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f your house has marble or ceramic floors, then you might want to clean them yourself. Following are some tips on keeping your marble and ceramic floors clean:

Wipe that floor clean

Dirty floors won'€™t just hurt your feet, but also your eyes. And not just yours; visiting guests and family will certainly feel uneasy entering a room with a dirty floor.

For grease stuck on kitchen tiles, or slippery dark patches on the front porch that have been there for as long as you can remember, when mopping is just not enough, it'€™s time to get serious and get your gear out.

Prevention measures

However, it'€™s important to understand that such things will not happen to your floor if key prevention measures are taken beforehand, measures as simple as sweeping the floor clean to mopping whenever things get sticky underfoot.

Keep in mind that there'€™s no such thing as the perfect time of day to sweep the floor. When things get dirty, take your broom and start sweeping, that'€™s the principle.

While there'€™s nothing complicated about mopping, very few people are familiar with doing it on a regular basis.

Without turning you into a mop-freak, you need to realize the importance of having the dirt or stains on your floor each day wiped away clean immediately. The longer you delay your mopping, the more dirt and grease will pile up.

While sand can scratch your ceramic surface, water and dirt can create damage on ceramic surfaces overtime that cannot be removed by the simple act of mopping.

If you mop your floor every day, just because you'€™re keen on doing this type of work, you will find that you won'€™t need to use much cleaning fluid in your bucket, with warm water enough to keep the floor clean.

But if you only have enough time to do it once a week, you will need a quality mopping session. Be wise about the type of cleaning fluid you choose.

Acid cleansing

Detergent-based cleaning fluid is good for your cutlery, as you can wipe the soap away with running water. But you don'€™t want to add too much of these types of cleaning fluid unless you'€™re ready to mop the floor twice, first with detergent and second with warm water to wipe the detergent away.

Failure to do so will result in your floor becoming sticky after it dries, making dirty footprints and attracting debris to get stuck.

Cleaners with enough acidic content might be good for occasional moppers, as they are designed to deal with persistent stains stuck on ceramic surfaces for years. But daily use of these products is certain to erode your ceramics'€™ glazing layer, making it dull overtime.

The type of mop you choose is also important, as abrasive mopping equipment obviously has a different design purpose to soft absorbent mopping tools.

Marble wars

Marble is a different beast entirely.

From installation, make sure that you wait for a good 48 hours before filling the nut, allowing the water content in the cement to be really dry to avoid blackish brown spots appearing around the marble grout later.

Even the toughest materials require protection, and this is why protective coating for marble is important, especially from invisible enemies like moss, patches of unwanted stains and so on. Coating, nevertheless will not last forever, usually lasting between three to six months depending on the type.

Stains are like nuclear missiles for marble; once they hit, the damage will be severe.

Beverage spills such as coffee, syrup, cola and the like will need to be wiped immediately after being spilled onto marble floors to avoid turning them into black or brown spots overtime.

Hot cups placed on marble tables can also create unwanted white patches, which make mats and trays the perfect preventive tools.

Where mopping is concerned, marble tiles require specific cleaning products different in acid content to those required by ceramic floors.

Natural ingredients such as lemon juice and salt with a little water can also be used to clean specific stains on marble floors when rubbed gently against the surface. Once the stain disappears, wash the marble with water and soap.

Baking soda and water can also be a good combination to get rid of stains. A mix of these materials will turn into a paste that when rubbed and left for a time on a marble surface will take the stain away.

Finally, using a clothing bleach product (H202), either commercial or homemade, should be your last resort when cleaning the nastiest marble stain. This can be done by soaking cotton into the bleach and leave it covered with plastic on top of the stain. If you decide to employ this method, be sure to check regularly and not let the wet cotton stay for more than 24 hours, as it can brittle the marble.

Obviously if all these methods with marble don'€™t work, it might be time to call the real professionals and have your marble re-polished.

(Er Audy Zandry)