After finishing tiling your floor or wall, you’ll have to clean the dust and residues to avoid some stains which will be hard to remove later on.
Here’s how to clean your newly installed tiles.
You’ll need:
- Hydrochloric acid
- Maintenance product for tiling/Alkaline detergent
- Sponge
- Gloves
- Cloth
- Bucket
- Water
Clean the adhesive mortar
The best solution when you want to avoid stains of mortar on new tiles is to clean gradually. In other words, take care of the stains when you’re laying down the tiles.
If that’s not doable, clean the floor once you’ve put everything down, but before the mortar dries up.
When you’re laying the tiles:
- Remove traces of adhesive mortar on the tiles with a damp sponge that you’ll rinse frequently. It is important to rinse the sponge as you go to avoid leaving traces of mortar (difficult to remove once dry).
- Run a dry cloth over the tiles to remove any leftover and dry the floor.
- Don’t press the tiles until the adhesive mortar is completely dry.
Clean the grout
Once you’ve grouted the new tiles, you’ll also need to clean leftover traces.
- Wait until the seal begins to take before cleaning the surplus.
- Use a damp cloth to remove the grout stains on your tiles. Rinse the sponge often.
- Dry the floor with a clean cloth.
Remove white marks (cement veil)
In some cases, white streaks called “cement veil” appear around the joints once they are dry. It is a mixture of water and fine cement particles that rise to the surface.
You can clean these traces with a special product to remove the veil or a mixture of water and hydrochloric acid.
Specialty product
If you’re using a specific cement cleaner:
- Divide the product on the floor with a sponge.
- Scrub with a brush until stains have been removed.
- Rinse and let dry.
Hydrochloric acid
If you’re using a mix of water and hydrochloric acid, wear household gloves.
- Mix water and acid in the following proportions: 1/4 of hydrochloric acid to 3/4 of water.
- Always pour the acid into the water and not vice versa.
- Scrub with a sponge or a brush.
- Once the tracks removed, rinse the floor with clean water.