Blue Leaf Top 5 Tips: Cleaning & Maintaining your Tiles and Grout
Before we start you need to determine what type of material you're dealing with, whether its Ceramic, Porcelain or one of the many various Natural Stones (Limestone, Marble, Travertine etc).
This post only applies to Ceramic & Porcelain but do not stress we’ll be posting one for the different types of natural stones detailing how to maintain and re-seal these materials in our next blog.
Let’s get started:
- Regular maintenance – Just like anything in life the more often you take care of it the less you have to worry about it going bad. Setup a cleaning routine to ensure you're giving your tiles the TLC they need.
- Don’t let it settle - Cleaning any dirt or spills immediately will not give them the chance to settle in and get deeper into the tile or leave stains, especially with Ceramic tiles as they are a more porous material. (Porous definition: Easily absorbs liquid)
- Get some help - Cleaning with hot water, detergent and a mop/cloth is the easiest way to remove any spill and be sure to clean any loose materials with a vacuum or dust pan before they make their way into your grout lines. If your worried about the chemicals from detergents a great alternative is to mix some white vinegar with warm water the ratio which we recommend is one-part vinegar to four-parts water. It is not recommended to use acidic cleaning agents as it may result in grout attack causing hazing of glazed tiles.
- Cleaning the grout – More often than not grout is the first area to get dirty and unfortunately the hardest to clean especially if it is a light-coloured grout. Our recommended cleaning solution is to mix one-part hydrogen peroxide and two-parts baking soda to form a paste, then spread the mix with a grout brush or toothbrush and let it settle for about 10 mins. Once set start scrubbing away and once done wipe away with warm water and a cloth.
- Give it a seal – Whether it be the grout or the tile, sealing is a great way to extend the life and look. If you’ve decided to seal the tile which I personally recommend for outdoor tiles that are exposed to the elements be sure to do a spot test just to be sure the sealer does not damage the tiles surface. Regarding the grout in my opinion sealing is a must, if not done immediately after tiling is finished then grout will need to be correctly cleaned and left to dry, once dry an appropriate grout sealer should be applied.