CLEANING TILE FLOORS


 

When using bleach or other harsh chemicals, you may want to consider wearing protective gloves. Also, never mix cleaning chemicals. If you clean with bleach or other harsh chemicals, be sure the area is well-rinsed and has air dryed before cleaning that area with another cleaner.

Tile floors are a handsome way to brighten the decor of your home, and provide a sturdy floor covering at the same time. Tiles are usually sealed with glaze, much like a potter's glaze, giving them their beautiful shine and making them virtually unbreakable. If protected, cared for, and cleaned properly, tiles can stay looking like new for many years.Simply clean them regularly, avoid dust and grit, and your tiles will look like new for years to come! After the tiles have been laid, see to it that they are sealed with the correct sealant. The manufacturer will recommend the correct sealant to use.

Many people want to polish their tiles or put treatment oils on them to make them extra shiny. Do this only if you have very good insurance or you don't ever intend to walk on the tiles. Oils and polishes make the floor dangerously slick, even for someone with rubber soled shoes. Oils also cause the tiles to attract dirt, thus making them extremely difficult to keep clean.

It is not difficult to clean tiled floors, but you should clean them regularly so that they don't lose their original luster and stains don't become permanent. If liquid spills on your tile floor, it should be wiped up immediately. The grout is porous and will absorb any liquids that are left to soak on it. So, to prevent your grout from become discolored and deeply stained, clean up spills quickly.

Before wet-cleaning your floor, you should sweep up or vacuum any loose dirt or food crumbs that are on the surface paying particular attention to corners. This will prevent scuffing the surface of your tile. Scratches in the tile's glaze will lead to dullness. Scratches also trap dirt which in turn causes future cleanings to become more difficult.

CLEANING GROUT ON FLOORS AND COUNTERS

When using bleach or other harsh chemicals, you may want to consider wearing protective gloves. Also, never mix cleaning chemicals. If you clean with bleach or other harsh chemicals, be sure the area is well-rinsed and has air dryed before cleaning that area with another cleaner.

Cleaning the grout on floors may require the use of elbow grease and a toothbrush or heavy wire brush instead of a sponge or cloth. Many of the same products can be used to clean grout no matter where it's located. No matter where you're cleaning, be sure to wear eye protection to protect against splashing and rubber gloves to protect your skin.

If the area to be cleaned isn't too dirty, you may be able to remove the dirt using just a sponge. Dampen walls or floors with a sponge or mop and sprinkle some baking soda onto the grout. Let this sit for about an hour and scrub with a toothbrush or other scrubbing tool such as a scouring pad (don't use a cheap pad or grout will take on the color of pad) or wire bristle brush. Rinse with water.
If your grout is in good condition but just needs a little freshening in certain areas, rub a freshly cut lemon half over the area. Squeezing some fresh cut lemon juice into a cup of water and scrubbing with a toothbrush will also whiten the grout. Rinse with water.

Moderately Dirty Grout
Make a paste with 3 cups of baking soda and one cup of water. Apply to the grout and let sit. Sponge away and rinse clean with water.

Sprinkle some baking soda onto the grout and spritz a little undiluted vinegar on top of that. Let this solution fizz for a while. After about 30 minutes, wipe clean, or scrub with a toothbrush if necessary. Your grout should look much cleaner and brighter. Rinse with water.

Dirty Grout
Make a paste of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Apply paste to grout, let sit for at least 30 minutes and scrub with a toothbrush if necessary. Rinse with water.

 Mix 1 gallon of water with ¾ cup of bleach. Dip a toothbrush or scrub brush into the bleach solution and scrub. Let sit for a few minutes and rinse with water.

Pour hydrogen peroxide straight from the bottle onto the grout. Let sit for ten minutes and scrub. Rinse with water.

If your bathroom is well ventilated, try this solution: Mix one cup of bleach to one cup of baking soda, this should make a paste. Apply the paste to the offending grout and scrub with a toothbrush or other scrubbing tool. Wearing rubber gloves is a good idea for this project. Once the grout is cleaned, rinse with water.

For Colored Grout
Pour vinegar over dirty grout and let sit for a few minutes before scrubbing. This works best for colored grout. Rinse with water. To protect your colored grout, do not use ammonia-based cleaners as these can discolor the pigments in colored grout. You can also protect your floor with a silicone grout sealer.

Sealing Grout
Grout should be sealed every 2-3 years after a thorough cleaning since it is a porous material that will absorb moisture and dirt, which will increase mold and mildew growth. Sealers can be professional applied or you can do it yourself with product from a local home or hardware store.

Chaulking
Bleach and rubbing alcohol seem to work well on removing stains from caulk that is around the seams of showers and tubs. Hardware and Home stores carry a wide array of tools and accessories that may make the clean-up of your bathroom and grout more easily. Many of these items are shaped and designed for a specific cleaning purpose.

CLEANING WINDOWS

When using bleach or other harsh chemicals, you may want to consider wearing protective gloves. Also, never mix cleaning chemicals. If you clean with bleach or other harsh chemicals, be sure the area is well-rinsed and has air dryed before cleaning that area with another cleaner.

