How to Remove Sticky Residue from Tile Floors

Tile floors are one of the easiest to clean among all the floor types. Even everyday cleaning with water doesn’t harm the tile flooring a bit. Rather you ensure a clean, sanitized surface for you, your kids, pets, and other family members to walk on. Just like it is the easiest to clean, finding sticky residue on the slippery tile floors is the toughest.

Unless you haven’t cleaned your kitchen for months and let the oil, grime, spices mix and blend with heat and moisture and create the stickiest of residue on the tile surface, the sticky residue is not a common sight on tile flooring. Even that is easy to clean. The sticky residue in grout lines could be a nightmare, but not as challenging to clean as you are assuming.

Yes, just like the easy mopping, cleaning the stickiest of residue from the tile floors is easy too. Right below, we will talk about how to remove sticky residue from tile floors, that too, with the ubiquitous household products.

How to Remove Sticky Residue from Tile Floors

Contents

First Thing First

However, first thing first, unless you were too imprudent and used a cleaner that caused a sticky tile floor, yet you continued using the same to clean the floor, there is no chance that there will be stickiness all over your tile flooring.

So, when it comes to removing sticky residue, it basically implies spot cleaning. So whatever product you will use will be minimal and right on the specific areas or spots. It could be spills, adhesive, stuck food, anything, and all these will be considered sticky residues and will need potent but very common cleaning agents.

Things You Will Need

  • Broom and dustpan
  • Vinegar
  • Warm Water
  • Baking Soda
  • Soft brush
  • Microfiber cloths or pads
  • Scrub pad
  • Stiff bristle brush
  • Spray bottle
  • Stick mop

How to Remove Sticky Residue from Tile Floors
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Step #1 – Dusting

The first step to deep cleaning a surface is always dusting. But before you brush the dirt off the tile floors and spot clean the sticky residue, make sure to scrape loose dust particles from the stuck-on filth. Use a toothbrush or scrub pad and, best, a stiff-bristled brush and gently rub the residue. Pour a little bit of warm water to soften the sticky residue if needed. It works great, especially on the grout lines. If you are using water, dry the spots, and then do the thorough dusting.

 

Step #2 – Making The Solution and Paste

We will need a powerful cleaning solution and paste as we are cleaning sticky residue.

Vinegar, Warm Water, And Dishwashing Soap

Take a spray bottle, pour half of it with warm water, and the rest of it with vinegar. We haven’t overly diluted the vinegar, if you noticed. To make the solution even more fatal for the grime and sticky residue, add a few drops of dishwashing soap.

Baking Soda and Vinegar

Now, make the baking soda paste. Take baking soda in a bowl and add vinegar to make a paste. We are not using water. Instead, we are using vinegar to double the cleaning power of the baking soda.

 

The vinegar solution will clean the sticky residue on the tiles, and the baking soda paste will clean the sticky residue from the grout lines.

Now you are ready to apply the solution or paste depending on the spots you are attempting to clean.

Step #3 – Apply the Paste

Baking soda paste will require some time to set on and work on the sticky residue. So, first, target the sticky residues on the grout lines. Apply the paste on the grout lines and let it sit till it dries. Not too dry, but dry to an extent to pull and adhere the dirt to it and moist to the extent that you can easily remove it. So, we suggest not to focus on other things but apply the paste on every sticky residue in the grout lines and come back to the first one. Start scrubbing the grout lines with the stiff-bristled brush, and the sticky residue will come off pretty quickly. Now, when it has come off, wipe it with a damp pad. Here make sure not to overdo the cleaning. If there is some residue left, let it be. The leftover residues you can handle in the next session and waiting for the next session will also ensure the grout lines are safe and not excessively scrubbed. You have to keep in mind that the tile materials and the materials in grouts are entirely different. Grout lines need gentler cleaning compared to tiles.

Step #4 – Clean The Sticky Residue from The Tiles

After you are done cleaning the tile grout lines, spray the vinegar-water solution, and immediately rub the sticky residue on the tiles with a soft microfiber scrub pad. A scrub pad will work quicker than a stiff-bristled brush in broader space. Continue scrubbing till the sticky residue is cleaned and removed from the tiles. If the residues seem to be too sticky, spray the vinegar-water solution and wait for five minutes. The sticky residue will break from within and turn into fine particles, and with a slight rub, you can wipe it off from the tiles. Even here, you will need the damp microfiber cloth to wipe the loose sticky residue.

Step #5 – Mop the Floor

You have now removed the sticky residues from the grouts as well as the tiles. Before the leftover residue of the vinegar-water solution and already cleaned sticky residue dry and again stick to the tile surface, mop the entire tile floor with the vinegar-water solution.

 

This time the ratio will not be equal parts. It will be a cup of vinegar in a gallon of warm water. Use your standard stick mop. Damp it in the solution, and after thorough squeezing, mop the tile floor.

Step #6 – Dry The Floor

To avoid dust from sticking to the damp tile floor or the floor getting footprints or your pets or kids falling due to slippery wet tiles, make sure you have switched on the fan at full speed. It’s a better, immediate, and convenient solution to dry the tile floor than dry sweeping with a stick mop or clean cloth.

Though we do not prefer it much, even then, if you haven’t cleaned your tile floors for way too long and it is full of sticky residues, then bleach is a great option to clean those. After a thorough deconcentrating with water, wipe your tiles and grout lines with a cloth damp with bleach and water solution. Otherwise, following the above steps is enough to clean any and every type of sticky residue from your tile flooring.

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