How to Remove Grout with Oscillating Tool
Grout removing is a work that you may think is too tough. But, trust me, it is so easy and will take very little time to remove grout from your tiles with an oscillating tool.
If you are about to clean your tile grout manually by your hand can take a huge part of the day. An oscillating tool can help you to do this in a very short time. Besides that, the oscillating tool is easy to handle, versatile, and perfect for working in a small space. In this article, I am going to show you how to remove grout with an oscillating tool.
Removing grout with an oscillating tool
In the following article, you will come to know why and how you can remove grout from the tile using an oscillating tool:
Why it is important to remove grout?
Before you jump into the work, let’s take a look at why it is important to remove grout from tiles:
- Remove grout to safely extract a tile- before you replace a cracked or broken tile, you must start with removing the grout that borders the tile. This has to be done so that the neighboring tiles don’t get damaged while removing the broken one.
- Changing the look of the room- it is very easy to change the look of your room by just changing the color of the grout. Even if you count the cost of the new grout and grout removal tool, it will be lesser than buying new tiles.
- Fixing cracked or damaged grout- this is a very common reason why people want to remove grout. Grout can be cracked, damaged, or heavily contaminated by dirt. This type of problem occurs, especially in the shower room. Grouts generally heavily damaged or washed away there. Removing the old ones and applying fresh grout there is the best solution you can have.
- Removing odor near pet areas- your pets can sometimes pee inside your house and no matter how hard you scrub or steam clean your floor, urine can get inside the grout and start smelling bad. The best way to remove this odor is by replacing the grout with a new one.
These are the main reasons why people want to remove grouts between tiles. There could be more and different types of reasons. No matter what is the reason behind it, the only easiest and cost-effective way to remove grout is by doing it with an oscillating tool.
Gears you will need
It is better to start your task equipped with some gears. Some of them are optional and you can skip them if you want. But some of them are very essential. Let’s take a look at the gears that you may need:
- Vacuum cleaner (wet/ dry) - you will need a vacuum cleaner for grout removal tasks. This is the best way of sucking up all the grout dust and that you will create while removing the grout. You may need to have the wet capabilities for any work in showers or if you want to pre-wet the grout before removing them.
- Work gloves- a good pair of working gloves will increase your grip over the oscillating tool. It will also protect your hands from the long periods of vibrations that the tool will produce.
- Earmuffs- the buzzing sound of an oscillating tool inside an echoic room like a bathroom is quite unsafe for your ears. A good quality ear muff pair can protect your ears from this.
- Knee pads- you need to kneel for sometimes over your knee. That will give a lot of pressure on your knees. To avoid this situation, you can use a pair of workers' knee pads.
- Grout removal blade- you must equip your oscillating multi-tool with a grout removal blade.
Removing the grout
If you are removing grout with an oscillating tool for the first time, it is better to start from an area that is less conspicuous such as behind a door or a far corner of the room.
Now, grip the oscillating tool comfortably and place it on the grout line that you are going to start with. Once you place it on the spot, start with a low-speed pass of a few inches. Slowly get deeper. The deeper your blades will go, the faster you can go. If You are interested in wood carving then you can read this article Dremel for Wood Carving.
In my opinion, the best way to remove grout from tile is to apply gentle pressure and let the tool do most of the work. When you have removed most of the grout by straight cut, now you can slowly angle the blade up and down to remove more of the grout from the seam. Be careful and don’t damage the edges of the tiles. After that, you can remove the remaining grout by a screwdriver or a knife.
Final verdict
Whatever oscillating tool you use, the process of removing grout will be the same and it will take some time and effort to do it. But it will be very less when you will compare doing it manually. That means the right tool for removing grout can make a significant difference. So, if you are looking for the best way to remove grout from tiles quickly and with ease, an oscillating tool is the best tool for your job. I hope my instructions will help you to do your grout removing job perfectly and easily.
