Getting Shower Grout Back to Clean

The grout in our bathroom shower scares me. It’s one of those projects no one ever really has the time to tackle, but I hate how rusty and off-colored it has become no thanks to our well/high mineral make-up of our country water. It finally push me past the “beyond the maintenance stage” and into something more than a “need of a really good cleaning”.Our downstairs shower is less than a year old when we started noticing a rust color; turning the white grout to an orange. Everyone was banned from using the bathroom until a plumber could come to install an ionizing iron filtration system for the whole house. Once installed, I set to work trying to find the right cleaners for the grout job. Since I am NOT a big fan of toothbrush scrubbing, I armed myself with a med/fine stiff brush attachment for a cordless drill. First, I tried natural products; we typically chose this method for cleaning vs. harsh chemicals. Baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice didn’t even begin to lift the rust stain, so I decided to pull out the big guns and try some abrasive products. A gentleman at Home Depot suggested a product called Aqua Mix Nano scrub. I also grabbed a spray bottle of Lime-A-Way and Dawn Ultra Platinum dishwashing liquid.​Setting to work, I tried out each one of these products separately on the grout with the power drill attachment. The clear winner of the clean-off was Aqua Mix and Dawn dish soap coming in 2nd place. I did have a bit of a concern about the drill attachment being too harsh on the grout, but the med/fine bristles worked perfectly and saved my elbows from the repetitive scrubbing. Now don’t get me wrong, there was some manual scrubbing to be done on the edges and shampoo holder cubby, but overall the power drill cut my work time in half!​Facing this project head-on was ultimately such a relief and learning experience. It gives me a sense of solace that I found a solution that works, not that we should ever have to deal with rust water again.