Old mildew

Hi everyone, we were planning on re-caulking the bathtub and I was thinking about re-caulking the tiles as well but only if i cannot clean them. The house is over 15 years old and we have been in it for around 8 years now so the black mildew has really had a lot of time to settle in.

I was just wondering if anyone here has any advice to clean it or can recommend a really good cleaner for mildew that old.

thanks!

What do you mean re-caulk the tiles?

i mean the white caulking that is put in between the tiles, that is where the mildew is.

The material between ceramic tile is (or should be!) a cement based grout. Now, industry standards call for caulk at the changes of plane (corners and tile to tub, for example). There are some grouts that have built-in fungicides that help. You may be able to just clean it well. If you do want to replace it, you have to dig the old stuff out. This can be timeconsuming and prone to chipping the tile if you are not careful.