Floor tiles ingrained with years of dirt

[AnnPerkins]

Yuck yuck yuck! I've moved into a very mucky house and discovering the years of ingrained crud on the kitchen floor tiles has put the tin hat on it

I tried scrubbing with a scourer last night but it took half an hour to do two tiles and was absolutely knackering.

A colleague suggested I hire a steam cleaner. Is there one that will clean, disinfect and dry in one go?

Could I also use it on solid oak floors? I imagine they have their share of crud on them too

If they are ceramic tiles, I'd use a scrubbing brush and scouring powder with warm to hot water. No experience of steam mops, but I have scrubbed a couple of filthy floor clean.

Hire a floor buffer thingy?

What cleaning solution ate you using? I had to do a massive cleaning job when I moved into my house, and after trying the brand name stuff without much effect I went with a mix of hot water, white vinegar and a little dish detergent (like Fairy liquid). I let it sit on the surface for a little while, then scrubbed with a mop. It worked on the woods floors too, and I went over them again with a wood cleaner after a good rinse.

Make a paste with soap powder and warm water. Leave to soak, scrub and wipe.

Fairy power spray works wonders on stuff like this. Spray and leave for a while and then scrub as if your life depends on it!

A miracle worker on floir tiles, especially grout, is a paste made from bicarbonate of soda and water. But it does require a lor of elbow grease!
I have a steam mop but never think it does a particularly good job!

Have you got a drill? If you do you can buy stiff brushes that attach to the end of the drill - where the attachments go (look on amazon). Buy a really good stiff brush for the drill and scrub/buff it with that -saves a fortune on hiring a steam cleaner (which won’t shift the ingrained dirt) or a floor buffer thing.

Steam cleaner won’t touch the ingrained dirt, I’m afraid. Scrubbing brush, hot soapy water, and a paste of bio washing powder & bicarbonate sounds about right.

As a PP said- a thick paste of bicarbonate soda, then spray on white vinegar and scrub the grout with a nail brush. Clean with water and it'll look great!

Do you have a picture of the tiles that shows how porous they are?

Sugar soap.....

Thank you for so many replies. It's very disappointing that the steam cleaner isn't the magic solution I'm at work now so don't have a picture of the tiles, they have quite large pock marks which is where the crud has collected, especially along the edges.

I'm a big fan of white vinegar. DH and DS are away this weekend and I was planning to distribute it with abandon on taps and things anyway so I will try mathanxiety's solution first.

I still can't unsee the squashed black thing I had to chisel out of the door jamb Don't know what it was before it met its end many years ago but it had legs

I have a stone floor in my kitchen and stupidly got the builders to grout using a cream grout. Should have gone for dark grey.. anyhow I bought a karcher steam cleaner - not a mop but just use the wee stiff brush attachment to go over the grout lines. It does work but I’m not sure a mop would. Hope that makes sense.

What sort of tiles? I have terracotta and get a solution to clean them, it absolutely lifts the dirt. Then I mop on a terracotta polish and floors like new after a quick buff.

Use power spray and it'll will easily get rid of the old dark dirt.

I second Sugar Soap - amazing stuff. You can buy it in powder form and add to hot water or ready made in a spray.

7 cups of water
1/2 cup bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup lemon juice (bottled from supermarket doesn't need to be fresh)
1/4 cup vinegar

Put it all together and spray onto grout lines, leave a few minutes then a quick scrub with a grout cleaning brush and rinse with clean water.

I think I disagree. I've used a steam mop on ingrained dirt and it was great. You do have to be quite vigorous with it, it's not like it'll come up by swishing it over but better than scrubbing on hands and knees.

Hire an expert cleaner and save yourself from looking what best liquid works best. It'll also save you heck of a time and energy.

Sugar Soap. Get it form a builders merchants or a DIY shop.

A spray called Elbow Grease can get it from most supermarkets for £1 and it's amazing stuff!
Was recommended on another thread for cleaning floors so I gave it a try, sprayed it on the floor left for about 5 minutes then wiped off and the difference in the colour of my floor was amazing!! (I didn't realise it was quite that dirty)
If it's very ingrained you may need to give it a bit of a scrub as you wipe it off but definately worth giving it a try.

Magic erasers might work on the tiles if not super porous, but you might be looking at some sort of thick bleach solution and several scrubbing brushes unfortunately.

If they're porcelain a pumice stone is actually pretty good, are the pock marks chips or just tile design?

Get back get back everyone - here is the answer....

Get yourself a Vax like this model and you can also purchase from vax a wet floor hydro head

I would throw a dilute mix of washing up liquid and a teeny blob of bleach down and scrub with a broom, then suck it all up.

Do it as many times as it needs. I've not done it on your floor scale as such but I do it on my own once a week!

Do the same on the oak floor but with a wood floor cleaner - I got mine in supermarket.

Deck scrubber, scrub on plenty of bleach solution, leave for 45 mins, quick scrub then mop over, works for me.