Tile and stone floors are an attractive and popular choice for many facilities. With the right care and maintenance, they can last a long time, but bringing in a professional to handle their cleaning goes a long way.

Floor care expert Dane Gregory, an approved technician and IICRC instructor for the Floor Care Technician and Stone, Masonry, and Ceramic Tile Technician classes, told Cleanfax Insider what cleaning technicians need to know about maintaining tile and stone and what they can do to extend the lifespan of this type of flooring.

The biggest technical challenge when it comes to maintaining these floors, says Gregory, is that customers often wait too long before calling a professional for cleaning and maintenance, so the soil load is significant. Also, many facility managers or in-house cleaning teams may have cleaned tile and stone floors with a household cleaner for years, which can leave a detergent residue that attracts even more soils. As household cleaners are not pH neutral, they need thorough rinsing after cleaning.

Meanwhile, the soil buildup can be even more pronounced in the grout, which is not of the same texture as the tiles, attracts soils, and releases them very differently. The use flat tools in an attempt to combat this can actually driving dry soils into the grout. Adding water from a spray mop afterward creates mud in the grout joints, making cleaners’ jobs more difficult when they finally do arrive.

Cleaners can make routine services easier by substituting a broom for a dust mop to reach the low-lying area of the grout, removing dry soils before they get wet and become difficult to get rid of. Clients can also use a proper neutral cleaner during regular cleaning to keep detergent residue from attracting additional soils.

As well as initial maintenance and routine maintenance of these floors, restoration maintenance may be needed when the soils on the flooring get out of hand and when either routine or interim maintenance can no longer remove them. Implementing lower production rates, combined with strong detergents and large amounts of water, are usually needed to completely remove the soils.

First, evaluate the flooring for damage before you begin maintenance, assessing the current condition, characteristics, installation issues, and any damaged areas. Then, use high-quality products for all maintenance. Often, good neutral cleaner and heavy scrubbing are all that is needed. Be sure to match the detergent to the soil load.

Finally, if using pressure tools, make sure that the flooring can handle the amount of pressure you plan to use. Too much water added into the mix ratio during installation can cause immediate and future problems as it can create a large pore structure, allowing liquids to penetrate more easily and deeper than in proper installations.

Read Gregory’s full assessment here.