The Bathroom Blues
During our second house tour, you may have heard Sherry say that a bathroom renovation was next on our list. Well, that’s when a bunch of you responded with honesty and conviction, saying that we shouldn’t dare mess with our glorious vintage tile. Obviously, some clarification is in order. We completely agree that our tile’s got style. A black & white basketweave floor is amazing- super intricate and totally true to our 50’s ranch. But even though our bathroom looks like this in photos (and even on video, apparently)…
…we’re hiding a dirty little secret. Unfortunately, after five decades the tile is totally grimy, cracked and yellowed. Here’s a snapshot of what we’re dealing with (please forgive us for the following in-your-face bathroom shot):
Do you see what we see? Dirty off-white tiles. Dusty gray, uneven grout. And thick, pitted caulk accented by hair and other general disgustingness (which is actually dried into the caulk - not something we can wipe away). Plus, that uneven caulk is being used to fill a one inch gap between the tile and tub that gets as big as two inches in the corner. You can kinda understand why the previous owner had covered it with carpet. (Just kinda though, bathroom carpet is still mucho gross).
Inspired by your comments about the tile, Sherry spent yesterday morning scrubbing her brain out, doing her best to inject some hope back into our sad bathroom situation. It would totally be worth the effort if we could save that tile (and our wallets) so Sherry decided to give it the old college try. Armed with Tilex, OxyClean, a razor, a caulk gun, two rolls of paper towels and a heavy-duty sponge she went to town on that floor. The razor was actually effective when it came to scraping old dried paint globs off the tile, but the OxyClean was a total waste of energy (Sherry likened it to dumping a bucket of sand in the bathroom and then spending hours trying to remove every last grain). Hopefully her pain is your gain (as in, don’t try OxyCleaning your tile. Seriously). She also recaulked the space between the tub and the tile, which is still a huge gap but at least it’s white and not hairy this time around.
Anyway, after a few hours, here was the result (warning: you’re about to get up-close-and-person with our bathroom again):
The fresh inch of new caulk definitely helped, but do you see any improvement in the tile color? Neither do we.
Here’s where we need your help. Anyone know how to bring the white back to our tile? Or have a better idea for filling that big gap between the tile and tub besides a thick, caulk moat? Let the ideas fly ’cause we’re ready to try anything at this point. Hopefully together we can save our bathroom.
(Post by John)
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Comments
You might try vinegar and baking soda as a paste and see if that helps at all. Peroxide of some sort would help the white, but I wonder if it would damage the black. I can see why you would like to replace them (I hate it when things look dirty even after I have cleaned them), but it would be a shame since they are really cute.
you’re right - I’d want to replace that too! I’m not sure if you are familiar with the nest message boards, but I frequent the Decorating & Renovating board and there is a nestie on there who re-did a bathroom very very similar to your bathroom’s style. Her Nest name is Ginabee, and here is her bio link:
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/user/page.aspx?username=ginabee
Scroll down a ways and check out her gorgeous basketweave floor. I think something like that would be amazing for your bathroom! (not to mention her sink, too!)
http://americanfoursquare.blogspot.com/2007/12/update-on-subway-tile-cleaning.html
This is the path to the person who used the “hair” peroxide to clean their subway tile. Check them out!
Hello–I just wanted to say that I watched your video yesterday and your home renovation is truly inspirational. Great job!
Do you have any information in your blog about the paint colors you used in your home! Your palette is wonderful!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks all you helpeful peeps!
My mind is swirling with ideas. I’m definitely going to try the baking soda and vinegar first since I already have those items. And I might actually run out to the beauty store for hair peroxide tonight if that doesn’t work. It’s true that the peroxide might be bad for the black tiles, but I wonder if I can sort of paint it on the white tiles with a paint brush or something. Sound crazy? Oh and I intend to do a little Barkeeper’s Friend research too. Thanks for all the ideas. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.
And if it all backfires I’ll just have to comfort myself with some of those marble basketweave tiles that Bryn linked to, even though they might be a little over our budget of zero dollars and zero cents…
Oh well, budgets are made to be broken.
xo
Sherry
p.s. Melissa, we have a full-house breakdown of our color palate here, so check it out.
http://thisyounghouse.com/?p=274
So glad you found us!
Hi John and Sherry - I’m the blogger that Sandy linked to above. What worked in our case was 30% hydrogen peroxide. I can feel Sherry’s pain with the oxi-clean. It made my list of “losers” too.
