The Grout Doctor Is In & Making House Calls In New Tampa!

Bill Porter travels the paved arteries of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel healing the distress that homeowners experience with mold-infected and broken grout and tile.

Porter is The Grout Doctor.

But, instead of working in a clean, well-lit operating room, a typical house call for Porter involves a long day on his hands and knees in a cramped, moldy shower stall, scraping and cleaning away accumulated soap, shampoo and mold. He is succinct in describing the task “It’s a very labor-intensive job,” Porter says.

Porter has been a Grout Doctor franchise owner for eight years — one of more than 85 in the U.S., including seven in Florida — following a career as a heavy equipment operator in the Florida phosphate industry. He says lessons taught to him by his father and grandfather growing up in Canisteo, NY, have served him well in both careers.

“It’s like my father told me,” Porter says, “‘if you’re going to do something right, do it right the first time.’”

Routine services Porter provides are grout cleaning or regrouting, repairing or replacing broken tiles as well as caulking. He applies his skills to a variety of tile surfaces, including marble, terrazzo, travertine and limestone.

When you take a good look at most homes in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, there’s usually plenty of tile, from interior spaces like bathrooms, kitchens and high-traffic floors to outside lanais and pools. Porter will work on all of it, wherever it may be located. “There’s a lot of tile everywhere,” Porter says.

Since people tend to take tile and grout for granted — until neglect and sometimes even abuse becomes all too apparent — Porter is often confronted with a substantial professional challenge.

“People don’t do anything for years and years, until the work needs to be done,” Porter says. “You go to some jobs and it’s learn as you go.”

Elbow grease and sweat may be the main ingredients for successfully completing any assignment,  but knowledge and focus also are required, Porter says.

“You have to mix the grout properly, you have to apply the grout properly and you have to take your time.”

It’s not just a diminished sense of ownership pride that occurs as a result of dingy showers afflicted with soap scum and mold. One of the most common molds that finds tile grout to be a hospitable medium is cladosporium, which is olive-green to brown or black in appearance and has been associated with allergies and asthma, according to the website for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & Prevention website.

In addition, GroutDoctor.com identifies other potential grout-related problems besides mold. Cracked and missing grout can lead to damaged walls from leaking water and underlying floor surfaces also can be damaged. Checking for those kinds of problems is one of the first things Porter does when he starts a job.

“I go around and touch the walls and if I feel sponginess, that means the wallboard has gotten wet,” Porter says, noting that  replacing small sections of wallboard and wood framing are part of his services.

While Porter cleans and repairs grout and tiles and refreshes the appearance of tiled spaces, he does not perform complete tiling jobs, although he will replace small sections if the correct tiles are easily available. He says people should hang onto any extra tiles they may have after construction or a major tile installation since they are produced in limited runs and generally not available afterward.

Porter also suggests taking a good look inside your boxes of leftover tiles, as he has often opened them only to discover nothing but a pile of broken tiles inside. He says trying to repair broken tiles usually yields disappointing results.

“It just never really looks that good compared to an unbroken tile,” he admits.

A full work day is usually needed to clean and regrout a routine shower assignment, followed by a 48-hour dry period, so customers need to plan accordingly, Porter says. Time to complete other projects will vary, especially when it comes to pools, since outdoor assignments are weather-dependent. Before leaving your home, Porter will take the time to explain how to properly care for the rehabilitated surfaces. He also will leave samples of Grout Doctor cleaning products, like the Grout Doctor Shower Cleaner and the Grout Doctor Neutral Cleaner, for customers to use.

“They’re very good products,” said Porter. “They’ve done the research and know what works.”

Porter has earned an A rating on the consumer website Angie’s List and the endorsement of customers such as Live Oak Preserve resident John Martel, who called upon Grout Doctor to work on his home’s pool. “Bill did a really nice job,” Martel says. “My pool was 10 years old and had a lot of grout that needed replacing. He  replaced the grout and some broken tiles and sealed all the grout when he was done. He got it looking like new again.”

Franchise Opportunities, Too!

Porter says there are franchise opportunities with Grout Doctor available for people who are willing to apply themselves toward being successful.

“(The company) is always looking to expand and there are opportunities in Florida,’’ Porter says. “But you better be prepared to work hard and go the extra mile. The phone isn’t going to ring by itself, you have to make it ring.”

As for compensation, Porter says it’s a good way to make money, and more.

“It’s a good feeling when I’ve done a good job,’’ he says. “I want to see them smiling when I walk out the door.”

Call Bill Porter for a free estimate at 782-2277, or visit GroutDoctor.com, where you also can find out about franchise opportunities and Grout Doctor products. Or, see the ad on pg. 37.