Tile maintenance: how to keep your tiles looking new
11 August 2025 · 4 min read
Most tiled floors are ruined by cleaning products, not by wear. Here is what to use and what to keep well away.
Use the right cleaner
A pH-neutral tile cleaner is all a porcelain or ceramic floor ever needs. Acidic cleaners (including many limescale removers) etch natural stone and eat cement grout. Bleach discolours coloured grout and degrades silicone.
Avoid supermarket 'floor shine' products entirely. They deposit a polymer film that dulls with every application and then has to be stripped.
Grout and silicone
Grout is porous unless it is epoxy. Sealing it once a year in a bathroom keeps staining out. If grout has gone dark and no longer responds to cleaning, it can be raked out and replaced without disturbing the tiles.
Silicone has a lifespan of roughly five years in a shower. Replace it as soon as the edges lift — that gap is where the leak starts.
Natural stone needs sealing
Marble, limestone, travertine and slate must be sealed, and re-sealed when water stops beading on the surface — typically every one to two years in a bathroom. An impregnating sealer soaks in and protects without changing the look.
Steer clear of steam
Steam cleaners force hot moisture into grout joints and, over time, can break down the adhesive bond beneath, particularly on walls. Warm water and a neutral cleaner do the same job with none of the risk.