How to remove loose grout wedged between tiles
When loose grout pieces are wedged tightly into gaps instead of sticking to the joint, power tools like multitools just push the material around instead of grinding it out. This makes it nearly impossible to clear out the channels properly for new installation without resorting to manual scraping or stabilizing the loose bits first.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Use a putty knife held vertically and hit it with a hammer, tilting it to use the sharp corner.
- 2Use a flat head screwdriver or chisel to crush the pieces and vacuum them up.
- 3Use a drill with a thin bit running up and down the crack.
- 4Using hydrogen peroxide based cleaners
- 5Pre-cleaning with a degreaser to break out soap scum
- 6Using a steam cleaner
- 7Grinding out and replacing the old grout
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“she said she couldn’t get this out of the grout. I used the premixed grout (never again, it was horrible to install and now this).”source ↗
“I used a multitool and a grout grinder to remove all the rest. This area the grout is already loose, but is wedged into the gap. Its very hard to grind because it is lose and just moved around.”source ↗
Where this came up
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