TILE & GROUT CLEANING & SEALING
Stone Care of Arizona, Arizona tile and grout cleaning expert has experienced a spike in calls from homeowners who hate seeing their soiled tile & grout following the stay at home order signed by the state of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.
Stone Care of Arizona, Arizona cleaning and sealing expert provides Travertine cleaning, Marble cleaning, Flagstone cleaning, Slate cleaning, Limestone cleaning, Granite cleaning and tile & grout cleaning. If you need tile & cleaning, give us a call at 480-625-0557.
The importance of cleaning, sealing and disinfecting all surfaces in the COVID-19 era necessitates keeping the tile & grout clean, tile showers clean, tile countertops clean and germ free! It is the key motivation for savvy homeowners to call Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona tile cleaning and sealing expert.
Should cleaning and sealing the tile & grout matter? Should you disinfect tile and grout after cleaning? Whether you have Porcelain or Ceramic tile? The answer is yes!!!
Today, Porcelain and Ceramic tile are marketed by their respective manufacturing company with unique design characteristics that mimic their counterpart natural stone. It is difficult for homeowners and natural stone care companies to do exact identification on man made tile. For this reason, Porcelain and Ceramic are universally called tile. Most homeowners are less concerned about the molecular differences between Porcelain and Ceramic when viewing soiled tile and grout, countertops and showers.
Stone Care of Arizona, are experts at cleaning and sealing tile & grout. You can reach Stone Care of Arizona at 480-625-0557 between 8am - 6pm, Monday - Saturday. We look forward to answering any questions you may have.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF TILE:
Ceramic tile is either
single
or double fired. Porcelain tile is mostly double fired. Single or double fired tile is connected to the types of glaze finish applied. The firing steps are done inside a
commercial kilns. The act of firing the bisque will metamorphose the tile. The tile will become dense, dry and chemically change to become either Porcelain and Ceramic tile.
Stone Care of Arizona, the tile and grout cleaning expert hope that you find the below video educational.
HOW GLAZE IS APPLIED TO TILE?
CHARACTERISTICS OF TILE:
- Porcelain and Ceramic are often installed in homes and businesses.
- Tiles that are double fired are also installed on patios and coping around pools.
- Porcelain and Ceramic tile are less likely to crack, break during extreme weather conditions.
- Both Porcelain and Ceramic tiles installed outside can be slippery when wet. This can create liability and increase the likelihood of slip & fall injuries. If you are having this issue, give Stone Care of Arizona a call at 480-625-0557
and asked us about our slip resistant coating service.
- The double firing with additional glazes allows for Ceramic or Porcelain to look like natural stone.
- Double fired Porcelain or Ceramic tiles offer the consumers better wear overall.
HOW TILES ARE MADE
HOW TO IDENTIFY TILE FLOORS?
Frankly, it doesn't matter what you have installed in your home since the composition of soil has a free flowing nature
of contaminating surfaces where it settles.
The rule of thumb, when determining what you may have installed inside a bathroom, Kitchen, back-splash and shower areas. For example, if your tile is 20 years and older, you might have Ceramic tile. If you have a newer home and the design looks like a natural stone, it is likely a double fired Porcelain or Ceramic tile.
As shared, as far as the homeowners are concerned, it really doesn't matter, when you need tile and grout cleaning and sealing. Give Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona cleaning and sealing expert a call a 480-625-0557. We look forward to helping you.
PROFESSIONAL TILE & GROUT CLEANING
Whether you have Porcelain or Ceramic tile installed in your home, there is no difference when it comes to soil. Both tiles will become soiled and will need professional tile & grout cleaning. Since, soil and fermented contamination has no preference, Stone Care of Arizona uses the latest innovations when providing tile & grout cleaning in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Rio Verde, Fountain Hills, Carefree and Cave Creek.
There are 2 Tile & Grout Cleaning Methods:
1. PORTABLE EQUIPMENT TO CLEAN TILE:
Portable equipment used to tile & grout cleaning employs the use of a wet vacuum and buffer with a brush drive plate. Frankly, t
his is considered an outdated tile & grout cleaning method in homes on the ground level in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Rio Verde, Fountain Hills, Carefree and Cave Creek, Arizona, why? The high-rises in Kierland commons in Scottsdale and in condos and lofts in the downtown Phoenix, Arizona area will require the use of a portable. Today, this method is used heavily in the janitorial sector for office areas that are not assessable to ground level access.
NEGATIVES OF CLEANING WITH A PORTABLE There are several companies that use portables for tile & grout cleaning. In the cleaning marketplace with lots of choices, this method is not the preferred equipment choice, why? The main reason are connected to labor and desire for better cleaning results. The outcome of cleaning a severely soiled grout require greater effort when using simply a buffer and plug in wet vacuum.
Negative Aspect of Hiring A Company Using the Method:
- The method relies on a higher concentration of alkaline cleaner to breakdown soil.
- The higher pH cleaner tends to leave a stick residue. The subsequent sticky residue will buildup on the tile surface and in the grout channels quickly.
- The method of using a wet vacuum does not rinse
the tile and grout. The light wetness is in fact residual soil
that dries back on the tile and grout leading to rapid re-soiling again. Wet vacuums are unable to rinse tile and grout.
- The method requires using heated water from the sink or basin inside the home.
- The natural stone care companies or janitorial company is aware that using cold water will lead to poor cleaning results.
- Once water has been poured into the bucket on the buffer, the water will lose temperature as it cools. The cooling will lead to less effective emulsification and suspension overall.
- When the wet vacuum and floor buffer equipment are plugged in a plug, this presents a much higher chance of tripping the electrical breaker.
