How Often To Seal Grout. What professionals say

Sealing the grout between the tiles of your bathroom or kitchen may seem like a one-time thing, but this is not the case. The sealer will wear out and needs to be re-applied periodically. However, the frequency will vary between the locations of your home.

The sealer in areas exposed to moisture regularly should be re-sealed every six months. Areas less frequently exposed to direct water, like a guest bathroom or a kitchen floor, should be re-sealed after one year. The seal in less frequented areas can last up to 2 years.

Some locations require more attention than others. In the rest of this article, I’ll detail how to treat each area of your home with tile and grout. I’ll explain why each place requires different needs and why they age differently.

How Often to Reseal Grout in Bathrooms

The grout in your bathroom is exposed to more moisture than any other area in your home—especially the shower. This is why this area requires the most diligent attention in terms of the integrity of the seal.

Suppose the seal on the grout in your bathroom is allowed to deteriorate. In that case, it can cause cracks and flaws in the structural integrity of the grout. Due to the porous nature of grout, moisture is incredibly destructive to it.

This is where you will need to frequently apply new sealant. Not only your shower but your bathroom floor as well.

Suppose you have a relatively large family that all use the same bathroom. In that case, you will need to re-seal your grout every six months to ensure that the waterproof seal holds up and protects the porous grout from moisture penetration, creating an environment where bacteria can thrive.

● Why You Need to Reseal Bathroom Grout

Six months may seem like a short amount of time. Still, in an area exposed to direct moisture like a shower, this is an essential precaution to ensure that your grout stays free of bacteria and is structurally sound.

Showers are especially susceptible to seal breakdown due to the sheer amount of water they are exposed to daily. You should take extra care and give the shower extra attention when re-sealing the grout.

Regularly making sure that the grout in your bathroom is appropriately sealed will not only prevent the growth of mold and mildew within the pores of the grout—it will also ensure that the grout stays intact and remains strong.

Before re-sealing the grout, you should make sure it’s clean and pristine. If there are any stains when you apply a sealer, you are essentially sealing the stain into the grout and making it more or less permanent.

● Using Epoxy Grout to Avoid Having to Reseal

You may even want to consider using epoxy grout just for your shower. Epoxy grout is not as porous as standard grout. It is naturally water resistant and does not need to be sealed. This makes it an excellent option for showers if you’re not fond of the idea that you need to re-seal the grout in your shower every six months.

This is especially true in bathrooms that don’t have a window or some type of ventilation system. Bathrooms like this hold more humidity in the room. That moisture will inevitably soak into the grout if the seal is old or damaged.

How Often to Re-Seal Grout in Your Kitchen

If you have tile anywhere in your kitchen, the grout between those ties will not be exposed to the same amount of moisture that a shower or bathroom floor is. This means that the seal on the grout in this area of your home will last much longer.

The fact that the seal on the grout in the kitchen lasts longer can make it challenging to know when it’s time to re-seal. This is why it is important to be proactive in protecting the seal on the grout in your kitchen.

Some people recommend that kitchen grout only be replaced every three to five years. This is much too long, though, and gives the seal a lot of time to break down. You should re-seal the grout in your kitchen once a year.

Re-sealing grout is a time-consuming task that will put your kitchen out of commission for a few hours, and doing it every year may seem like a chore you don’t want to be bothered with. But re-sealing the grout in your kitchen once a year ensures that it has no opportunity to deteriorate.

● Why You Need to Reseal Kitchen Grout

Making sure that the grout in your kitchen is sealed correctly is essential. The kitchen is the area of the home where most spills occur. If you spill a glass of wine or knock over a bottle of olive oil and it spills onto the floor, the seal will protect the grout from whatever was spilled.

If the grout seal is old and worn out, any substance spilled on the grout will soak into the grout. This will create an unsightly stain that will remind you of the spill every time you see it and potentially create a bacteria infestation within the grout.

Suppose any food substance is allowed to soak into grout because the grout was not properly sealed. In that case, bacteria, mold, and mildew will fester and grow within the grout. If the mold and mildew are allowed to grow undeterred, they will begin to smell. This is the last thing you want in your kitchen.

● Reseal Your Kitchen Grout After Every Deep Clean

A grout seal that is allowed to age too much will begin to peel or simply wear away from cleaning. This is why it is important to re-seal your grout every year or after every deep clean of your kitchen.

Scrubbing tiles and grout in your kitchen, especially on the floors, can wear away the grout seal and the grout itself, especially if you are using an acidic or overly abrasive cleaning product. 

The grout does not need to be re-sealed after every clean. But any time you scrub the grout aggressively or use a potent cleaning product, you should re-seal the areas of the scrubbed grout.

Conclusion

Different areas of your home will require different attention when re-sealing the grout between your tiles. In the kitchen, the grout only needs to be re-sealed once a year because this area isn’t exposed to as much direct contact with water.

However, bathroom grout will need to be re-sealed every six months. It requires more frequent attention because the area comes into contact with much more water every single day.