Tips for Choosing a Tile Cleaning Company That Knows Your Tile

Most advice about choosing a contractor is generic: check reviews, get quotes, ask about insurance. That's covered in our checklist of factors to consider when choosing a tile cleaning company. This post answers a narrower question, and it's the one that decides whether your tile gets cleaned or damaged: does this company know how to handle the specific tile in your home? Start with your floor, not the company.

Tip 1: Know What's on Your Floors

Southwest Florida homes have a wide mix of tile. Newer subdivisions in Parrish and Lakewood Ranch lean toward large-format porcelain. Older Bradenton and Sarasota homes may have glazed ceramic, terrazzo-look tile or saltillo. Condo baths on the barrier islands may have marble or travertine. Many homes have three or four types under one roof.

Walk through your house and make a quick list: what's in the kitchen, the entry, each bathroom floor and each shower. Our guide to bathroom tile types shows what each one looks like, and a good company will confirm it during the estimate.

How to Identify Your Tile in 2 Minutes

You don't need special tools for a first guess:

1. Check an edge. Look at a cut piece near a wall or a chipped corner. Glazed ceramic shows a shiny top layer over a plain, often reddish or white body. Porcelain is dense and usually the same color through, or has a thin glaze. Stone shows veining, pits or layers that run through the whole piece.
2. Compare tiles. Porcelain made to look like stone repeats its pattern every few tiles. Real marble and travertine vary tile to tile.
3. Do a water-drop test. Put a few drops on the tile face in an out-of-the-way spot. If the tile darkens and the water soaks in within a few minutes, it's porous and unsealed or under-sealed, which is typical of saltillo and worn stone. Glazed tile and porcelain leave the drop beading on top.
4. Skip the acid test. You may read that a drop of lemon juice or vinegar will reveal stone. It will, by etching a dull spot into it. Don't try it on your floor.

Tip 2: Match the Company to the Material

Here's what each common tile type needs from a cleaning company, and what to listen for when you ask how they'd clean it.

Natural stone deserves the most caution

Marble, travertine and limestone are etched by acids, including vinegar, many bathroom cleaners and some grout cleaners. A company that uses one aggressive product for every floor can leave dull, etched patches on stone that cost far more to fix than the cleaning did. When you call, ask directly: "How does your process change for natural stone?" Vague answers are a warning sign.

Experience with stone shows up in how a crew talks about it. One of our customers put it this way:

"Today's Home Services with Shaun and his crew, he is very knowledgeable about tile and marble and your construction needs." — Michael Wojcik

Saltillo is its own category

Handmade Mexican tile is soft and porous, and its look depends on its sealer or finish. Cleaning it well means knowing whether to clean the existing finish or strip and refinish it, and how to do either without damaging the clay. Not every tile cleaner does this work regularly, so ask how many saltillo floors a company handles and what products it uses on them.

Porcelain is forgiving, but grout isn't

Porcelain tile can handle a lot. The grout between it is still cement-based in most homes, and acidic cleaners can weaken it over time. A company that understands grout types will choose products that clean the tile without eroding the joints.

Tip 3: Consider Where the Tile Is

Location matters as much as material.

• Showers and tub surrounds need detail work, mold and mildew treatment, and attention to caulked corners.
• Kitchen floors collect grease along cabinets and in traffic lanes.
• Entries and lanai thresholds collect sand, which scratches polished stone.
• Outdoor or pool-adjacent tile faces sun, chlorine and organic growth.

Ask whether the company's quote covers walls as well as floors, and how it handles each material in each area. A travertine shower and a porcelain kitchen in the same house may need two different approaches on the same day.

Tip 4: Look for Install and Repair Experience

A company that also installs tile and replaces grout tends to understand how these materials behave. It can tell you plainly when cleaning won't fix a problem, such as etching that needs honing or travertine fills that have washed out, and handle grout replacement or a tile repair without passing you to someone else.

Where to Go From Here

For the general evaluation checklist, see our factors to consider when choosing a tile cleaning company. If you clean between visits, our post on which cleaning products are safe on stone covers what to keep under the sink. Tell us what's on your floors, and we'll explain how we'd clean it during a free estimate.