- You will notice the equipment brought into your home is often unkempt and tools need to clean is transported on the back of pickup trucks. Its never cleaned before being brought into your home.
- The wet vacuum has a waste tank. It can range from 15-35 gallon depending on the company you hire. Once it has filled up, it will require dumping. Where are they going to dump it they wet vacuum? The dumping will take place in the powder room or nearest bathroom toilet. Depending on the wet vacuum it might have an auto dump in rare cases.
- However, most wet vacuum will require taking off the lid and placing it on the floor. The wet vacuum tank is titled over your toilet when accuracy is a much needed when dumping. Depending on the size of the areas cleaned, this can happen multiple times while cleaning is preformed.
Overall, this method will take more time and be less effective than van powered equipment. For this reason, Stone Care of Arizona has choose a state of the art equipment to clean tile and grout.
TRUCKMOUNT EQUIPMENT TILE CLEANING
Tile & grout cleaning technology has vastly evolved beyond a buffer and wet vacuum. The image below is one of several Stone Care of Arizona mobile cleaning plant that has broken the cleaning and sealing paradigm. Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona tile cleaning and sealing expert uses strictly state of art self-contained, van powered equipment mounted in a van outside a home.
TILE & GROUT CLEANING METHOD
Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona tile and grout cleaning expert would like share compelling reasons our method is the best way to clean tile & grout. When cleaning Porcelain and Ceramic tile cleaning principles based on dissolving, suspension, emulsification, and extraction. The building blocks are based on the fundamentals of Stone Care of Arizona using aqueous solutions to clean tile & grout, to clean Porcelain and Ceramic tile.
Below is more powerful reasons to hire Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona cleaning expert:
- Cleaning Principle of Temperature: Stone Care of Arizona's mobile cleaning plant delivers consistent temperatures, how? Our mobile unit are equipped with an onboard heat exchanger. The heat exchanger keeps the inline water heated upwards to 200 degrees with no temperature drop while cleaning. This allow for unparalleled tile & grout cleaning and rinsing.
- Cleaning Principle of Prespray: Stone Care of Arizona use a green hard surface preconditioner prespray. The prespray is applied through a higher pressure inline sprayer (See the small blue line in the above image) that delivers heated aqueous solutions that speeds up the molecules to perfectly emulsifies the sticky soil that is trapped on your tile and grout. The soil bond breaks away from the tile and grout and will emulsify and suspend to the form of micelles formations. The dwell time of the prespray will lead to the soil become saturated. The soil slurry
will exhibit an opaque color as it emulsify and suspends on the tile.
- Cleaning Principle of Mechanical Action: One of the principles of cleaning tile and grout is connected to the dedicated delivery of agitation. Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona cleaning expert will detail soiled grout with a bi-directional grout brush. Grout brush helps to break down the
fermentation bond
on the contentious grout. We next use our specialty stone buffer that has built in features not limited to weights, surge protector and bumper guards. The perfect balance of our buffer is customized for the tile & grout cleaning.
- Cleaning Principle of Mechanical Rinsing: Once agitation has been completed, Stone Care of Arizona will use a two part rinsing process. The high-flow rinsing process involves discreet grout tools that rinse and remove the unwanted soil completely off the tile and grout. The heated aqueous flushing action is generated from a high quality water pump mounted in our mobile plant. We promise to never dump sloop water into your toilets ever.
- Cleaning Principle of Extraction:
Stone Care of Arizona has an onboard high velocity vacuum (See large hose in the image above) for assisting in creating airflow based on cubic feet per minute (CFM). The airflow in our self-contained hoses lifts soil and works with the rinsing rinsing (#4) to help vacuum unwanted contamination off the tile and grout. During the extraction process unwanted soil is extracted and sequestered in the 200 gallon waste tank outside your home.
Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona tile and grout expert uses the latest innovations that help us to provide exceptional cleaning results. For tile and grout cleaning and sealing call us right now at 480-625-0557am to 6pm, Monday-Saturday).
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I CLEAN THE TILE? Tile and grout cleaning frequency will depend on the lifestyle and degree of soil that comes in contact with your tile and grout. Stone Care of Arizona's recommendation is that tile and grout should be cleaned every 12 to 18 months. Tile and grout cleaning will help keep the flooring surface contamination from building up on the tile and subsequent grout channels.
TILE & GROUT SEALING AND CLEANING: Should you seal the grout after cleaning? The answer is absolutely!!! The sealer is not applied on the tile surface. The Porcelain and Ceramic tile has been fired leaving the surface with a water and stain proof surface that doesn’t need to be sealed. However, the grout is extremely porous and will need to be sealed.
Stone Care of Arizona will seal the cementitious grout not the tile surface, why? The surface of Porcelain and Ceramic does not need to be sealed.
The type of sealer matters, Stone Care of Arizona uses a solvent based aerosol. The aerosol does not leave a visible residue on the surface of the tile. The sealer applied allows for immediate use and will not leave a sticky soil attracting residue on the Porcelain or Ceramic tile.
Stone Care of Arizona, the Arizona stone care expert specializes in the following:
- Tile & grout cleaning & sealing tile,
- Porcelain and Ceramic tile cleaning and sealing
- Granite countertop cleaning and sealing
- Travertine cleaning and sealing
- Marble cleaning and sealing
- Limestone cleaning & sealing
- Flagstone cleaning & sealing
- Slate cleaning & sealing
Stone Care of Arizona, Arizona tile cleaning and sealing expert provide free estimates and consultation. Please give us a call at
480-625-0557
during work hours (8 am to 6 pm) and afterhours 24/7 by clicking here:
Online request. We look forward to speaking with you.