How Do I Clean Tile Grout With a Drillbrush?

Tiled walls and flooring look great in bathrooms and kitchens, but they can be a nightmare to clean!

Tile grout is thin, recessed, and in areas where soap scum and grime thrive. It can be difficult to get into tile grout in the first place, but if you have to scrub it by hand, it’s a long, meticulous process that can eat up an afternoon. 

Luckily, the folks at Drillbrush are in the business of making tough cleaning tasks faster and easier, so we have not one but several solutions to tile grout turmoil! 

Put the old toothbrush away and grab your cordless drill, we’ve got three fast and painless ways to clean tile grout with a Drillbrush!

Using an Edge Brush

A Medium Yellow Edge brush cleaning bathroom tile.

Since grout cleaning is such a hassle, Drillbrush tailor made a solution; the Drillbrush Edge Brush. 

The Edge brush is a wheel-shaped drill-powered scrub brush. This unique scrubber has bristles in a thin strip around the outer ring of the block, allowing you to get the bristles into tight grout lines. Just place down your grout cleaner of choice and the Edge brush can effortlessly work it into tight grooves and lines, resulting in a better, more thorough clean.

By being on the edge of the brush, the bristles travel really fast, blasting through build-up and tough stains. Just be sure to use a sensible amount of cleaner and a disciplined trigger finger when cleaning to avoid splatter. You can read more on splatter prevention here.

The Edge brush comes in a variety of different bristle stiffnesses for all your grout cleaning needs. The Soft White Edge brush can clean delicate caulking, the Stiff Red and Ultra Stiff Black Edge brushes can get in between outdoor tile and metal grates, and the Medium Yellow, Green, and Blue Edge brushes can tackle everything in between; from bathroom tile, kitchen countertops, and even pool tiling!

If you want to make grout cleaning a breeze, you can view our full catalog of Edge brush kits here and choose the set that meets your needs.

Tilting a Flat Brush for Similar Results

[picture of Drillbrush cleaning tile at an angle]

Tilting a flat Drillbrush at a 45 degree angle can help clean grout lines.

But what if you don’t have an Edge brush? What if like many Drillbrush customers, you have our popular standard Original, 4 inch, and 2 inch brush kit; can you still clean grout lines with that? 

Yes!

The easiest way is to use the 4 inch flat brush. Normally this brush is used on the flat surface of the floor, scrubbing off surface grime and gunk, but if you tilt the brush at a 45 degree angle, you can get the edge of the bristles into the thin grout lines to create a makeshift Edge brush!

While the Edge brush offers more coverage inside the groove, the 4 inch technique works really well in a pinch. This is great if you’re in a situation where swapping brushes is inconvenient, allowing you to quickly go from flat surface scrubbing to grout lines with ease.

This 45 degree angle trick also works on our 5 inch flat brushes, as well as our giant industrial size 7 inch brush if you’re working on large scale seams in concrete or areas with a lot of grout like locker rooms and pools.

Using the Side of an Original-style Brush

A Medium Original Brush being used on Car Mats

Another option for grout and grooves are bullet-shaped Original style brushes. These brushes are typically built for corner cleaning and contoured surfaces; but being fully coated in flexible bristles allow its contour cleaning capabilities to shine in grout lines too.

Take an Original, Mini Original, or Jumbo Original brush and go over grout lines with the sides of the brush, not the nose. The bristles will work their way into the grooves and sweep out dirt and debris similar to how the Edge brush kicks out messes.

This method is great for touch-ups and light grout. The Original-style brushes work especially well at cleaning grooves in rubber bath and car mats, as they are very effective in loosening stuck on substances nestled in the grooves.

Our Jumbo Original is the best when it comes to this hack, as it has longer sides than the other two bullet brushes, giving you more coverage and allowing you to scrub more grout lines at once.

In the Groove

Toiling and slaving over dirty tile grout is a thing of the past! With Drillbrush, a quick scrub and wipe is all you need to get grout shining bright!

Want to try all three of the grout cleaning methods in this article? The E542J kit has everything you’ll need! You can find it in all six Drillbrush colors and variety packs here.