Kitchen tiles show up wipe marks and everything else

[fizzy]

Not sure if anyone will have experienced this but thought I would ask just in case:

I have recently had a new kitchen fitted, and got the floor tiled with basic grey vitreous tiles from right price tiles.

I know nothing about tiles, but these ones are pretty average looking, they are 1ft square, completely smooth (no texture) and have a very subtle sheen (almost matt) rather than being shiny.

While there is still a fair bit of dust in the new kitchen, it seems impossible to get the floor tiles looking clean. If I wipe over them with hot water and a cloth, when they dry a few minutes later, I can see every cloth mark in them where the daylight hits the floor. Likewise, even clean feet leave similar markings.

So, the overall effect in daylight is as if you trampled all over it on a wet muddy day and let it dry out! Has anyone else experienced this with any tiles, and is there any particular cleaning method that could help?

A long shot I know, but I would appreciate any advice on this one... I'll have to live with it, but it lets the new kitchen down I thought I could not go too far wrong with tiles

 

[Sue Ellen]

You could try ringing Right Price Tiles and see what they can offer advice wise.

Would it be a problem of dust and grout still remaining on the tiles? If they are a light colour it may take quite some time to get this to wear off. I have used Santrax liquid for cleaning cement stains from floor tiles. It is very good but the smell is dreadful and very heavy. You would need to leave doors and windows open for a long time after using it. It can be bought in most hardware shops. It also stains metal such as the sink and needs to be used with gloves etc.

 

[fizzy]

Hi Sueellen,

Thanks so much for the quick reply and advice!

I am going to drop into Right Price tomorrow, although I doubt Daft Dave will have much to say on the matter! From googling, I am wondering if the tiles need sealer or something but the tiles don't look soaked when I wash them so I don't think the problem is that they are porous...

Fingers crossed, it might just be dust - God knows the worktops etc are still full of it. But if I wipe the worktop, it looks great, whereas regardless of what I do with the tiles, they look fine while they are wet, but once they dry out (which happens quickly) you see every wipe you made!

Maybe it's just a side effect of the basic tiles I bought? I did not want anything fancy, and found it hard to get light grey tiles. So when I saw them, I just bought them and they were not expensive. I don't remember them showing up finger marks etc before they went down. They just seemed like average tiles, although admittedly they were not being scrutinised as a bunch in bright daylight.

 

[Sue Ellen]

Forgot to mention if you do go ahead with the Santrax do a test on a small area first.

Hopefully Dave will give some good advice

 

[z107]

While there is still a fair bit of dust in the new kitchen, it seems impossible to get the floor tiles looking clean

I would say it's dust. After cleaning them, have you tried rubbing a finger along the surface and see if any dust collects on it?
When you're washing them, you're probably just spreading the dust around.

What else could it be?

(I must get some of that Santrax. Hopefully it will work with grout)

 

[Mouldy]

Its dust. It’s important to leave the tiles alone for around 48 hours to let everything dry and settle. Then, in the case of floor tiles, hoover the area, leave to settle, then hoover again. When wiping tiles, either floor or wall, use a DRY white cloth. A wet cloth simply mixes any grout dust floating around and streaks it over your tiles. A coloured cloth will stain the grout.

Hope this helps!

 

[fizzy]

Thanks for the replies. When I move my hand over the tiles no dust comes up at all. However, I am hopeful that I can fix them up. The guy in right price tiles figures it is grout that has been left on the tiles. Normal cleaning will not remove this, and he sold me a cement removing solution which I presume is something similar to Santrax.

I got the warnings that it was very strong stuff and an acid and hence he was on about ventilation, wearing proper gloves and he *kept* emphasisising that I should test it on a small area first. So, I tried scrubbing hard with hot water and cif yesterday first, but while I think this made it a little better which is a good sign, I better give the solution a go however wary I am of it! The bottle I have actually said it was for outdoor or heavy industrial use and they recommended another in the range for indoor tiles. So I might try and track one for internal tiles down first... Fingers crossed I will not stuff it up!

Thanks for the help. I will post back when I have an end result to let others know what worked for me.