Help I've made it worse!

[TheBodyPiercer]

Hi, we've recently acquired a property with very dirty and vintage tiles.

I've tried to clean them today and what looks like a hundred years worth of nicotine has poured out and stained them yellow!

They now look worse than before. Does anyone have experience in cleaning these up.

Hopefully from the pic you can see the ones I've "cleaned" and the ones I haven't.

Thanks

Oh God! What a big job.
Has it actually stained? The tiles would, I imagine, have to be porous to stain. I think I would pour a lot of neat bleach along the top row then, when gravity starts letting it drip, I would gently swirl the bleach all over the tiles from top to bottom and leave it to work for an hour or two before wiping a sopping wet mop over it. Rinse & dry & see how it looks.

Try Elbow Grease spray on them, not bleach.

Well they were white albeit dirty. I sprayed with mould and mildew spray on the recommendations of another forum and immediately upon spraying they turned yellow.

I rinsed off quickly and have since been scrubbing with a brush, magic erasers, pink stuff to no avail

Did you use HG mould spray? It does say in the label to do a test area because old or poorly glazed tiles can turn yellow or brown. I am sure it is on the label. It also should tell you how to remove it. I don't have any in at the moment so can't check. But check the label.

Was the mould spray bleach based? I've had similar happen to a very old white kitchen counter top that was so old it became porous. I sprayed the silicone on the edge with mould spray and the counter turned yellow! I googled it and it's common with bleach and porous surfaces. Hydrogen peroxide fixes it. Just spray it on and leave it for a bit before rinsing off. I needed to do mine 3 times and it wasn't as yellow as your tiles so I imagine you will need to repeat the process a few times! You can buy the hydrogen peroxide from Amazon.

Sugar soap?

Hi everyone

It was method mould and mildew spray. This particular area was the worst damaged and they are probably quite porous in this section.

I was going to try vinegar and bicarb first. I'm scared to try much else for fear of making them worse!

If you use sugar soap, start at the bottom and work up.

I'd try rubbing alcohol.

Would steaming them help?