Make your ceramic tile look like new with these easy cleaning tips from DIY experts. Ceramic tile floors are a popular flooring option. They’re durable, but like all floors, they need care and cleaning. Here are some smart tips on how to clean tile floors. Sweep or vacuum your tile floors a couple of times a week. Sand and grit can dull and scratch the surface. Once you’ve removed the dirt, you’re ready to mop. Mix a mild detergent with hot water and apply with a rag or chamois mop instead of a sponge mop. A sponge mop pushes dirty water into the grout and soils it. Change your bucket of cleaning solution often so you won’t have a dirty mop that leaves a cloudy film of dirt on the floor. If you do end up with a hazy film on your tile floor, remove with an all-purpose cleaner. Make sure it’s non-abrasive so it won’t scratch the floor. You can also make your own cleaner by mixing lemon juice or vinegar with hot water. Apply it to the floor and then buff dry with a clean cloth.

You can use a towel that you push over the floor with your foot. One of the most important things in knowing how to clean tile floors is keeping the grout clean. Dirty grout equals dingy-looking floors. Grout is porous and easily absorbs dirt, grease and other materials. Spray the grout with a commercially prepared grout cleaner. You can also use a mild bleach solution. It’s a good idea to wear gloves when using these types of products. For deep stains, allow the cleaner to sit for 10 minutes. Use a toothbrush or other small scrub brush to scrub the grout. For stubborn grout stains, mix a paste of baking soda and water. Apply it to the stain, let it sit overnight and then scrub with a nylon brush. Don’t use a metal brush as it will scratch the tile. Let the grout air dry, then put on a silicone-based grout sealer to resist future stains and dirt. Here’s how to clean ceramic tile that has been stained. For coffee, tea or juice stains, wash the tile surface with hot water and detergent, then blot with hydrogen peroxide. 

For grease stains, wash with club soda and water, or a commercial floor cleaner. For ink stains, soak a cloth in diluted bleach and lay it on top of the stain. Leave the cloth until the stain is gone. Rinse thoroughly when done. Knowing how to clean ceramic tile floors properly will keep them looking lovely and help them last for years.carpet cleaner spray foam How to Clean Ceramic Tile Countertopscheap carpet cleaners birmingham How to Clean Groutrobot vacuum cleaner price comparison How to Clean Concrete Floorsthe best steam mop cleaner How to Clean Hardwood Floorspool cleaning service elk grove

How to Clean Vinyl Floors How to Clean Cork Floors DIY Quick Cleaning Tips Sign up for weekly project ideas and advice from experts Privacy Policy Sign Up for More We love to DIY. You love to DIY. See the latest DIY projects, catch up on trends and meet more cool people who love to create. Make It. Fix It. Learn It. Find It.remote control pool cleaning robot Get quick inspiration from Made + Remade each week. The Essential Steps to Landscape DesignTry These Plants and Groundcovers 10 Things You Must Know About Landscaping Lush Landscaping Creates Major Curb Appeal Reducing the Size of a Lawn How to Design a Great Yard with Landscape Plants How to Landscape a Shady Yard Some of the Most Desperate Landscapes How to Landscape a Sloping Backyard Popular Landscaping Groundcovers and ShrubsWhen I started this site it was intended to only focus on issues of installation.

Through research I discovered a greater demand for information related to existing flooring. This particular subject was at the top of the list. So, like every politician has promised and failed to deliver, I will give the people what they want! Well, as much as I can, anyway. Out of curiosity I typed “how to clean grout” and “tile” into Google. I only made it through two pages of sites before I was fed up with all the crap from so-called “experts”. Ninety percent of what I discovered was bull! Common sense dictates that you do not use bleach or hydrogen-peroxide (same effect) on any type of colored grout at all – ever. Yet this was the suggestion of most “experts”.  If you happen to have white sanded grout in your tile, you’re set. If not, you’re gonna screw it up more. What’s “sanded” have to do with it, you may ask. Without knowing the product you’re cleaning, it will be difficult to clean it properly. That being said typed, let’s start there.

