Make Commercial Tile Look New Again

Ideally, my kitchen would not come complete with white, ceramic tile flooring. More over, my dream kitchen would be void of flooring which possesses whatsoever porous characteristics (crevices if you will), and that has been neglected for God knows how long. But since I accept not yet won the lottery, I had to make the best of the situation. Today I am going to show yous the nigh effective way I have found to clean muddy, textured tile flooring that has been neglected.

When we moved into our fixer upper, it had been vacant for some fourth dimension. I am not quite sure how long, merely long plenty to house some fallen leaves, critters and your basic yuckiness that comes with neglected home syndrome. I did notice the kitchen floors were dirty, just assumed a adept mopping would solve the trouble…..nope!

Here is what the floors looked like.

Not just was in that location years worth of filth (and our house was built in 1986), but information technology besides became apparent that grout had been smeared all over the white tiles and that the grout lines were nowhere virtually precise.

If it wouldn't have been for a serial of sh*t sandwiches that this house already served us during the renovation procedure, we would have ripped that mess up and started from scratch. But friends, the budget has vanished into thin air. Luckily, a little elbow grease and harsh chemicals made everything amend (well, make clean at to the lowest degree: f**k white, textured flooring when you have pets and rugrats. It is nowhere nearly practical).

Let me prove you how I made our filthy tile floor like new over again.

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Materials for Cleaning Filthy Dingy Tile Floor

tile cleaner (I used this ane)
scrub castor
safe gloves
mop
grout pigment (I used this one)
old toothbrush (note: if your grout lines are smaller, you may need to use a small craft, paint brush)
paper towels or rags

Typically, I tend to lean on the granola side of the spectrum when purchasing dwelling and beauty products , but I knew I was going to accept to get into hardcore, industrial-strength style if I wanted to clean up not only the dirt, but the grout haze; and my normal regimen of lavender infused vinegar merely wasn't going to cut information technology.

Note: I was a moron and worked on the grout lines before scrubbing the floors to remove the dirt and grout haze. So if the pictures are confusing (yous will see dirt in the crevices on my progress photos, but make clean-looking grout lines…that is why). Please don't be as moronic as I was…I will arraign it on mommy encephalon.

Stride i: Working in small-scale sections, I literally just poured a small amount of the tile cleaner directly onto the floor, and with a crude scrub brush, which I dampened with water, scrubbed in a circular movement. Working up a lather, the dirt and grout remnants began to magically dissipate….it was and then freaking fulfilling!!! I worked section by department.

The best thing almost this tile cleaner is that it didn't have an scent. However, I was certain to article of clothing rubber gloves and worked on the project while my petty ones were in Mother's 24-hour interval out. Information technology was a bit of a pain removing the lather from the production solitary, but if information technology delivers effective results…I don't listen.

**Let me also note that this tile cleaner may non be suitable for all types of flooring. Nevertheless, I can say it worked wonders on this white, ceramic tile. **

Footstep 2: Later on scrubbing and removing the dirt, I cleaned the production off with a wet mop. Voila!

Step 3: Next were the grout lines to tackle. Using this grout product and an old toothbrush, I simply painted the white colour back onto the grout lines. If your grout lines are tighter, yous may demand to use a pocket-size, craft paint brush to apply the production. It took me almost 2.five hours to complete the entire kitchen, simply it dramatically brightened up the space.

Tip: Continue a damp rag handy just in case you go out of the lines.

(Run across what I mean about the confusion of the progress photograph above- with some clean grout lines yet muddied floors? My crazy kiddos take depleted the bulk of my brain matter Distressing!.)

And don't even become me started on what an ordeal information technology was just to keep my floors make clean long enough to take these "afterward" photos. For some reason, my 18-month-old has determined the best way to communicate that he is done with his meal, is by dumping his entire plate of nutrient onto the flooring (like… every…single…repast…without fail, friends).

And so my advice to you (particularly if you take pets and children) is to never install white, textured tile flooring. But, if that is what yous are stuck with, y'all can make them look like new with a trivial elbow grease.

****Update iv-24-xviii*** Okay, guys…I have some follow up news for you regarding my kitchen floors. While this cleaning method was highly effective at giving my old tile floors a fresh, new look, the trouble is that the tiles and grout volition somewhen go muddy again. I basically decided that white tiles and white grout are simply besides high-maintenance for my dirty life (pets, kids, sheer laziness). So, I decided to install luxury vinyl tile directly over my former ceramic tile, and OMG….I honey the stuff! You can click hither for the full tutorial on how I did it.

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