Cleaning rough stone kitchen tiles

[StillNotANewUser]

Over the summer we had our kitchen re-done, and our porcelain tiles were replaced with a rough natural sandstone.

I hadn’t appreciated what a complete pain in the arse this would make cleaning - they are uneven and rough so my beloved Bissell crosswave fails miserably. Currently I have to scrub them manually to lift the dirt up then wipe up the excess water with a cloth. It takes hours to do the approx 10sqm properly due to the amount of scrubbing needed to get out the ingrained dirt.

Tiles have been properly sealed and aren’t stained, just dirty.

Any tips to make this quicker or easier? I need to do it more frequently because having a grimy floor really stresses me out - I like it spotless!

What about trying a traditional mop and bucket

Ours are rough and I deck scrub like a mad woman.. this only works if you don’t have a lovely cream carpet that joins on and you really like washing towels. Our full downstairs is hard floors so I won’t get water into a carpet.. if I had my way we’d also have had a floor drain.

Literally I soak the floor with hot soapy water, whatever soapy stuff I like mostly fairy/zoflora mix, and use a hard plasticy broom (deck scrub brush on eBay not wire bristles) and scrub like a mad woman then I go back over it with a dry clean mop and bucket to soak up as much as humanly possible and lastly penguin waddle with towels to make sure it’s as dry as I can have it.
I also stick a towel rolled like a sausage at the door way into the front room to minimise the spread, but it’s hard and concrete underneath so it won’t damage anything

Dp just mops and calls me mad.

@Lunafortheloveogod thank you! That’s just the sort of idea I was looking for, we’ve also got hard floors throughout downstairs so throwing down a load of water isn’t a big deal and definitely quicker than my method of doing 1 tile then soaking it up etc etc.

After spending far too long in the early hours looking at scrubbing brushes (night feeds) I amazoned a cordless electric rotary brush. This evening I put soapy water on the floor, used the brush, then pulled up most of the water with my wet vacuum and used a towel to wipe over the grout and any damp corners I couldn’t get into and it looks great plus took about 30 minutes not 3 hours!!

OK - I have a rough stone floor. Moved in 2008. Was mucky. Just always looked dirty despite scrubbing. Had professionally cleaned and sealed. A bit better but disappointed as the guy said from the off 'that that and that over there will never come out.'
Have steam cleaned it every Saturday without fail for three years now.
Sanitises but always unhappy with it.
Bought some cleaner recommended on here. Big effort but not much improvement.
UNTIL TODAY....
Have a Polti Vaporetto machine. Very good. Wife used the bare nozzle. Very very close like ballpoint pen close. And by golly it was like pressure washing. Removing the decades of ingrained dirt.
Big sack of Amazon microfibre cloths to hand. The £16 bag!
Massive improvement. Had bifolds wide open to let the steam escape.
Massive massive win.
This will be the summer job as soon as it warms up. Slow and steady blasting away the dirt that NOTHING else has lifted. And believe you me I've tried.
When it's super cleaned. Then I will use the cleaner and sealer, but not before.
I hope this advice can help someone else.
If you get a kick from pressure washing then this is the same....
and no chemicals - as "Sully says...cleaning with the power of steam!"
(depends how much you watch informercials there!)

Anonymous1419 which model Polti Vaporetti do you have? Our floors are just as you describe yours.

eco pro 3.0

I know this post is a month old, but StillNotANewUser we are looking at sandstone for our new kitchen/living/dining. It's so beautiful but we have kids (older so I'm not as worried about them) and a dog and I'm worried about upkeep. How has your floor been?