The thing is I used it on crazing on our vertical white subway tiles. You and I have very similar floor tiles and ours are kinda grayish too. I haven’t tried the peroxide on the floor, I was so happy to have clean shiny wall tiles I just moved on with my life! lol
Anyways - here’s a link that explains the process of what worked for the wall tiles.
For the wide gap around the tub I think I’d try to either find a black concave edging tile, or fill it with little mosaic chips if I were unsuccessful in finding the right tile profile.
I have some peroxide left over, so I’ll experiment on my floor tiles and get back to you with the results. Peroxide is, if nothing else, easy on the budget. You could do your whole floor with a $5.00 bottle.
I hope we can find a way for you to keep your tiles. If yours look like ours I bet they feel like ours too - nice and velvety on bare feet!
Thanks so much for the details Gimbler! I’ll definitely give it a go. For $5, how could I not?
Sherry
Sherry, I just put some down on a “test spot” on my floor and have a 150 watt bulb pointed right at it. I’ll get back to you in about an hour to let you know if it’s made any difference. Good luck to us! :o)
Fingers crossed! Does your tile have black in it? Since mine’s basketweave with white and black I’m wondering if the black tile will get bleached. Thoughs? Ideas? Experiments?
xo
s
Yep - mine is black and white basketweave too. Only slightly different than yours in that our white tiles are more narrow in the center, like a dogbone. Don’t worry about the peroxide harming the black tiles - it won’t. The peroxide is really safe for cleaning ceramics.
I’ve used it in the past to clean old antique pieces of pottery that I got for a song because they looked so far gone. Never had a problem with it. Conservators at museums use it!
I just checked on my test patch and don’t see much happening yet. The 150 bulb isn’t giving off much heat either. I’m starting to wonder though if mine ever really were a true white. They’re almost like a marble kind of white in color and texture.
Hi Sherry and John,
I stumbled on your site, and to had to write in to say what a beautiful home you have, and what a beautiful way you’ve gone about creating it. More than just exhibiting your good taste, which you both have in spades, you clearly love the process of feathering your nest together. To my mind, that’s what truly makes a house a home…I can’t wait to see what else you can do!
P.S. Loved the wrapping/card-writing nook. I re-vamped the back door of a hall closet with pegboard, dowels for ribbon, and jars to hold tags, pens, scissors, etc ; idea courtesy of Martha. Its so lovely, sometimes I leave the closet door open to gawk at it from my couch. It makes my little OCD heart flutter just to see all of that organization!
Oh my. Well, we have very similar tile in our bathroom (ditto on that dirty grout) only in aqua and white. Fortunately ours is in nearly mint condition…I clean it with boiling hot water, a healthy amount of good old baking soda, and for tough jobs, I will add a splash of stinky but helpful vinegar.
Good luck! I do think that they were never a true, sparkling, dentist’s office white, but more of a ‘winter white’ to help hid the inevitable accumulation of dirt. Have you tried calling a vintage tile place or something to see what advice they have?
Okay, I have an update on my test spot. The peroxide did nothing except loosen some paint splatters. So, it wasn’t a total waste of time! lol
I think my tiles are marble… I guess I’d just assumed they were ceramic and never really examined them closely. If you think yours are marble too, the vinegar might not be such a good idea. I think it etches marble.
On the other hand, while mine are kinda grayish white they don’t have what appears on my monitor to be yellowish or rust stains like in your photos. So it still might be worth a try even if it only lifts that out.
Another thing you might try is a cold oven cleaner. I know it sounds a little crazy, but that’s what I used on the whole bathroom when we moved in to get the foreclosed/HUD house “patina” off the tiles, tub, toilet, etc. It worked great on the tub and got the floor tiles to as good as they are.
Maybe some day we’ll get the floor tiles professionally sanded/grounded or whatever it is they do to restore marble. It’s not going to the top of the list though - we’ve got Problems with a capital “P” to take care of first.
Good luck - sorry I didn’t have better news on the test patch.
That’s great news about it being safe for black tile Gimbler! I’m definitely going to sleuth out some hair peroxide of my own tonight. Fingers crossed that it’s easy to find. Of course I’ll keep you posted. I can always leave it on the floor for a long time (even overnight) with the door closed and the fan on, so hopefully a good long peroxide soak will be just the ticket. Oh and of course I’m not looking for it to be blindingly white, just not-yellow would be a good color actually. So winter white sounds positively yummy. Thanks again for all the help!
Now for Jenn, thanks so much for your sweet note. We live for comments like that and we’re both so happy that you plan to pop in on us regularly. We do love visitors. And you know I’m jealous of your revamped hall closet. I’m a sucker for organization!
