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QUESTION
Stains in Glazed Tile - I have these "ghostly" white blotches on ceramic tile in my kitchen. It almost looks like someone spilled a cleaner in many areas. The rest of the tile is shiny, and when you wet these "ghostly" areas, they disappear until the water dries up. We can't afford to replace the entire kitchen at this time. Is there anything we can do to make things look better?ANSWER
ANSWER - Chances are the spots you see are etched spots. This is caused by acidic substances such as juice, alcohol, etc. coming in contact with glazed tile where the glaze is acid sensitive. Normally these glazes are also softer glazes that tend to scratch.Unfortunately there isn’t any way to repair these spots if in fact they are etched spots. You will need to replace those tiles with new tiles. Good Luck!
5 thoughts on ““Ghostly” white blotches/stains on ceramic tile in my kitchen”
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I read a response you wrote to a question posted re: “Ghostly” White blotches/stains on ceramic tile. I am hoping your reply that tile replacement is required is not the answer for me.
Please see the pictures below:
My housekeeper cleans our porcelain tile floor with Lysol Multi Surface Cleaner and when dry she places “Quick Shine” on the floor. Perhaps that is wrong and causing these random white stains on the tile floor?
Can you please advise how to remove these stains?
Quick Shine seems to be some sort of a wax. Sometimes when wax non-breathable coatings are applied over a tile that it might trap moisture that causes a cloudy white condition. I would strip off the coating on the floor and see is the white spots go away.
Porcelain tiles are by definition impervious so I would not expect it to be a stain the tile, and I would not think it is likely chemical sensitive to cause the tile surface to etch.
I did notice in your photos that the groves in the tile seem to have dirt embedded in them. This is normally due to using a mop rather than a still brush to clean the floor. Mops should not be used as they tend to only move dirt around. You should use a bristle brush on an extended handle and a neutral cleaner in water to scrub the floor and then pick up the dirt water with a wet vacuum. Then rinse with clean water and pick that up with the wet vacuum.
I have the same problem with my light grey kitchen tile. When you mentioned that alcohol can make those marks, it made completely sense in my case, since I spray alcohol sometimes and dry it with paper towel. ☹️. I noticed that it happened when I used alcohol. 😔
my porcelin mat finish bathroom floor tile was etched and spotted. I used a scrubbie 3 M sponge and fantastic and it looks new again.
Glad to hear that you were able to clean your porcelain tile floor. It must of had some coating on it that you were able to remove. Etching is where the tile surface is chemically altered, so that condition isn’t removable.