Top 3 Ways To Clean Your Tiled Floor

(Guest Writer: Pamela Andrews)

Tiled flooring is a preferred and durable choice for bathrooms, kitchens, and other areas at home that may get wet. If properly taken care of, tiled flooring could easily look as good as new for many years.

In this article, you will learn about deep cleaning methods, basic care for your tiled flooring, and how to remove grout stains. These methods are suitable for both faux as well as ceramic tile flooring.

However, avoid using too much soap and don't over-clean; this can cause soap film or streak on tiles.

Image © TheBestFlushingToilet.com

1. Basic Care Of Your Tiled Floor

Vacuum or sweep the floor on a daily basis. This removes food crumbs, loose dirt, and other kinds of debris that may be present on your tile floor. This is important as dirt that is collected in wet areas may turn to grime that is hard to remove.

Before mopping the floor, the area should be vacuumed and swept properly. Try to run a dust mop over the floor after sweeping it. If your flooring is of natural stone or marble, use a soft broom to sweep over it as a rough broom may scratch the tiles made of natural stone.

Next, mop the tile floor using warm water. Having the best mops for tiled floors will help. If the tile floor doesn't require too much cleaning or does not have stains, cleaning by wiping the tiles with a damp mop is enough to clean it.

Rinse the mop in freshwater that is warm after mopping a part of the room. Repeat this process until you have finished mopping the entire floor. You can add a little liquid dish soap to the warm water to clean everyday debris and dust. To get a shine on the tile floor, you can use a clean damp cloth that is used for dusting over the tile floor.

In the next step, we should dry the floor. If you used plain water or water that has detergent mixed in it, wipe the floor with a dry mop. Wipe the floor with this dry mop in small sections and cover the entire room with the mop. This will help avoid any dirt from accumulating and thus prevent staining on the grout.

You must clean up spills right away. If you spill water or juice on the floor, clean it promptly. The longer it remains on the floor, it will have more time to seep into the grout. Liquids containing sugar, especially dried juice, become extremely sticky and annoying.

Use disinfectant to clean the dirtier spills. If you mistakenly drop meat (raw meat) on the floor or your pet accidentally injures itself, spray antiseptic on the spot and clean it as soon as possible. It is recommended to limit the application of the antiseptic to the place where the spill has taken place. Strong chemicals stain or degrade tile flooring.

2. Deep Cleaning Methods

a) Mop the tile floor using warm water and a solution of vinegar. Mix into a gallon of water half a cup of vinegar. Go ahead and mop as you would usually. If you find that the floor is not looking as clean as you would like it to be, you can mop the tile floor again, making use of water with detergent.

Rinse the floor using clean water (warm) after you have washed it. It is extremely important to remove all soap that remains on the tiles. This makes sure that the soap does not hold or attract dirt by remaining on the floor.

Do not use chemicals or vinegar on marble flooring.

b) Next is removing the stains on the floor. Make a paste using a mixture (50/50) of warm water and scouring powder. Then rub this paste using a clean cloth on the stain. Then, keep it like that for about ten minutes.

Next, scrub the stained part using a soft brush. Then wash the portion of the floor where the paste was put with warm water and remove the paste's remains using a cloth.

c) Next is the cleaning of mildew from the tile floors. For this, prepare a 50/50 mix of ammonia and water. Scrub the part using an ammonia solution and a soft brush. Then rinse the floor using clean water following the disappearance of the mildew.

Tiled flooring in the bathroom gets mildew easily. To prevent this, you should air the bathroom and keep the tiled floor dry. When using an ammonia solution, take care of your hands by wearing rubber gloves.

d) Removing of rust stains from your tile floor is the next step. For this, first put on rubber gloves to keep your hands protected. Next, take a clean cloth and dip it in kerosene.

Then, rub the rust spot away using the cloth that is dampened in kerosene. Wash the portion of the floor where the rust spot was with warm water to remove the kerosene and residual rust.

3. Cleaning The Grout In Tiled Flooring

a) Try using a pencil eraser. This is great for cleaning small sections of stained grout. For doing this, simply use the pencil eraser over the stain. Rub the eraser over the stain until it's gone. Try using a pink or clean white eraser. If you have stubborn grout stains, then using sandpaper would be more effective.

b) You can also use baking soda. For this, make a paste with water and baking soda. Using an old toothbrush, apply this paste to the dirty grout and scrub it well.

When you are done, wash the grout using warm water. If the stains are tougher to remove, allow the paste to remain there for a sometime before you scrub it.

c) You can remove tougher stains using bleach. Try using a bleach solution if the natural methods fail. Make a solution of 25/75 of water and bleach if you have white grout.

If your grout is coloured, you can't use bleach. This is because bleach will remove the colouring if you have coloured grout. Use the edge of a sponge or a toothbrush to clean the grout using this solution. Take care that the bleach solution does not get on the tiles.

Conclusion

These are the ways to clean your tile flooring effectively. They are all easy to follow. Using these methods, you can have sparkling and clean tiles at your home.