Slate Tile Removing Kitty Litter Clay Haze

[Bluemick68]

About 8 years ago, we installed new 5"x12" charcoal colored slate floor tiles and a small section was subjected to dust/residue from clay-type Kitty Litter. Prior to this, the whole floor was professionally cleaned with a stand-up orbital cleaner and detergent, and it looked beautiful. We got cats, and the cats use the litter box, but then track the clay/residue over the slate tiles. This has made the nice textured black tiles have white dust/residue that has locked itself to the tiles and the grout. When new, the grout was a pleasing grey, but now looks white, along with the low spots in the natural texture in the black tile.
So far we've used Dawn dish soap and warm water & nylon scrub brush twice , which did nothing. Then used equal parts water and hydrogen peroxide...then straight 3% Hydrogen Peroxide, and it only looks marginally better. Guess we need the to go to the next step, so if anyone has any ideas on this, like a safe product or have a proven technique they'd share, it would be much appreciated.


thanks
Bluemick68

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Welcome to the forum, Michelle! Sorry for the delay in a response.

I think the cat litter itself has a wide range of pH. If it happens to be on the acid side of "pH Neutral", it may be damaging the slate by etching it. A picture may help us identify that. If it is etched, no cleaner can do anything to improve that type of damage.

But absent that, I'd perform a test.
Start with a small test area the size of your hand. Start with a stone-specific pH neutral cleaner (you'll generally find this in the tile aisle at the box store or at a real tile store...but don't expect any real info out of the salespeople, as only 0.1% have ever even heard or used a 'stone specific cleaner'). Apply the cleaner and allow to dwell for at least 5 minutes. Then agitate with a fine nylon bristle brush. The finer the bristles, the better. Then wet vac the mess away so that you don't re-deposit the mess to another part of the tile, as is so common with mopping or cleaning with a rag. Allow that to dry to evaluate your results. Come on back and let us know what's happening.