Who doesn’t love good-looking flooring and an updated look in their home? With tile floors, you achieve a unique aesthetic that will last a lifetime—if maintained properly. Carpets and tile are similar because they both need consistent maintenance and care in order to last. At CitruSolution Asheville, we’re dedicated to providing our customers with world-class service. In addition, we enjoy sharing our industry knowledge with eager DIYers.
In today’s post, we’re going to go over how to maintain tile floors. If you like what you see, you should check out our other blog posts.
What You Need
When you’re dealing with tile floors, you need certain products and tools. Arguably one of the most important things to clean tile is dish soap. Any degreasing dish soap or detergent will work. The soap works by removing grease, dirt, and other stains. It’s best to mix this with water and white vinegar. Vinegar is a universal cleaner, deodorizer, and sanitizer. Now that you’ve got your cleaning agents, what tools do you need? A mop and stiff-bristled nylon brush. Another great tool to have for tile floors is a steam mop.
How To Maintain Tile Floors The Right Way
So, it’s time to start cleaning those tile floors. First, you’ll want to mix the water, dish soap, and vinegar. Mix three parts hot water, one part soap, and one part vinegar in a mop bucket. Pour the mixture on the floor and scrub with the nylon brush. Allow the solution to sit for 30 minutes before mopping it up. After it’s mopped up, use the steam mop on the floor. Move slowly and focus on scrubbing the grout.
If you clean your tile floors like this at least once a month, professional cleanings will be more effective. Also, you will double your floor’s life.
A Few More Tips & Tricks
Sometimes, cleaning tile floors isn’t so easy. We’re looking at you, tile grout. Over the months and years, depending on the amount of foot traffic, grout can get funky. We’ve talked about how to clean tile floors and grout in the past, but here are some more tips and tricks.
Oxygen bleach is a great option for cleaning tile floors—especially white ones. Despite the color of the tile or grout, oxygen bleach will remove almost any stain. Instead of using the harsh chemicals found in traditional bleach, like sodium hypochlorite, oxygen bleach uses the power of oxygen. Similar to hydrogen peroxide, oxygen bleach is safe to use and doesn’t leave a harsh smell or harmful fumes behind. To use oxygen bleach, simply mix it according to the instructions on the box with hot water, and scrub the tile and grout with it. We even suggest making a paste with the powder to leave overnight on the grout.
When it comes to cleaning up debris and dirt off of tile floors, the broom is your best friend. Oftentimes, a vacuum can make things worse by kicking things around. The broom doesn’t spread debris, and you can get it all in a dustpan. After sweeping, we suggest mopping with a steam mop or Swiffer mop to get off any surface stains.
