Cleaning and Restoring Tile and Slate Floors - Easy!

This tile floor may look good to you, but believe me it’s got layers of wax that was applied over dirt. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

A month ago you may have read my column about how to get ceramic tile grout clean. As you might suspect, I received quite a few thank-you notes via the Ask Tim page on my www.AsktheBuilder.com website. It’s always gratifying to hear from you knowing that I helped you save time and money.

Pamela, who hails from Kenosha, WI, reached out to me after reading that same column. But she had a bigger problem than just her tile grout. Here’s what she sent me: “I would like to know how to properly clean, restore, and maintain the terracotta floor in my kitchen, the slate floor in my entry hall, and half bathroom. I believe the prior owner may have waxed them to get a shine, so there may be some buildup. The floors really don’t look that good no matter what I’ve tried.”

Pam used the image upload tool on my Ask Tim page and sent me a photo of each of the floors. I was able to see the problem right away and started a back-and-forth conversation with her. The first thing I shared was that her question was so good I was going to make a star out of her. I’d love to do the same with you with any problem you have at your home.

Look at how this slate floor was ruined by coats of wax and probably urethane. Look at how FILTHY the grout is in places. It was originally an off-white color! The owner may have to use paint stripper on the slate to remove what could be urethane.

Do you have tile or slate floors that look drab? Have you tried all sorts of polishes to only discover days or weeks later your floors look bad again? Have you been trained how to clean a floor? There’s absolutely no shame in admitting you’ve not been trained by a professional floor cleaner.

Finally, have you fallen into the trap of using those pad mops that come with disposable pads and have a spray bottle of cleaner/polish on them? Let’s unpack all of this so your tile and slate floors will look as fantastic as the day they were installed.

Once I peered at Pam’s photos, I could see she was right about the wax buildup. I suggested to her to go out and purchase a small quart bottle of a commercial wax remover and read the use instructions. I’ve used these for years when I’ve volunteered to help restore waxed terrazzo floors in my kids’s grade school. A group of parents got together to clean and restore all of the floors and stairwells in the entire school because it was just too much work for our older custodian.

I also asked Pam to take many photos as she worked on the project. I wanted to be able to share those with you. You can see them if you look up this column on my website.

The most dramatic photo that Pam shared with me, and I specifically asked her for it, was the one of the bucket of water that she dipped her scrub brush in as she removed the built-up layers of wax. The water was disgusting. Keep in mind Pam thought her floors were clean! Fortunately she didn’t bite off my head in our email exchange.

This is the scrub water as layers of wax are removed. The wax stripper softened the wax and scrubbing with soapy water removes it. Look at how filthy the floors were when layer after layer of wax was applied. GROSS!

If you’re using real wax or those grocery-store pad mops on your floors, there’s a great chance you’re not really cleaning your floor. I was trained by a professional how to clean tile floors. This is but one way to get great results.

I start by sweeping the floor or vacuuming it. You want all loose debris off the floor. I then break out my old-fashioned string mop. I mop the floor with a solution of soapy water. I simply use the best liquid dish soap I can buy.

Many people don’t use a string mop correctly. Once you dip it in the soapy water and remove excess water, you spin the mop so the strings spin around like an amusement park ride. When the mop hits the floor, the strings should be pointing out in all directions in a circle. Move the mop sideways left and right working it back towards your body. Only clean about 10-12 square feet before rinsing out the mop to get fresh soapy water.

If the water gets filthy before you’re finished, discard it and get new soapy water. Otherwise you’re simply mopping the floor with filthy water for goodness sake. If you use one of the pad mops, you probably make the same mistake and don’t change the pad frequently enough. Such a waste of money!

After mopping the floor with soapy water, it’s time to rinse it. You put clear water in the mop bucket and do the same thing as you did with the soapy water. As the water gets cloudy, discard it and get fresh rinse water. Once you mop the floor and the water is no longer getting cloudy, you know it’s clean.

I wouldn’t recommend using any polish on your tile floors. Most tiles come from the factory with a glaze that’s a thin coating of real glass. That’s all the polish or shine you need. Slate has its own matte appearance that’s extremely attractive.

I have a theory that the pad mop polishes actually are designed to dull within days and attract dirt. This way you break out your pad mop, squirt their solution on the floor, and try to make your floor look good. Week after week you end up being like a hamster going around one of those metal wheels in a cage wasting your money. But what do I know? I used to each lunch for 20+ years sitting on empty overturned drywall mud buckets! Here’s to your new clean floors!

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Look below at a second photo where I've zoomed in on this one. You’ll see flecks of dirt left behind by an inexperienced cleaning person. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

How to Clean Shower Grout - And Mop Floors Too!

Sarah reached out to me a few days ago. She was more frustrated than I get when I miss a 2-foot putt at the golf course. Six months before she had a new master shower installed with a marble-tile floor. The pieces of marble are small 1-inch hexagons.

