Tile grout can be cleaned or even replaced

Q. About eight years ago we put a ceramic-tile floor in our kitchen. The tile has held up beautifully. However, over the years the grout has become quite dark in some areas (like near the kitchen sink and stove), remaining its original color in other areas (like under the kitchen table). I have tried several products for cleaning grout purchased at hardware and home-improvement stores, but they have had minimal impact on restoring the dark areas to their original color. Do you know of any products that do this? Is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening again? I sealed the grout after it was installed.A. Have you tried Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach? Spray it on, then cover the affected area with plastic food wrap, so the cleaner will not evaporate. After about three to five minutes remove the food wrap, wipe off the excess and rinse the surface with freshwater. If the stain persists, go to a tile store and purchase a heavy-duty cleaner made specifically for use with ceramic tile and give it a try. A made-for-tile cleaner could make the grout spotless. Unless the grout was sealed with a combination of sealer/impregnator, the grout may be deeply stained and may require restoration by a professional. Once the old grout is clean, allow the installation to dry completely and then treat both the tiles and the grout with a quality impregnator such as Miracle 511 (available at Home Depot) to reduce the incidence of staining. But if nothing works, you will need to grind the stained grout. You can do that with a grout saw which you can buy in a tile store, but that will be hard work. An easier way to grind the grout is with a Dremel tool, which, if you do not own one, you can buy at Home Depot or in certain hardware stores. Replace the grout that you will have removed with an epoxy grout.Q. I have a cottage on Lake Michigan on the east side of the lake, and through my Internet research, have followed a set of winterizing rules that use various "recipes." However, none of the authors mentioned anything about the potential for dampness, mildew or mold in connection with leaving a cottage unheated during the winter. Because the house is built upon a sand base, and our crawl space is sand with a plastic sheet covering it, when we return to the cottage after an absence, we do smell a mildew odor, until we have the heat turned back on or a fire built in the fireplace. How concerned should I be regarding this potential mold/mildew problem, and is there anything that you would recommend I do to alleviate it?A. Mildew is always a potential issue during cold weather in closed and unheated buildings, as well as closed, unventilated and non-air-conditioned buildings on muggy summer days. If turning the heat on gets rid of the mildew odor, you appear to have a small problem that may not be of real concern. If, over time, the mildew odor gets more intense and is not relieved by heat, you should consider taking measures to prevent it - leaving some heat on, setting moisture absorbing salts in several areas, etc.Q. We have a roof of architectural shingles that is about 10 to 12 years old. We thought, at the time we had it installed, that we were buying good quality shingles that would not discolor, but now find that we have black streaks running perpendicular to the roof edge on the north side of the house. In addition, on the southern side, where a tree is close to the house, we have patches of moss growing. Why does the roof get discolored on the northern side, and is there a way to get rid of this discoloration/streaking? Also, is there a safe way to get rid of the moss that is growing on the southern side? We had any overhanging branches cut back this summer. A. The growth of algae on a roof is not an indication of poor quality shingles. Algae develops from a combination of moisture and spores in the air. The north side of your roof is affected because it does not dry from rain and dew as fast as the south side. The moss has grown on the tree-shaded south side of the roof for the same reason: it stays damp and wet longer than the non-shaded areas. A permanent fix for both problems is to have zinc strips installed just below the cap shingles at the top of the ridge. You can buy them in rolls in certain hardware and big-box stores, or order from www.shingleshield.com. However, be prepared for a long wait. A quicker fix is to buy Roof Deck Cleaner from Shingle Shield, but you'll have to wait for warm weather to apply it. Although the moss can be removed safely by plucking the blooms off by hand, walking on a roof should be left to professionals who know how to do it safely. The Roof Deck Cleaner may also work, given time. You can also try spraying the affected areas with a solution made of 3 parts white vinegar and 1 part water. If at all possible, do so from a ladder and not by walking on the roof, which is always risky and can void any warranty you may have left on your roof. It will take time for you to see results. The moss should wilt over several weeks and eventually fall off during heavy rains.Q. This may be a stupid question, but I don't know the answer. In an attic space or any void, do I need insulation at the roof line? And where to put the vapor barrier, closest to the living space or roof line? I know you can't have two vapor barriers due to condensation, and that is my problem right now along with ice dams.A. There are no stupid questions, only puzzling ones. The rule is that insulation should be installed all around the heated space. So it should be installed on the floor of an attic, if there is one, even if used for storage. In eaves crawl spaces, it should be installed in the floor and on the knee walls. Of course, in the case of cathedral ceilings, insulation is usually installed between the rafters. It is best not to have more than one vapor retarder, although it is acceptable if the second one is in the bottom third of the insulation pack, as is sometimes unavoidable. Ice dams are caused by inadequate insulation or convective paths from the heated space into the attic or cathedral ceiling. The solution is to find and seal the convective paths and to add more insulation on the floor of the attic.Q. We have a 5-year-old, 2,400-square-foot energy-efficient home with an attached two-car garage. The garage has a bedroom above it, and the ceiling and adjoining house-wall in the garage are Sheetrocked per fire code. My question is, is it worth spending the time and dollars to insulate and Sheetrock the rest of the garage? The garage area is always warmer than outside even though three walls are not insulated. A. There is no need to insulate the other three walls of the garage unless you plan to heat it. This is not recommended in cold climates, because heat activates the salt that is brought in from the roads by automobiles, increasing the risk of rust. Of course, if you park your cars outside, as many Vermonters use their garages for storage or a shop, heating the garage is fine.Q. All the rooms in our home are insulated and have Sheetrock ceilings. The one exception is the living room. The beams are all exposed. There is probably only that black tar paper, and then the roof shingles. This is a year-round house, but we only use it in the summer. It would cost a fortune to heat for the same reason. Someone suggested I put 2-inch strips and then slip some insulation between them, and then thin Sheetrock. What do you think? I love the look of the exposed beams and want to retain that look but also make it less expensive on the budget for air-conditioning. The roof and ceiling were done in 2004. A. Am I to understand that your year-round house has no insulation in the living room cathedral ceiling? So the roof sheathing is exposed? This would not be responsible of a builder who did the work in 2004. How deep are the beams? If there is enough space to install 2-inch thick rigid insulation directly to the roof sheathing and cover it with 1/2-inch gypsum board, and still have enough exposed beam showing to please you, that is the best solution.Q. A condensate pump on our heating system in our basement storeroom recently leaked, and the water soaked into the carpet and mat on our cement basement floor, which gave off an extremely bad odor. We removed the section of carpet and mat that got wet and ran a dehumidifier - but the smell is lingering. Is there any way to remove the smell that seems to be coming from the cement? We'd prefer a nontoxic (no-VOC) option if one exists. We're not sure if it is from the glue that was used to attach the mat to the cement floor or the previous owners' animals.A. Spray the affected area with Nok-Out, which you can buy from the distributor: nokout.com, (866) 551-1927. Another product recommended by a reader is X-O Odor Neutralizer; the manufacturer is xocorp.com. bull; Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or via e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.#169; 2009, United Feature Syndicate Inc.