Cleaning Bathroom Tiles: A Comprehensive Guide

Cleaning the tiles in your residential or commercial bathroom is often an unpleasant activity, which, let’s be honest, most of us avoid. This is especially true when you throw in things like mildew and mold that make a home in the crevices of your bathroom tiles. Unfortunately, it is your responsibility to clean bathroom tiles frequently to prevent excessive mildew and mold growth.  

In this comprehensive guide, the experts at Baker Bros have taken the guesswork out of cleaning bathroom tiles, highlighting the tools you will need while explaining how to clean your bathroom floor and wall tiles. We’ve even gone so far as to explain when and how often you should clean floor and wall tiles in your bathroom. Let’s dive in!

Tools You Will Need When Cleaning Bathroom Tiles

Before you can get stuck into cleaning your bathroom tiles, you need to make sure you have the right cleaning tools. These tools often include old towels or rags, gloves, baking soda, a spray bottle, sponges, a squeegee, and a small soft-bristled scrubbing brush or old toothbrush. 

You’ll also need white vinegar, dish soap, or lemon juice, a bucket of warm water, a broom or vacuum, gentle dish soap, a mop, drying pads, and a Swiffer.

How Do You Clean Bathroom Floor and Wall Tiles?

The question: “How do you clean bathroom tiles and floor tiles?” can be answered in numerous ways depending on the type of tile you have in your bathroom. 

So first, ask yourself: Do I have porcelain tiles, stone tiles, or ceramic tiles and grout that need cleaning on my bathroom walls or floor? How you answer this will affect how you clean.

However, to simplify the process, you can use these cleaning steps below for most bathroom floor and wall tiles: 

How to Clean Your Bathroom Tiles on the Floor

1. When cleaning your bathroom floor tiles, your first port of call is to sweep using a Swiffer or broom, or you can vacuum up any dirt, dust, and debris.
2. Next, combine one to two tablespoons of dish soap with water in a bucket.
3. Use a clean microfibre mop to wash the floor tiles using the mixture you created in the step above.
4. Once the tiles have been cleaned, you can use a dry pad on the Swiffer to remop the floors to ensure they are dry and that the tiles don't become moldy.

How to Clean Your Bathroom Tiles Along Walls

Cleaning the tiles along your bathroom wall is a little trickier, but luckily, with these simple steps, you shouldn’t have any issues when it comes time to tackle this dreaded task: 

Step One

Before you start cleaning, you must first clean the grout using a combination of baking soda and water. However, a white vinegar and baking soda mixture will work wonders for more stubborn or darker stains.

Step Two

Leave the mixture to soak for a few minutes before scrubbing with a toothbrush. Just keep a close eye on your grout's condition, as poorly maintained or old grout can crumble, so be cautious. After a little while, rinse the baking soda mixture away.

Step Three

Moving along to the tiles, apply or spray a cleaning solution beginning at the top of the tile, where the tile joins the ceiling. 

Here, you can use a DIY cleaning solution using a combination of 25% white vinegar, 25% lemon juice, and 50% water or 50% dish soap and 50% water, leaving the solution to soak in for a couple of minutes to help loosen any product and dirt build-up.

Step Four

Next, use a sponge, soft-bristled brush, or toothbrush to loosen dirt in a circular motion, moving horizontally from one end of the wall to another before moving in a straight line down one row of tiles and across. 

Having a consistent and clear cleaning path means you won't skip or gloss over any areas. If there is excessive build-up from products, hard water stains, or limescale, you must put in a little extra elbow grease to get the job done.

Step Five 

Use a clean old towel, rag, or sponge with warm water to rinse away any cleaning solution. Then, dry the tiles using a clean old towel, squeegee, or both for best results. 

You should avoid leaving behind any excess moisture as it can leave spots or streaks and lead to a build-up of moisture in the environment, thereby encouraging mildew and mold growth, which is harmful to your health.

When and How Often Should You Clean Bathroom Tile Walls and Floors?

You can clean your bathroom floors and wall tiles once a week, but a deep cleaning should be done every two weeks. We also recommend creating a wet and dry cleaning schedule to keep bathroom tiles looking fresh, clean, and residue-free.

Wet Clean

You should plan to mop your bathroom tiles at least once every week as bacteria and germs tend to build up in bathrooms. You should also spot-clean your bathroom grout once every few months or whenever you notice it looks worse for wear.

Dry Clean 

When it comes to dry cleaning, you must incorporate vacuuming or sweeping into your bathroom cleaning schedule at least once weekly or whenever you can see or feel the product build up. 

You can utilize a soft-bristled vacuum head attachment on just about any tile floor type. You can use a dustpan or hand broom to complete the job. That’s it! But if you want to be really clean, you can dry clean your bathroom and follow up with a wet cleaning once a week. 

The Wrap-Up on Cleaning Bathroom Tiles

Now that you are familiar with how to clean bathroom floors and wall tiles, our team at Baker Bros hopes to have made your life easier. Tile wall and floor cleaning is important for the longevity of your tiling and your health. Plus, you now know it's super easy to maintain tile floors. 

So, if you’re interested in tiling your bathroom in the near future, you can speak with our experienced team at Baker Bros. We can help you choose floor and wall tiles for your bathroom.  Contact us here or head to one of our nearest locations to speak with an expert.