Polishing Ceramic Tiles

There are times when cleaning your ceramic tiles simply will not cut it. When that happens, it's time to polish those tiles. Polishing ceramic tiles is pretty close to cleaning the tiles, but there is another step or two that you need to take. Follow these steps, and in about thirty minutes your ceramic tile will be not only clean, but sparkling as well.

Materials:

• Sprayable tile cleaner.
• Sponge
• Furniture polish
• Squeegee
• Several soft towels (clean)
• Paper towels

Procedure:

1. Presoak. To begin polishing your tile, start by presoaking. Soak down the tile with the tile cleaner and allow it to sit for a minimum of fifteen minutes and no more than twenty. This allows plenty of time for the cleaner to get to work and penetrate enough to completely remove any deep-down stains.
2. Scrub. After allowing the tile to presoak, it's time to scrub things down. When scrubbing tile, though, you should only use a sponge to scrub away the stains, since anything more abrasive than that may damage the tile.
3. Rinse. Once you have removed the stains from your tile, it is time to rinse off the remaining soap and scum. You can do this by spraying regular water onto the tile. For countertops, use a spray bottle. When you have rinsed the soap and scum off, you need to wipe up as much of the water as possible with a soft clean towel.
4. Squeegee. To truly remove all the water from your tile, use a squeegee. If you are polishing your countertops, pull the water towards the sink. For floors place a few towels in one area of the floor, and pull the water towards those towels.
5. Spray. Grab a bottle of spray furniture polish and hold it about two feet away from the countertops and spray. While this method will provide an extremely shiny look to your tile, it is also going to make the tile super slippery. So, unless you want to recreate that famous floor-sliding scene in Risky Business, do not use this method on your floors.
6. Buff. Use some soft clean towels and buff the tile until the furniture polish is gone. You will know that you are done when the tile is bright and shiny.
7. Maintain. To maintain that polished look it is going to take a little effort on your part. Now that you know how to polish your tiles, you will need to repeat this process at least once a month. Otherwise, you will have dull tile before you know it.