For something that confuses some so much, this is actually relatively simple. Drum roll please . . . sanded grout has sand in it. The implications are greater, though. Sanded grout is used for grout lines (the space between the tiles) greater than 1/8 of an inch. I use it for grout lines 1/16 and larger. The reason sand is added is to prevent the grout from shrinking as it cures. If you attempt to use unsanded or non-sanded grout for larger grout lines it will shrink (sometimes as much as 50%) and look like hell. Sanded grout is also much more stable and durable. Unsanded grout is used in smaller grout lines because sanded is difficult to force into the space. Because of this using sanded grout in smaller grout lines leaves open the possibility of not completely filling them which will, in time, lead to grout cracking, chipping out, and a number of other things that make an otherwise perfect tile job look sub-par. I dunno, I can’t see it from here. Sorry, I’m a bit warped, I stare at floors all day.

There are several ways to determine this (the type of grout, not whether or not I’m warped). If you have large grout lines chances are it’s sanded grout. If it’s a shower with 4 X 4 or 6 X 6 inch tiles chances are it’s unsanded. Run your finger across your grout, if it’s rough you have sanded grout. If you run your thumbnail along the grout line and you scrape a bit of grout out of it, you probably have non-sanded. If your grout is smooth, it is non-sanded. The methods below describe how to clean grout in tile that is not natural stone – granite, marble, travertine, etc. You do not want to scrub these with a stiff brush as you risk scratching the stone. If you have natural stone the best solution is to either try the method below using a cotton cloth rather than a stiff brush, or purchasing a commercial stone cleaner. Not a grocery store bathroom cleaner, a specialized stone cleaner available at places like Home Depot and follow the instructions. Seriously, follow the instructions.

As with anything you do to your tile, or flooring in general, make sure to test the method in an inconspicuous spot to ensure it won’t harm your tile or grout. Let’s deal with sanded grout first. After it cures, sanded grout is actually less dense than unsanded. This means more “stuff” permeates further into the grout itself. Anything you use to clean sanded grout will completely saturate into the grout, all the way to the floor beneath. You can use bleach on sanded white grout. With a bleach/water ratio of 1/10 (umm, 1 bleach, 10 water, but you knew that) and a stiff brush you can scrub the grout lines. The grout is already white (or used to be) so bleach will not discolor it. Spray or dab the solution onto the stain and let it sit for about two minutes. Then take the stiff brush and scrub.  Scrub hard, you’re not going to hurt it. Then rinse it with clean water. Repeat as necessary, as they say. Hey moron, you may say, I don’t have white grout in my floor!

That’s all right, no one else does either. The same method applies. Use white vinegar rather than bleach. Start with a 50/50 ratio of white vinegar and water, spray or dab it onto the area, let it sit, then rinse. You can gradually make the mixture stronger as needed. Start with 50/50 . If that isn’t strong enough simply add  additional vinegar. You can use straight white vinegar as well, it shouldn’t harm your tile or grout at all. Just scrub it until the grout gives up and you’ve scrubbed it into submission. Unsanded grout, because it is more dense, is less apt to let stains in much farther than the initial top layer of the grout. So you just have to scrub that. Using the above method should work well. The problem most people have is that they think if they scrub some of the actual grout out of the tile it will somehow compromise the tile itself – it will not. Grout has absolutely nothing to do with holding the tiles in place, stabilizing the tile, or any number of other things people are led to believe by the aforementioned “experts”.

This method should take care of most stains and discolorations in your grout. But, you say, all you’ve told me is to scrub the grout. I do not claim to be an expert on the easy way. I am, however, well versed on the correct way. The above is the correct way. There is no magical solution that will gather up a stain and pull it out of the grout (unless it’s blood, hydrogen-peroxide will do that. Don’t ask me how I know that). While the grout does not make a difference with the stability of the tile itself, a lot of on the market cleaners will eventually compromise the integrity of the grout. The solutions above will not. Stains do not come out of cement-based products easily. Ever try to get oil off of your driveway? Grout is a cement-based product. Sometimes once it’s stained, you will not be able to remove it. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars trying all the magical formulas, they don’t work. Think about it like this: if you spill cherry kool-aid on your white grout, do you really think that stuff in that bottle you just bought for $30.00 will remove it?