Saturday, January 24, 2009

Cleaning Grout For your Pets

By Rick Amorey

I noticed my normally energetic German Shepherd to the veterinarian a few days back. I had noticed he didn't look at all well, as he was unresponsive, lethargic and hardly had an appetite. This concerned me, so I took him to the local vet.

The tests results came back and the diagnosis was a bit concerning. The doctor said that my dog of three years had a bit of lung infection. And this was caused by black mold which got into his system.

I didn't know that I even had black mold infestation in my house! I generally kept a clean environment for my dog. But, in the interest of keeping my pet (and me, apparently) safe, I checked out the internet for the possible places of infestation.

Black mold or Stachybotrys Chartatum is a fungus that commonly grows in the grout between tiles, I read. Finding this out, I searched around the house for areas which have tiles. None in the kitchen that's for sure, as I use polished concrete for my floor and kitchen counters. But the bathroom, though, had tiled surfaces everywhere.

While I do regularly clean my bathroom once every two weeks, my focus has always been the toilet seat and the tiles. But I've never really taken notice of the grout in between. So I always scrubbed it, but not much attention was spent on turning it white. In fact, I kind of liked the contrasting of the dark grout with the white tiles. Unfortunately, the black gunk in between was apparently harmful.

Because I read that it was potentially harmful while being scrubbed, I called professional grout cleaners to do the dirty work. So, in a day or two we scheduled a meeting, and they proceeded to clean my grout. They were done in a couple of hours.

On the other hand, I cleaned the rest of the place myself, not leaving a single dust bunny lying around. I want to make sure that when my dog is cleared, then this home will be a safe place for him.his home will be a safe place for him.

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