Terracotta is a pretty material to line your tiled floors and walls. It comes in subtle earthy colors and really makes a room feel rustic. You’ll want to keep your terracotta tiles looking sharp for years to come, which means you need to know how to properly maintain them.

If you clean terracotta tiles wrong, you can accidentally cause some damage. They can’t take the powerful cleaning chemicals that other types of tile benefit from receiving. You need to know the correct technique for keeping your terracotta tiles clean, or else you’ll do some damage.

Seal any unsealed part of your tiles

If your terracotta tiles are unsealed, you should take care of this as soon as possible. Terracotta is very porous, which means it’ll absorb stains easily. Get it sealed before something goes wrong, or you’ll be left with a permanent mess you can’t remove.

Unsealed terracotta also tends to be stained by water. If you can’t get your tiles wet, you’ll have trouble cleaning them in several of the following steps. If your tiles are unsealed, deal with that before moving on to other ways to clean your terracotta.

Vacuum weekly

This is obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Run your vacuum over your terracotta tiles once a week to pick up any dry grime sitting on top of it. Vacuums are gentle on terracotta, and you’re not going to cause any damage, so this is a relatively risk-free way to keep your terracotta tiles clean.

Vacuuming about once a week is a good idea. You’re leaving some amount of damaging dirt on your tiles every time you or your shoes touch them, so always keep a regular and consistent cleaning schedule in mind. A tile and grout cleaning service can help keep you on schedule.

Use dish soap and water

There are all kinds of cleaning chemicals out there – but in all likelihood, they’re too acidic for your Ventura home’s terracotta. You might hear people recommend things like vinegar, bleach, ammonia, and other notably strong cleaning solutions, and you might be tempted to try these yourself. Don’t – terracotta degrades quickly.

All you actually need is dish soap and some warm water. Combine the two in a bucket and use a sponge or mop to soak your tiles and scrub the grime away. Be careful not to use too much water – even sealed terracotta may become over-soaked. Scrub gently and try not to remove the sealing.

Hire a professional

A professional Ventura steam cleaning service can help you clean your terracotta tile. You should really call a professional cleaner rather than trying to do it yourself, as using steam cleaners is delicate work. You may accidentally use too much water or force. A professional Ventura steam cleaner has more experience and can do the job right.

Steam cleaning can reach within your tile’s pores and extract dirt that vacuuming and scrubbing will never get. If you know how to clean with steam cleaners well, you can remove a lot of grime. That’s why you should trust our Ventura cleaning professionals to help clean your terracotta tiles.