Category: Cleaning

Easily Remove Grout Haze From Tile

When applying grout to tile, you’re supposed to wait 15-30 minutes before wiping the grout of the tile while leaving the grout between each tile. This is easier said that done. No matter how good you are, you’ll probably be left with a thin layer of grout on your tile. If you use a light-colored grout on light-colored tile, you won’t notice the haze except at certain angles in certain lighting. The haze can resemble hard water stains. If you use a dark-colored grout on light tile or a light-colored grout on dark tile, the haze is more prominent, and your tile can look dirty. See example below.

Before

You can try to scrub with soap or even a steam cleaner, but that will have zero effect. Luckily, there is an amazing chemical product that can relatively easily remove the grout haze from tile. With Aqua Mix 1 Qt. Cement Grout Haze Remover by Custom Building Products, you just mix the liquid with water, pour some one the tile, wait a while, then rub the haze off. For tougher haze, don’t mix with water. In my case, I poured the liquid at full strength without adding water into a spray bottle, sprayed the liquid on the tile, then wiped the haze off with a rag. As most comments say on the Home Depot product page, this stuff is “amazing”!

After
Aqua Mix 1 Qt. Cement Grout Haze Remover by Custom Building Products

Quickly and Easily Remove Weeds From Your Driveway

To easily remove weeds from control joints in your concrete driveway, use an angle grinder with a wire wheel. I use a 4.5″ Ryobi brushed, cordless angle grinder. Don’t use a brushless angle grinder because it can’t be used for this purpose. I prefer using a knotted wire wheel. A non-knotted wire wheel works as well, but I find it better for cleaning control joints after removing large weeds using the knotted one.

Knotted Wire Wheel

Non-knotted Wire Wheel

To prevent kickback, stand and drag the tool to the right as shown in the photo below.

If the angle grinder flange lock nut is stuck, use either a pipe wrench or a thin wrench to unlock it. For convenience, clamp the angle grinder to a stationary vise.

How to Clean Upholstery

If your car seats, floor mats and furniture are made of upholstery, they will eventually get dirty. Fortunately, cleaning them isn’t too hard if you use the right tools and technique. I recently cleaned an old car seat and floor mats. The process was simpler than I thought. Here’s a before and after pic.

And here’s how to do it.

Equipment

I have the Bissel SpotClean Pro.

I also rented the Karcher Carpet Cleaner and Detailer from Home Depot to compare it to the Bissel.

Both of these tools have 2 functions;

  1. Squirter: to squirt water or cleaning solution
  2. Extractor: to suck water from upholstery

You could also just use a spray bottle to squirt the cleaning solution.

You can also use a wet shop vac, but it’s helpful to have a hose head that is transparent so you can see if any water is left in the upholstery. Here’s a transparent extractor nozzle designed to fit all shop vacs.

The Bissel nozzle includes a brush, but it’s better to use a drill brush. For the drill brush, I went with this one on Amazon. Make sure to choose brushes designed for upholstery.

This one includes 4 items:

  • 2″ brush
  • 3.5″ brush
  • 4″ brush
  • Drill extension

Instructions

  1. Add the cleaning solution to the carpet cleaner tool.
  2. Spray the cleaning solution onto the item to be cleaned.
  3. Use a drill brush to agitate the soiled upholstery. I find that using the 3.5″ brush sideways does a better job at agitating upholstery.
  4. Suck any moisture using the carpet cleaner tool.
I added a cleaning solution to the carpet cleaner tool to spray the solution onto the upholstery.
I also bought and applied a upholstery cleaning foam.
The 4″ brush is also effective in agitating the soiled fabric.
Here’s a stain that was actually easy to remove.
This time, I use the 3.5″ brush sideways.
After sucking the moisture, the stains were gone.

When cleaning upholstery in this way, not a lot of water is needed. After sucking the water, very little is left, so it doesn’t take long for the material to dry.

This is the nozzle on the Bissel.
This is the nozzle on the Karcher.

How To Fix Open / Close Door Error on Microwave

I have the KitchenAid 1.9 cu. ft. Over the Range Convection Microwave in Stainless Steel with Sensor Cooking Technology microwave (model # KMHC319ESS).

Recently, the microwave would keep giving an error saying I needed to “open / close door” no matter how many times I open and close the door. This prevented me from microwaving anything. Since this was an expensive microwave, I didn’t really want to buy a new one. Fortunately, fixing this error was easy. It turns out that there is a sensor along the inside front bottom edge that detects whether the door is closed or not. I prefer to clean using wet Clorox disinfectant wipes. I find that they lift dirt up easily. I’d then wipe again using a dry paper towel. After doing that, the open/close door error goes away and the microwave can start.

Door sensor along inside bottom edge of microwave
Door sensor along inside bottom edge of microwave door
Cleaning the door sensor
Cleaning the door sensor

Although my microwave is a KitchenAid, apparently this happens to other microwaves as well.

Angle Grinder Uses

An angle grinder is actually a very useful home improvement too. Below are some things you can do with an angle grinder.

Cleaning

  • Use a wire cup brush to remove rust and caked-on cement and dirt from tools.
  • Use a wire wheel to remove paint

Cut bars, rods and bolts

  • Use a metal cutoff wheel to cut bars, rods and bolts
  • Use a metal cutoff wheel to cut off frozen bolts or screws

Cut tile, stone and concrete

  • Use a diamond wheel to cut through tile

Restore cutting edges

  • Use a grinding wheel to sharpen dull blades

Cutting out old mortar

  • Use a diamond tuckpointing wheel to grind out old, loose mortar

Easily Clean Shower Floor Tile

Shower floors easily get dirty with soap scum and dirt and sometimes mold. Cleaning showers floors like those made of tile can be difficult and tiring. Many people may think they have no choice but to manually scrub the floor. Fortunately, there’s an easier, effortless way using power tools.

Tools Needed

In the picture below, you can see I have the corded polisher with a 7″ stiff bristle brush attachment.

There are 2 set screws you use to help secure the brush attachment to the polisher.

At 7 inches in diameter, the brush is large, which is fine for my custom walk-in shower.

I haven’t tested it out yet but I’m sure it’ll work. Previously, I hacked a brush onto an angle grinder which worked but the available brushes were too soft.

If you need to clean walls, this tool would be difficult to use. Since most of the dirt is on the floor, you can just use Clorox Disinfectant wipes for walls.

Best Floor Mops

If you need to mop a large floor to just remove dust, then consider the Casabella Spin Mop. There are many spin mops on the market but this one not only spin dries the mop to remove excess water before each mopping, it also spin rinses the mop to remove dirt.

Spin Rinse

Spin Dry

If, on the other hand, you need to mop a small area that has stuck-on dirt, like in a kitchen or bathroom, then the Bissel Steam Clean mop would do you well. The steam from the mop will melt dirt so it can be mopped away.

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