Hope It's Not Too Late

Okay, I've learned a big lesson after spending almost an hour trying to clean the tiled shower today, in addition to the half hour last week.

Right after the tile guy finished tiling the bathroom, I told the him I was going to put some sealer on. He insisted that it was unnecessary, so I didn't put the sealer on. How I regret listening to him. After a year and a half of daily use, the tiles and grout in the shower got kind of gross in certain spots. Then I saw a DIY blog where the homeowners are installing penny tiles on their kitchen backsplash, identical to ours in the shower. One of the things they stress was sealing the tiles and grout after installation. They had done the same to the tiles in their bath in a previous home and they swore the grout stayed pristine after six months.

It took me 3 days spread over a week to get the tiles as clean as I could possibly get them to look. Then I applied two coats of the sealer I got from Home Depot with 24 hours in between to dry. We were lucky to have a vacant unit downstairs where we got to take our showers while all this was going on. But I was so happy to have our shower back in order. Only time will tell if the sealer will keep the shower clean for a longer period of time.

This was before I spent days scrubbing away the soap scum and other unsavory stuff that was showing on these tiles. 

I am not sure if this looks that much better than the before but at least I know it's a lot cleaner than before. The color on this photo looks very different than the one above because they were taken with different cameras.