You bought porcelain tile for many reasons. One reason is cleaning. Porcelain tile has an impervious surface that is both easy to clean AND easy to keep clean. But that’s not been your experience. Your tile looked dull and lifeless right after it was initially installed. It not only shows footprints, it seems to actually pull the dirt off the bottom of your shoes.
You’ve tried everything—tile cleaners, deep cleaners, bleach, ammonia, soft scrub…..no change. You’re disappointed in your tile and swear your next floor will be hardwood.
WAIT! Before you convince yourself to install a wood floor with the Good Termite-Keeping Seal of Approval, the problem isn’t your tile floor—it’s what’s ON your tile. Specifically, what’s on the face of your tile that you really CAN’T see…until it gets dirty.
What’s in the face can be one or more of any number of things: ALL are easily remedied. Here they are in order of most common issues regarding issues on NEW installations:
PROBLEM: Grout haze.
WHY: The last cleaning during installation may not have removed all the grout from the face of your tile.
RESOLUTION: clean with acid-based tile cleaner made specifically to remove grout film. All big box home improvement stores and tile distributors will have a specifically formulated cleaner that will have printed right on the label that is will remove grout haze.
IMPORTANT: Follow manufacturers instructions to the letter, after all, this is acid and precautions must be taken. At Villagio, we stock Stone Tech RESTORE ACIDIC CLEANER.
PROBLEM: Latex Film/other coatings.
WHY: Latex is in most grout today. It makes your grout dense and hard.However,it can be difficult to remove at installation and the film is virtually invisible. Also, if there was a coating or sealer used on your tile before,mourning or after installation it may still be present.
RESOLUTION: Strip the sealer off using a product specifically made for tile surfaces. Villagio recommends Stone Tech HD COATING STRIPPER.
PROBLEM: Nano Sealers applied to the face of the tile at the tile factory.
WHY: Nano Sealers penetrate the small micro-pores of certain types of porcelain tile. They are absolutely invisible to the naked eye.
RESOLUTION: Nano removers are typically abrasive cream cleaners utilizing microscopic particles that penetrate micropores. Certain scrubs are like the nuclear bombs of the tile industry and will also remove sealers, coatings, and haze from the face of tiles and stone. Custom Building Products manufactures both Aqua Mix Nano Scrub and TileLab Nano Clean.
CONCLUSION
It’s NOT your tile that is hard to keep clean, it is what is ON your tile that is causing the problem. The solution is both quick AND easy by using the products listed above. It cannot be stressed enough that safety us a legit concern and manufacturer instructions must be followed. ALWAYS DO A SMALL, OUT OF THE WAY, TEST AREA FIRST.
Your tile is both EASY TO CLEAN AND EASY TO KEEP,CLEAN. Just get that yucky stuff off the face of your tile and your floor will brighter, more beautiful and way easier to keep that way.
The Scottsdale Waterfront
/in Projects /by ad_VminWhen the Scottsdale Waterfront Residences decided to remodel their lobby and public areas they selected Villagio as the sole supplier of natural stone tile.
The Waterfront purchased over 40,000 sf of 12″ x 24″ stone tile to update their front lobbies and continue on throughout their entire residence access areas with elegant Verona travertine. As you can see from the before and after photos, the end result is a updated look and feel of the entire project.
The Verona Travertine Stone from Villagio has an exclusive three stage honing process (rather than a typical single hone) that provides a consistent, smooth finish that closes the pores of the stone and creates an easy-to-clean surface. The very small holes are filled with a color matched epoxy resin that has a similar gloss and color as the face of the travertine. This means that the fill become virtually indistinguishable from the overall tile.
The end result is a travertine that truly has the look of a high end limestone at a fraction of the cost and is easy to keep clean.
Verona is available in crosscut or veincut, three different colors, sizes up to 24″x48″ and finishes include honed, polished, tumbled and even our New Wave hand finished product.
All the colors and finishes are on display in our beautiful Scottsdale showroom.