Sarah’s finding impossible to keep the grout clean. Fortunately she uploaded a high-resolution photo of the tile floor via my Ask Tim page on my www.AsktheBuilder.com website. That photo allowed me to zero in on what I believe is the source of the problem.

See those black flecks? They're even on the smooth surface of the marble. That's a clue that they should be very easy to remove using the correct cleaning TOOL.

Sarah’s conundrum reminded me of another woman I had a contentious back-and-forth email exchange perhaps ten years ago. That memory caused me to think long and hard about how I’d respond to Sarah. You see, all those years ago the other woman claimed I had ruined her tile floor.

How to Offend a Woman in Seconds

I had sold this woman a bottle of the most powerful oxygen-bleach cleaner you could get. My wife and I used to own a company that manufactured the highest-strength oxygen bleach cleaner available in the USA. The two ingredients were made in the USA and it was certified organic. Most of the oxygen bleach products I see online are made with inferior Chinese chemicals and there's quite likely more filler in the bottle than active ingredient!

She was using it to clean her wood deck. For whatever reason she took her shoes off while cleaning the deck and got her socks saturated with the cleaning solution. This woman then walked back in her home with her wet feet across her tile floor.

This cleaning solution was so powerful that it often cleaned without you having to scrub. It happened on the woman’s kitchen floor. When the solution dried, you could clearly see her footprints. She insisted my solution had etched and ruined her tiles. She didn’t take too kindly to my retort that she was a poor housekeeper and that while she thought her kitchen floor was clean, it was far from it.

Fortunately she had a pantry closet with the same tile floor. I shared with her that if she would go into the corners of the pantry where no one ever walked, she’d see the original color of the tile. I never heard back from her.

Many People Don't Know How to Clean

Based on the photo that Sarah sent, it appears she, or the person responsible for cleaning the shower, doesn’t know how to clean. You tell me how I’m supposed to communicate that to her. Most women I know would react with flared nostrils. But I digress.

When I looked at Sarah’s photo, I could clearly see small flecks of dirt that were clinging to the grout. Sarah asked me in her email if the wrong grout had been used. The answer was absolutely not. It appears to me tile setter used a sanded grout. Once I zoomed into the photo, I could clearly see what appears to be tiny grains of milky silica sand. The silica sand makes the grout strong and very durable.

What often happens is the tile setter strikes the grout joints with the grout sponge and removes a bit too much grout. The top surface of the grout is now below the top surface of the tiles.

You Must Use the Correct Tools

Cleaning, like many other tasks, requires that you use the correct tool for the job. In Sarah’s case the cleaning person may be using the worst possible tool. For example, a sponge or scouring pad of some sort might have been used for the past six months. These don’t have the ability, in many cases, to apply enough mechanical agitation to the grout to get small pieces of dirt and grit out of the grout.

The best tool to clean grout is a stiff scrub brush that’s equipped with nylon bristles. These bristles need to be stiff enough that they don’t flop around like a toothbrush. They need to have just a small amount of flex to them as you move the brush across the grout.

This is a perfect nylon brush that will allow you to have the bristles contact the grout. GO HERE to order one now.

What’s more, the cleaning strokes have to be parallel to the grout lines to be effective. If you slide the brush across the grout lines at a 90-degree angle, the bristles might not get down to the surface of the grout with enough pressure to effectively clean.

The type of tile Sarah chose is the hardest one to clean. Each small 1-inch piece of tile has six sides each oriented at 60 degrees to one another! Imagine trying to orient the scrub brush to have the strokes be parallel with all of the grout joints.

You may have been taught to use circular scrubbing motion to clean floors. That works well when the floor surface is all in the same plane and smooth. Recessed grout lines are the bane of most professional cleaning people.

Another cleaning tip for showers is to be sure to use a squeegee to wipe down the walls and the floor after you shower. The goal is to remove as much water as possible from the surfaces. Water is part of the recipe for mildew and mold growth. It’s best to actually use a second older towel to wipe down the shower surfaces drying them as you dried your skin. Keep the shower door open or the shower curtain pulled back after you leave the bathroom. You want the shower to dry as rapidly as possible.

How To Mop a Floor

I was taught how to mop a floor when I was fourteen years old. It's not hard to do, but many people do it wrong. Here's how to get amazing results.

Step 1. Sweep the floor to get up all loose debris and grit.

Step 2. Get a traditional string mop that doesn't have a bound bottom like you see some janitors use.

Step 3. Fill the mop bucket with clean soapy water. Get the mop saturated with the water. Squeeze out excess water.

Step 4. Spin the mop like an amusement park ride as you put it on the floor. The strings of the mop should be radiating out from the center of the mop handle.

Step 5. Use sideways back and forth motion about four-feet wide pulling the mop closer to you.

Step 6. Put the mop back into the bucket, swish it around and repeat steps 3 through 5.

Step 7. Change the water frequently as soon as it appears murky and filthy.

Step 8. Rinse the floor with clear water and change this water out too as it gets filthy. Trust me, it will because while the floor SEEMS CLEAN, it's not.

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