Cleaning textured stone wall tiles...

lostinrates

We are hoping to have a bathroom put in this autumn and we are only doing it Once i hope and will possibly live here for another thirty or forty years:eek:

After umming and ahhing i have decided i really love the look of split faced stone tiles. They are pricey, but as i say, we aren't going anywhere quickly, and do not plan to make a hobby of redecorating! So there is one more barrier to my decision.....cleaning. The ones linked below are limstone, and probably my favourites

http://www.stonell.com/our-range/stone/split-face-st-aubin-tile

But am i making an unbearable rod for my own back? Having lived with navy tiles in london and resenting limestone bitterly i know how depressing cleaning the almost uncleanable in a bathroom can be. In london i ended up using car wax, which worked brilliantly but would it work as well on a textured/ ridged tile? Its not going to be a huge expanse of tile and i am hoping a quick hoover once a week might keep the dust off the ridges....

But.....tell me truthfull oldstylers,is this foolish of me?:o will they be impossible, or very hard, o keep clean?

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tpt

Erm yes, they are going to be hard work to clean....but i think you already knew that didn't you?

are you using them in a shower area?

lostinrates

tpt wrote: »

Erm yes, they are going to be hard work to clean....but i think you already knew that didn't you?

are you using them in a shower area?

Yes, just in a shower area for the walls.......might be a simple shower the walls regularly solution?


I don't want to make a rod for my own back, but i do like them.

Thank you for your response. I guess there is no eady cleaning solution for these.

tpt

i cant tell from that link what kind of stone it is. talk to the supplier to see what they recommend sealing\cleaning it with this can make all the difference but be warned that in a shower it can be worse as soap scum and other such dirt can stick to them. i have a textured tile in my shower and to be honest its days are numbered. Your ok with a low porosity smooth stone like slate but thats as far as i'd go.

You could look for ceramic or porcelain imitations?

pigpen

You can get them coated with a silicon coating, this is simply painted on, this will make them more waterproof as most limestone is very porous.. in a shower they will retain water and allow it to seep through and also provide a wonderful home for fungus and bacteria. BUT.. the coating needs to be redone at least once a year.. if not more often.. so your plan of never redecorating is not going to happen.

I would be concerned about going away for a week and coming back to a mushroom farm in place of my shower.

I would recommend an electric steam cleaner.. the steam stands a better chance of getting in the nooks a cloth or brush won't.

Linda32

Not sure if its the same and granted my situation wasn't in the bathroom, but when we moved into this house it had a brick fireplace, so bare brick in the house.

I used a scrubbing brush and hot water. It worked but wasn't a quick job at all.
Also in a holiday home someone had artexed the shower room :eek: it hurt you arms when you caught them That said I'm sure these are probably smoother as they are obviously meant for a bathroom where as artex is meant for ceilings.

lostinrates

tpt wrote: »

i cant tell from that link what kind of stone it is. talk to the supplier to see what they recommend sealing\cleaning it with this can make all the difference but be warned that in a shower it can be worse as soap scum and other such dirt can stick to them. i have a textured tile in my shower and to be honest its days are numbered. Your ok with a low porosity smooth stone like slate but thats as far as i'd go.

You could look for ceramic or porcelain imitations?

Thanks, these are limestone, i have also seen marble in a similar neuteal colour.:)

That is a very good point about soap scum:(

lostinrates

pigpen wrote: »

You can get them coated with a silicon coating, this is simply painted on, this will make them more waterproof as most limestone is very porous.. in a shower they will retain water and allow it to seep through and also provide a wonderful home for fungus and bacteria. BUT.. the coating needs to be redone at least once a year.. if not more often.. so your plan of never redecorating is not going to happen.

I would be concerned about going away for a week and coming back to a mushroom farm in place of my shower.

I would recommend an electric steam cleaner.. the steam stands a better chance of getting in the nooks a cloth or brush won't.

I don't mind maintaining, byj not redecorating again i mean these prolongued choices, and the expense of new tiles and bathroom fittings. While i want a beautiful home i want it to be where my life happens, not my entire life! So sealing annually ( i used to do the car wax on the blue tiles we curse four times year, i would prefer maintaince to be less than that) is ok, retiling every few years would not be.:)

lostinrates

Linda32 wrote: »

Not sure if its the same and granted my situation wasn't in the bathroom, but when we moved into this house it had a brick fireplace, so bare brick in the house.

I used a scrubbing brush and hot water. It worked but wasn't a quick job at all.
Also in a holiday home someone had artexed the shower room :eek: it hurt you arms when you caught them That said I'm sure these are probably smoother as they are obviously meant for a bathroom where as artex is meant for ceilings.

We have exposed bick too, and i plan to paint over most ov it, i love painted brink, but not exposed brick. I hoover mine wit the upholstery attachment, and it never looks great. I might give it a scrub, hmmm.

I had throught about the scraping of arms etc, but its going to be a really big shower so i think things like soap scum and dust are more thething thats holding me back. Sealing as per pigpen's post might be the answer:). Tpt having a nightmare with a ceramic textured tile is pretty much what i feared.

I really appreciate this help everybody, thank you!

tpt

ok if its limestone then take a look at lithofin mn stainstop and\or lithofin multiseal. if you use these then dont clean with your standard cleaners as it can strip the seal, use lithofin easy care instead.

They have an advice line and are very helpful, give them a try

Ben84

Limestone is damaged by several popular cleaning products, most importantly I suspect by acid based cleaners that remove limescale. Living in a hard water area, I'm not sure how I would clean off limescale without them. Bleach, which I also frequently use to kill mould and whiten grout can also damage limestone. So, I wouldn't go for limestone although I like the look. There are some high end ceramic tiles which have very good stone effect finishes that I might use however if I wanted that effect.