Magic Eraser is a white, spongelike product that cleans almost anything. One of the greatest inventions ever!

At the one-year inspection we had several hairline cracks in the grout between some tiles. The warranty dept sent out Nickel Tile, whose service man applied a sanded caulk in a matching color. So, no real grout replacement for our home.

I am confused. Are we talking about sealing the tile and grout, or just the grout? And who would you recommend as doing a good job.

First thing when we moved down was to have the builder's grade (crappy) carpet torn up and Italian porcelain tile installed by a private individual (not The Villages contractors). Idiot me wanted WHITE grout (on a light colored tile). Obviously, I never had tile floors before. The installer said I didn't need to have it sealed! HA! Within a year, my beautiful white grout had become an ugly dark gray in all the high traffic areas. No matter what I used...and I tried everything HOME MADE and on the market (including the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser), NOTHING would get that grout white again. I was so distraught because our entire house is tile.

Called Dirty Grout Be Gone to get an estimate. It was expensive, but so labor intensive I could understand why. First they did a VERY THOROUGH job cleaning the tile/grout. Then they got down on their hands and knees and painted, by hand, each grout line....I'm talking a little over 1600 sf! Took several days, but it looks AMAZING! They use an epoxy-based paint so it dries to a very hard and impervious to staining finish. It's guaranteed for 10 years. Clean-up, now, is a breeze. It's been almost a year since the work was done and it looks as great and new as it did when they did it! Oh, and BTW, I DID go w/a darker color instead of white. Chose a light background color from the tile...now you can't even see the grout lines...they blend in perfectly. Makes the house look bigger.

we were told at our home design meeting that the tile and grout is already sealed and that we would not have to do it for 5 years. Not correct? We are closing in 2 weeks. Should we prepare to have to seal? thanks

FYI, There are also some sealers that will color your grout. We bought a home (the one we are currently trying to sell) that had an unpleasant pink grout in one of the bathrooms. We used a beige sealer over it and the pink never showed through in the 10 years we have lived here. Also might be nice in the case of awful stains on white grout. Use a white color sealer. I never expected this to work, but it did.

We close in a week and told same by builder...don't need to seal grout for years. New material or new process from several years back. ??

We had our kitchen and bathrooms tiled by East Coast Flooring. They told us it will never need to be sealed. The grout contains the sealer. Time will tell. It's been 8 months and it looks fantastic.

Builder told us the same thing with one caveat; use vinegar water to clean it. He said any soap products will attract an hold the dirt in the grooves and make it look like the grout is dirty.

Tile cleaning and grout sealing
 

If you do decide to wait the year,The house I just purchased was 3 years old,the grout was never sealed and was dirty.I used Professional Carpet and Tile cleaned the tile and grout and applied a sealer.Floors look like brand new and he also gave me proper instructionon the best way to keep them looking new, they also applied a carpet protector tokeep the dirt track away on the heavy traffic areas..Pat More and his wife did a GREAT job and we couldn't be happier with the results.