A guide
Tiles last decades. Grout doesn't.
Tiles are the most durable surface in the house and grout is one of the least. Nearly every tiled bathroom that looks tired is a grout and silicone problem rather than a tile problem — which is good news, because that's the cheap half to put right. Here's how to keep a new bathroom looking new, and how to tell a cosmetic issue from one that needs someone out.
01
The first fortnight
Give it time to cure
Adhesive and grout both need time. A floor tiled in the afternoon should not be walked on that evening, and a newly grouted shower should be left dry for as long as the grout manufacturer says — usually a day or two, longer in a cold room. Rushing the first use is the single most common way a good job gets damaged.
Leave the silicone alone
Internal corners and the joint where tile meets bath or tray are siliconed, not grouted, because those joints move and grout cracks when it's asked to. Don't pick at it, don't clean it with anything abrasive in the first week, and don't fill the bath to the brim and hop in before it has skinned over properly.
Wipe the haze, don't scour it
A fine cement haze on the tile face after grouting is normal and comes off with a damp cloth and a proprietary haze remover. A scouring pad will take the haze off and put a permanent dull patch on a polished porcelain at the same time.
02
Week to week
A squeegee beats a cleaner
Thirty seconds with a squeegee down the shower walls after use removes the water before it can evaporate and leave its dissolved minerals behind. Limescale round here is the main reason shower glass and grout go cloudy, and you cannot scrub off what you can simply not leave behind.
pH-neutral, always
Bleach and strong acidic descalers will lift the surface of cement grout and dull natural stone permanently. A pH-neutral tile cleaner and warm water does the job on porcelain and ceramic. If something needs more than that, it needs a specialist product chosen for the tile, not the strongest thing under the sink.
Run the extractor longer than you think
The fan should run for a good while after the shower stops, not just during it. Mould on grout is a humidity problem, not a dirt problem — it grows on the moisture, and no amount of cleaning fixes a room that never dries out.
03
Once a year
Seal stone and unglazed tile
Porcelain and glazed ceramic need no sealing. Natural stone — marble, limestone, slate, travertine — and unglazed terracotta do, and the sealer wears. An annual re-seal on a stone floor is a twenty-minute job that prevents a stain you can't get out.
Check the silicone before it fails
Look along the joint where the bath or tray meets the tile. Any lifting, any gap, any black speckling means it should be cut out and re-done. Silicone is a consumable — replacing it every few years is routine maintenance, and it is what stands between a splash and a ceiling repair downstairs.
Feel for a loose tile
Tap along a tiled wall or floor with a knuckle. A solid tile sounds dull; a hollow ring means the adhesive isn't gripping behind it. One hollow tile is worth watching. A patch of them, especially near a shower, is worth a phone call.
Worth a phone call
Three things that aren't a cleaning problem.
Most tired-looking tiling is cosmetic. These three aren't — they are the room telling you something is moving or letting water past, and scrubbing harder makes no difference at all.
Cracked grout in one straight line
Grout that has cracked along a continuous line — up an internal corner, or across a floor in a straight run — is usually telling you the substrate is moving, not that the grout was bad. Re-grouting it will crack again. That line wants looking at.
A shower tray that's gone spongy
Any give underfoot in a tray, or staining on a ceiling below a bathroom, means water is getting past something. Catch it early and it's a mixer and a re-seal. Leave it and it becomes a tray, a floor and a ceiling.
Grout that's dark only in the shower
Grout discolouring only where the water lands is normally mould in the surface rather than dirt on it. A mould-specific treatment and a fan that runs longer will usually deal with it; if it keeps coming back in the same spot, the joint behind it may be holding water.
Something in the bathroom stopped looking right?
Cracked grout in a straight line, a tray with give in it, a mixer that drips. Send a photo — quite a lot of it is a half-day job if it is caught early.
We're on the tools most of the day, so a text or a voicemail is never ignored — we ring back the same day.