And lovely Jen, thanks also for your good ideas. I never thought of boiling hot water, so I’ll be sure to remember that tip! Hopefully I can get the floor looking clean again and then keep it that way thanks to all the helpful tips.
xo,
Sherry
House-Made was trying to clean the grout between their tiles but perhaps their solutions could help you with the actual tile. Here are the links; grout cleaning aka February 13, 2006.
Hi! We have the same tile in our brand new bathroom. Since we live in GA (red dirt) and have 4 big dogs (we are crazy), our new, shiny, white tile was starting to turn orangish from dirt that the dogs tracked into the house. I bought a steam cleaner (not the carpet kind) from the ‘Allergy Buyers Club’ and it has worked wonders on our dingy tile. It shoots 300 degree steam and has tons of nozzles and brushes (complete for all your cleaning needs). It’s also great for general nasty cleaning tasks including floors, grout, tubs, upholstery, and carpet. You don’t have to use toxic cleaning chemicals, and it even kills dust mites, mold, and sanitizes surfaces. I think I’m in love..The link is http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/whitewing-steam-cleaner.html
Hey Elizabeth and Isaspacey,
Thanks a million for the helpful tips. As I type this I’m waiting on the 30% peroxide (recommended by Gimbler) to work its magic. I started the treatment around 8 hours ago and have reapplied more peroxide a few times to keep it moist for a hopefully optimal result. And I even turned up the heat in there so the warmth can help it sink into the tile better. It’s already looking cleaner, although not necessarily super-white. But the tiles might not have been uber-white to begin with, so we’re ecstatic that they’re finally looking cleaner (and the paint splatters are lifting off- another bonus) so thanks for all the suggestions everyone! We’ll be sure to do an update post as soon as we get to caulking some things and installing some new tub fixtures. Stay tuned…
xo,
Sherry
I can’t believe how much your bathroom looks like mine. It’s got to be the same tile! Anyway, those magic easer cleaner pad do wonders for grout. Good luck.
Hey Sarah,
So cute that we have twin bathrooms! The tile is so charming, so we’re intent on bringing it back to life. We actually tried the peroxide tip from Gimbler and it’s looking much cleaner, so now it’s just a matter of re-caulking around the sink (using a painter’s tape tip that someone emailed us which we’ll talk more about in a future post) and hopefully we’ll have a much fresher looking room without all the grossness.
xo,
Sherry
Just so you know, those tiles were never truly white. Unglazed ceramic tile is a greyish white that even when brand new would look dingy next to white glazed tile or fixtures. So its probably not as dingy as you think it is. Some new grout would really make it look much better.
Can’t help on the caulk moat except to say you can buy some new tile and patch.
Thanks MrsLimestone. We definitely learned that our tiles are just naturally greyish and agree that some re-grouting would totally do the trick. As for the caulk moat, we’ve made some progress in that arena and promise to post an update about the entire bathroom debacle any day now. We’re definitely moving in the right direction, so stay tuned…
xo
s
I recently bought a vintage Mercer tile, which is terribly discolored on the raised area, while the background glaze is very nice. The raised area was a tan color and most of it is now discolored to dark brown. Since this tile is not sealed, really, do you think that it would be safe to try the peroxide idea? Any other suggestions from anyone?
Hey Marlene,
My 50 year old basketweave tile wasn’t sealed either, and everyone assured me that the peroxide trick wouldn’t harm the tile at all (and happily it didn’t). I think a lot of old tile isn’t glazed or sealed but the peroxide just lifted the stains without discoloring the black tiles in the basketweave pattern. Does anyone else know anything more that they can add? I’m hardly an expert so hopefully others can chime in with more info. Also, if you’re worried you can always do a test on some tile in a hidden area like behind the toilet or in a closet to be sure that the peroxide isn’t doing anything bad, but I’m pretty certain that since my unglazed and unsealed tile worked out just fine that yours will as well. Good luck and keep us posted!
xo,
Sherry
Thank you for the info, Sherry. I’ll try the peroxide , very tentatively at first, and will let you know on the blog if it helps!
Marlene
Has anyone tried “Floor Restorer?” I bought a product at Home Depot that’s supposed to make it shine like new - but if the basket weave tile is unsealed, it probably wasn’t that glossy originally. Just wondering. Thanks!
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I did a post about apron front sinks on my blog and Marilyn from 819 Ohio blog recommended using a product called “Barkeeper’s Friend” that takes out all sorts of stains on white sinks. I’m not sure if it would work on your tiles, but it may be worth a try. Love the tiles. I hope you can save them.