How To Clean Rough Floor Tiles (4 Quick Steps)

When your rough floor tile starts to age, dirt and debris become deeply embedded in the tile’s intricate design or texture.

The dirt acts like sandpaper to the flooring, causing scratches and scuff marks. To prevent this and keep your floor looking its best, you need to know how to clean rough floor tiles, which is what this article will teach you.

How To Clean Rough Floor Tiles

Cleaning rough floor tiles might pose a little challenge because the texture and grout provide crevices in which dirt can become embedded. 

You could hire a professional cleaning service to clean your stone tiles, or you can do so yourself and save your money. 

Follow these procedures on how to clean your rough floor tiles:

See Also: How To Clean Non-Slip Flooring

1. Clean The Tile Floors

Your first line of action would be to clean the floor with a broom or vacuum cleaner. When using a vacuum, be sure to detach the beater bar before using it to avoid dulling and scratching the tiles. 

2. Mop The Floors

With a solution of 1 cup vinegar combined with 1-gallon hot water, mop the floor and allow it to dry completely before proceeding with the cleaning. 

And depending on the state of your floor, the cleaning solution may do an adequate job of cleaning your floors, and you won’t need additional cleaning procedures.

The best mop to clean stone tile floors is one that is built to get into all the grooves of the tiles. A very firm mop may not get you that thorough cleaning you desire.

3. Using Homemade Natural Tile Cleaner

Make a homemade natural tile cleaner by combining baking soda with water to form a paste that should be about the same consistency as toothpaste.

Baking soda is a mild abrasive, which scours and cleans a variety of surfaces without scratching them. 

The amount of baking soda and water you need to create this cleaner depends on how large the area you are cleaning is. 

Apply a generous amount of the paste over your tile and inside the grout, particularly in areas with heavy soil, and allow it to dry.

Next, dilute 1 cup of vinegar with hot water, and spray on the floor over the layer of baking soda paste and allow to sit for 15 minutes.

Afterward, go in with a bucket of 1 cup vinegar diluted with 1-gallon hot water to scrub the floor using a scrub brush, giving the dirtiest areas more attention. 

You can also sprinkle more baking soda in some places and give it a good scrub for the stain to come off clean. For hard to reach areas like the grout lines, use an old toothbrush to reach between them.

Give the floor a final wipe down with a mop and hot water to rinse the surface before drying the entire floor with a towel to remove any moisture and give the floor an extra shine.

4. Steam Cleaning

Start by using a vacuum cleaner to clean the floor and remove dust, lint, and debris from the surface. 

Cleaning your floor first before using a steam mop ensures you get an efficiently clean house. 

You can also give the space a quick sweep with a broom if you don’t have time to vacuum.

Fit a microfiber pad on your steam mop; these pads are washable and reusable. Most steam mops usually come with a couple of microfiber pads. 

Swap out the pads periodically as you clean, depending on how dirty your floor is. For lightly dirty surfaces, you may be able to use one pad to clean one large room or two smaller rooms.

Now starting from one end of the room, begin cleaning with the steam mop. You need to wear socks as you clean and only walk on sections of the floor that haven’t been cleaned. 

When using a steam mop, do not hold it in one place for too long, as the heat could damage or crack the tiles, even though this is not a common occurrence. 

Move the mop slowly and steadily in front of you while you walk backward, using broad, sweeping strokes. 

When you are done cleaning the entire floor surface, leave it to dry for 5 to 10 minutes. Steam mops do not leave behind too much moisture, so the floor doesn’t take long to dry. 

Your rough floor tiles are clean at this point and even disinfected to some degree; this depends on how hot the surface got during cleaning.

See Also: How To Distress Hardwood Floors

Conclusion

The process of cleaning rough floor tiles isn’t much different than that of regular tiles. 

You can decide to wet mop the floor with a natural cleaner containing vinegar or steam mop the floor for a better result.

I am hopeful this article on how to clean rough floor tiles was helpful to you. Now let us actually get cleaning!