt the grout.

[COBALT]

Cool. Thx.

[doitright]

Hi Corey

As far as a question to ask the cleaning lady. You could ask her: On a scale of 1 to 14, what is the pH level of her "special" cleaning solution?

[COBALT]

The pH of white vinegar. That's what she's using. It's a pretty weak acid, and the concentration depends on how she diluted it.