If you are going to clean your windows with Vinegar for the first time, you need to add an extra ingredient to help clean the residue left over from commercial products you have used in the past.
2 cups of water
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap
Combine in a spray bottle, spray on and wipe.

Normal dirt
Removed any waxy residue with the liquid soap formula, you can begin using a diluted white vinegar solution for normal dirt.
1 cup white distilled vinegar
1 cup water
Combine in a spray bottle, spray and wipe.

Very dirty
 Extra dirty windows, or windows with dried paint or hard-water mineral spots, try warming up full-strength white distilled vinegar and applying it directly to the windows.

What to wipe with?
To avoid streaks it’s important to dry the window as quickly as possible once you have cleaned it. Many normal cleaning cloths can leave a small flurry of lint. Paper towels are lint-free, but are too wasteful. Newspaper–it is lint-free, and the texture of the crumpled paper can work well on grime. But the ink smudges your white window frames or sills, you’ll need something else. Squeegees are good because you only need one towel to wipe and they really do conquer streaks once you have the technique mastered. Microfiber cleaning cloths work well on windows.

Cleaning Wood Floors

CLEANING HARDWOOD FLOORS

When using bleach or other harsh chemicals, you may want to consider wearing protective gloves. Also, never mix cleaning chemicals. If you clean with bleach or other harsh chemicals, be sure the area is well-rinsed and has air dryed before cleaning that area with another cleaner.

If your home has old or new wood floors, it is important to care for them to increase durability and enhance their potential for long-lasting wear. But no matter how well you take care of them every few years you may need to have them refinished, complete with sanding and polishing. But, detailed cleaning is important to help them look good and last long.

Start by clearing everything off the floor. It is best to move furniture to another room. Pick small objects, like coins or paper clips. Sweep the room free of dust and debris. It may be better to use a dust mop to clear the floor's surface.

Next, take several rag and moisten it slightly to attack the corners of the room. Wipe along each edge, back and forth repeatedly to the corner, to remove the buildup of dust and dirt. As it becomes loose, you can take a another damp cleaning cloth to wipe away the debris.

Do the same thing for the wood molding around the areas where your hardwood floors meet the walls of the room. Get into the grooves and crevices of your molding to remove dust and other junk that has accumulated over time.

Keep an eye out for stains, spots, or stuck-on substances. Use a mild solution of wood floor cleaner to work on the concentrated stains. You may need to dribble  the solution on the spot and let it set for several minutes. Don't leave it too long as it could lighten or damage the wood. Remove the solution with a clean sponge or soft cloth.


If you find gum, asphalt, or other sticky substances, use a putty knife to carefully loosen it. Avoid scraping the floor to hard. Work it gently, taking up a little at a time if the entire piece will not come up as a single unit. Check the floor to be sure it isn't damaged or stained underneath the substance.

Use a clean mop and fresh water made of a regular concentration of wood soap and water. Go over the floor once, taking extra time with spots or stains that remain. You may need to change your water and go over the floor a second time. Use a cloth to wipe clean the moldings and corners.


Use a matching color of furniture polish or brown wax to fill in chinks or scratches that have erupted in the wood. Use a minute amount, and use a small sponge or cloth to blend the color into the surrounding area. This will not repair wood damage, but it will help conceal it until the next sanding or refinishing job.

Finally, apply the right type of floor wax for your hardwood finish. Check the package directions to be sure it will fit your floor. Use the right amount, avoiding more than necessary to prevent slippage or injuries from the waxed surface.


Go over the moldings again with a clean, damp cloth to remove any splashed soap stains or residual dust. Ventilate the room well, keeping people and pets from walking on it until completely dry. When you are done, the floor may look as though it were newly installed. 

Products that I now avoid

Grout Bully

These following photo's are from a tile counter top that I did using a Product called "Grout Bully." I found this in Rite Aid Pharmacy.
It claims "As seen on TV" but I had never seen it on tv before.

As you can see it claims to Clean, Renew and Redesigns grout on contact.
It was only $9.99, so let's give it a try.

"Grout Bully come with a bottle of grout whitening fluid with applicator and two sponges. You are only to use to orange side of the sponge

           

Here are two sections of the countertop wiped down and before "Grout Bully" is applied.

                                                             

                                                                After "Grout Bully"

What you can't tell by the photo's is that "Grout Bully" requires a lot of clean-up. The center of the applicator has a hard plastic tube, the applicator itself is larger than a shoe polish applicator. When applying to small grout lines there is a lot of waste. It may take 2 or 3 (in some areas it took more) applications with drying time in between each coat. 

Wait until you are completely done befor you use the sponges. If you wipe up before grout is completely dry, you will remove all of the grout, even in areas you don't want to. 

Once you are completely done, don't put large amounts of water on the counter for 2 weeks. We got around this by putting down plastic.

 After a month, this started to happen:

It's starting to wash off.

Windex Outdoor All In One