So this house we moved into. It's nice, it's big, but it's dirty. The previous owners were nice folks, but housekeepers they were not. Looking at the monumental task of cleaning all the grout, it seems all the best recommendations were to have them steam cleaned. Well, I'm cheap, and I'm not averse to manual labor, so in lieu of spending $1300+ on the professionals I figured I'd do it myself. I also could have rented a big machine, or just spend about the same as the rental and buy something I can use forever - and who doesn't like buying new tools? Not to mention, owning it opens up other options. These things are useful all over the place, like the stains on the pool, cleaning the grill plates, oven racks, etc. I'm going to try steam cleaning the walls and ceiling in the garage, already bleached and pressure washed the floors trying to get the overwhelming animal smell out. It's a world better so far, but I can still kinda smell it.
So anyway, for a couple hundred bucks I got a steam cleaner with all the gadgets. Found the best combo for me is to hand-hold instead of standing and using the extension wands, run the steam at relatively low volume and use a small brass brush. Very little effort, and the results are pretty darned telling. I spent about 3 hours on it last night and covered probably 400 sq. ft. Figure 4 or 5 more sessions like that and I'll have all the tiled areas knocked out.
So anyway, for a couple hundred bucks I got a steam cleaner with all the gadgets. Found the best combo for me is to hand-hold instead of standing and using the extension wands, run the steam at relatively low volume and use a small brass brush. Very little effort, and the results are pretty darned telling. I spent about 3 hours on it last night and covered probably 400 sq. ft. Figure 4 or 5 more sessions like that and I'll have all the tiled areas knocked out.
