How best to clean outdoor textured porcelain tiles?

[trentdi]

I’ve just had some outdoor textured porcelain tiles installed, and they’re already getting a bit dirty from all the trees and leaves that are around. I’m looking at options to clean and then seal to make future cleaning easier.

Pressure washing looks like an option, but I’m unsure how effective it will be from the stains left by a few gum leaves. Does anyone have any experience with trying to get outdoor porcelain tiles pressure cleaned, or had luck with any other solvents?

Lots of resources are saying that you cannot see a porcelain tiles, but at least one provider and said that they can do it and that they use a product called just seal it. Does anyone have any experience with this or any other product?
 

 

[JacobZ]

Hi @trentdi,

Thank you for your question on how to clean textured porcelain tiles.

As you would have read, porcelain is a very dense, non-porous material. Its low absorption rate means that sealers cannot penetrate the surface to provide any substantial benefit. Sealers are generally designed to fill the pores and create a protective barrier, but with porcelain, there's little to no pore space to fill.

I'd certainly start with pressure cleaning the tiles to see what does and doesn't come off. Porcelain is a very non-porous material, so I would be surprised if the staining penetrates deeply enough to require much more than a pressure clean.

If you find stains appearing that need to be addressed, you could use Davco 1L Tile And Grout Cleaner or possibly Lithofin KF Vitra Clean 1 litre which is specifically formulated for use on porcelain and ceramic tiles and is offered by our friends at Beaumont Tiles.

You might also like to check out How to Clean Porcelain and Ceramic Tiles for some guidance on how to clean your porcelain tiles.

Allow me to tag some of our helpful members to see if they have any thoughts, @Noyade, @RenoRach, @Noelle, @projectmumdanni.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

[Noelle]

The only thing I could add is to try a tile cleaner like CLR (https://www.bunnings.com.au/clr-1l-calcium-lime-rust-remover_p4460670) which is recommended for cleaning tiles including bathroom and kitchen tiles as well as outdoor pavers and hard surfaces.

My suggestion would be, with whatever cleaner you use, to test it on a small area first, to ensure it does work and doesn't bleach or leave its own stain!

[projectmumdanni]

I'm unsure if the diggers driveway clean up would be a suitable product on these tiles @JacobZ but works well on cement pavement

[MitchellMc]

It certainly would be worth a try, @projectmumdanni. As always, it's best to check products in an inconspicuous location before committing to the whole area.

Mitchell

[trentdi]

Turns out that the brown spots are most likely rust stains from rusted rebar that was hit when the fence installers were core drilling for the spigots (this was recently done). I found CLR worked a bit, but to get the spots off entirely I ended up scouring them off with the red pads shown here: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07QBGR38Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1. Obviously this isn't general advice for all tiles.

I'm going to try the other products for general stains that are still on the tiles

[JacobZ]

Hi @trentdi,

Thank you for the follow-up. 

I'm glad to hear you found a solution that works for you.

If you have any other questions in the future, please feel free to reach out.

Jacob