Porcelain tiles that streak, etch and scratch

[Mikey P]

My fellow hard surface gurus and I are getting more and more calls from cleaners who are experiencing all sorts of strange issues while cleaning modern porcelain tile.

Odd streaks or splotchieness or water marking showing up when dried
Etching from acids
SCRATCHING...

Mark Saiger did some recent testing on a selection of tiles from Home Depot and came up with some great observations:

DONT LET YOUR HIGH PH CLEANER DRY ON THE TILE BEFORE YOU RINSE IT
Test your acids, if you have to use them on the grout.
Run an acid rinse (pH 4-4.5) at all times
Some tiles appear to have coatings on them that are not mush more than a layer of VCT wax.
Factory applied slip resistant coatings/treatments are the culprit.
Teflon wand Glides can indeed scratch Porcelain.
Stay under 10pH if possible.

Hers is what a dried high pH pre-spray can cause, which buffing with an acid cleaner fixed. (recleaning would not...)

 

[todg]

All man-made tiles are not the same. Some tiles have different coatings and sheens. Other man-made tiles have naturally raised and lower impressions that grab grease and grime. I find your chemical is important and possibly could be a problem with some materials. The proper inspection helps prior to beginning your job! Starting with alkaline should be the norm. The other equation I run into most is what pre-existing chemicals are used? Fact-finding may help you discover alkaline chemicals ain't gonna do crap on people who use daily filming and coating products like "Swiffer"... I also think that I see a lot of folks "misting chemicals" versus "spraying chemicals" I recommend a damper floor to prevent drying...I can cover approx. 1000 SF at a time...The dwell time of the chemical raises your dirt and grime to the top...I use a "Teflon ring" under my turbo for the last 20 years...I can't remember the last time I scratched porcelain tile. I also would say not all tile and grout cleaning jobs need anywhere the required solution as labeled on products! More than 50% of my jobs could be "hot steamed" cleaned with a very little chemical added to your pre-spray...Especially if you're a turbo hybrid user...Watch your overall amount of chemicals you add as hazing or residue buildup could occur.

 

[Mikey P]

I also would say not all tile and grout cleaning jobs need anywhere the required solution as labeled on products! More than 50% of my jobs could be "hot steamed" cleaned with a very little chemical added to your pre-spray..

Agreed, especially common on your repeat "maintenance" clients... AND the same goes with the amount of PSI pressure needed to cleaned maintained floors.

Too any Hard Surface Professionals rely on insanely high pressure to get grout cleaned rather then letting dwell time and some manual or mechanical agitation to get the job done.


That's where the GreenBrushGlide comes in, which is designed to (quickly) work at a nice safe 400psi on just about any hard floor.

 

[srosen]

Strange issues file-read some articles about optical hazing of porcelain tiles- You may have run into this already but important to know what its about-

TILE Magazine | Stone World

Stone World is for production/use of natural stone & quartz surfacing, covering stone fabrication, quarrying, large-scale processing, architecture & trends.

www.tile-magazine.com

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Agreed, especially common on your repeat "maintenance" clients... AND the same goes with the amount of PSI pressure needed to cleaned maintained floors.

Too any Hard Surface Professionals rely on insanely high pressure to get grout cleaned rather then letting dwell time and some manual or mechanical agitation to get the job done.


That's where the GreenBrushGlide comes in, which is designed to (quickly) work at a nice safe 400psi on just about any hard floor.

Ancient History Story:

Back when tile and grout floors were just beginning to become popular, there wasn't much in the way of industry specific tools and chemicals available. What we used back then were hard surface wands, most commonly one made by Steamway and another by Production Metal Forming. These were essentially carpet wands with brush heads. Since we didn't have the nuclear grout cleaners we have today, we often used stone care products, which were not nearly so aggressive as the products we used today.

The interesting thing was this:

The grout cleaned up very nicely. Yes, there were onces that needed to be nuked and prescrubbed, but for the most part mildly alkaline cleaners and 400 psi was just fine for many jobs.

I think that we'll see a trend toward using the tools and products that the surface and soil level demand (much like we do on carpet) on hard surface floors as well in the future.

 

[Josh Almanza]

Is this happening on the new porcelain coming out recently on newer home builds? Or is this happening on older homes with older tiles?

 

[Mikey P]

Is this happening on the new porcelain coming out recently on newer home builds? Or is this happening on older homes with older tiles?

New, 3 years or less