Tips for Maintaining Tile Flooring This Winter
The winter weather can be beautiful, but not for our tile flooring. Snow, rock salt, mud, and other winter elements can cause lots of damage to the tile and grout in your flooring. These elements can cause dirt, build up, cracks, scratches and stains. It will take a little extra work with your tile cleaning and maybe some winter prep to ensure your flooring stays in good shape this winter. No need for any professionals to keep up with it, unless you desire, but everything can be done by you to ensure your flooring stays maintained. So in this article we will share some ways to help maintain and protect your tile flooring this winter and perform a thorough tile floor cleaning.
Easy Tips For Caring For Tile Floors
Routine Cleaning
Let’s start with the basics. Cleaning your tile flooring and cleaning grout will help keep it maintained. You should sweep at least every other day if not everyday. You should also keep up with mopping multiple times a week, including tackling the grout. Remember to use cleaning products that are safe for your flooring to avoid further damage. Using the wrong cleaning products can erode away your tile and grout making debris and dirt stick to it more. Realistically for everyday mopping you can just use water to remove dirt and debris. You also want to make sure you’re using the right mop. Don’t use anything too rough, especially if you’re planning on mopping frequently.
A tip for cleaning up rock salt residue is to use an acidic cleanser. Salt is alkaline so you have to use an acidic cleanser to balance it out and get all of the dull looking salt residue out of your flooring. During the winter especially, you should be keeping up with floor cleaning on a regular basis.
Protecting Your Tile Flooring This Winter
You’ll want to implement measures to protect your flooring this winter as well. You should do this in the beginning of the season so that there is no chance of damage once the snow starts rolling in. You should seal your flooring and grout to ensure that it doesn’t take too much damage. Sealing your flooring will help to prevent scratches and cracks brought by rock salt and heavy elements. It will also help you keep up with your cleaning by keeping everything surface level. You have the option of sealing your flooring yourself, or asking a professional to do it. Either way you will have a better chance of keeping up with your tile floors with a sealant.
Extra Tips
Another thing to pay attention to is just keeping the winter elements and debris outside. Whether you are cleaning ceramic tiles or cleaning travertine flooring this will also be the case. Take extra measures to clean your shoes before coming inside or take them off before coming inside. This will help maintain your tile flooring by trying to keep the dirt outside. It will also help you keep up with your routine cleaning.
A tip that can help save you is placing floor mats down. Floor mats help to protect high traffic areas in your home. This will keep the dirt, shoes and debris off of the actual flooring. Some places you might want to put a floor mat are in front of the front door, in front of the oven, or in front of the kitchen sink. A flood runner is perfect too for high traffic hallways.
Both of these tips will help maintain your tile flooring by keeping the dirt at bay. They will ensure that the winter weather stays outside, making your life so much easier when it comes to routine cleaning.
Conclusion
Maintaining your tile flooring isn’t difficult when you start from the basics. Keeping the dirt outside and being mindful of placing place mats or taking your shoes off before coming inside can help keep things at bay. Routine cleaning is an important part of maintaining your floors. Using the proper cleaning supplies can also help get rid of salt residue from rock salt during snow season. Protecting your flooring before the winter season starts by using a sealant will help you to avoid cracks and scratches. If you live in particularly cold and snowy climates, it might be worth it to invest in some of these tips.
Companies such as Carter’s Carpet Restoration offer tile cleaning services in El Dorado Hills and beyond. Take a look at their service areas here and reach out to Carter’s Carpet Restoration at your convenience.
Overall, with these tips, you won’t have any trouble maintaining your tile flooring this winter!