Pesky Hex Tiles

[Meadowlark]

I am new here, and after reading some of the replies to some of the problems, I think I found the right place to get the right answers.

Anyway, I have a 1940's house that has a bathroom floor with the little hexagon tiles. I have tried just about everything to clean them, but I think I made things worse. I have used some diluted acid solutions to clean the floor, but now it appears that the tiles have not only lost their lustre, but the grout (which is dark grey/black) has white leaching. The whole floor looks like a haze of toothpaste has been applied over it, even after several washings and rinsings. It actually looked better before I touched it!

When the floor is wet, it looks great. I tried applying a floor sealer, hoping to retain the "wet" look, and to get the grout black again, but when it dries, it has the "toothpaste" look again.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make my floor look like it is supposed to be?

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[Davestone]

Hopefully you just stirred up the efflourescence and dirt,waxes, and sealers...what have you cleaned the floor with exactly,and do you know if there was any waxes or sealers on it before you started that you may have lifted?

[Meadowlark]

I used varying strenghts of phosphoric acid, which my local tile shop told me to use. I doubt very much if a sealer was ever applyed to the floor, but I am sure there may have been a lot of Mop & Glow. It does look like there is a lot of effloresense in the grout lines, but I have no idea how to rescue my floor. I have tried repeating the scrubbing, washing, and rinsing with no better results.

[Theoderik]

Have you considered calling in a professional company to clean your floor? A bathroom by itself would be fairly small so there would probably just be a minimum charged. $75.00 - ish perhaps?

sw (shawn)

[Davestone]

Shawn has a good idea, but i doubt any resto guys will bother with a tiny bath floor...i would go with the lysol, and ammonia cleaning solution recommended on the mop and glo...maybe do it twice,and rinse good and allow to dry.Now for the bad part,your tile probably isn't going to be like new shiny tile without the mop and glo,or another topical sealer....that will probably yellow, or wear away also,but you can go ahead and apply one.there are many.

[doitright]

Hi Meadowlark, Welcome! :)

You may need to strip the sealer that you applied. You will also need to try a solution of water and ammonia (about 3:1). A wet vac will also assist in clean up, as well as agitation with a scrub brush.

Is the tile & grout clean, at least? :shades: