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Expert Answers
What could have caused Glazed Tile to stain?
QUESTION
Glazed Tile Staining Problem - Hello, I just left a message on your machine, I have pics attached of my ceramic tile that has become stained. I read in your faq that alcohol or juice will stain ceramic tile….do you think that is what could have happened here? There was a washing machine leaking water onto the floor for a little while…but that was just clean water. My tenants swear that is what did it, but I think they could easily have spilled some sort of alcohol on there and neglected to wipe it up. (They are college students) Any advice?ANSWER
ANSWER - Keep in mind that looking solely at photos is very limiting in developing a valid conclusion of what has caused the discoloration in the surface of your glazed tile floor.Looking at the photo that shows the area of tiles, it looks like the tiles have what we call a picture frame appearance from water migrating into the sides of the tile and show through the glaze surface that give it the darken look. It looks like underneath the tile it is saturated with moisture.
Looking at the close up photos, it appears that the tile floor was subjected to some type of staining that migrated into the body of the tile from its sides and for some reason is showing through the glaze surface.
It is possible it is a surface stain that could be removable, but testing would have to be done to determine that.
It does not appear to be an etched stain. Etching is when the glaze of the tile is chemically degraded causing a texture and color change in those spots.
If it is a stain from some liquid that migrated laterally into the edge of the tile, then the tile must be very porous and not considered a good quality tile for floor applications. Normally ceramic tile glazed surfaces are not translucent and are impervious so stains in the body of the porous tile would not show through. Although over the years I have seen glazed ceramic tiles where moisture in the tile body will show through the glaze to some degree, but they were considered lower quality ceramic tiles.
Chances are something either overflowed or was spilled on to the floor and it wasn't cleaned up promptly or properly for whatever reason. Since it is where the washing machine is located then probably it was from that. It could be the over flow was very dirty water or perhaps they were tie dyeing or something that had a color stain in the water. There are poultices compounds that can be used to dry to draw the stain out, but you would have to experiment to see if it would be effective.
You can go to our website where there is a list of cleaner and sealer manufacturers with links to their websites where you can obtain some of the cleaners to experiment with for attempting to clean the tile.
It is possible to chemically analyze the stain in the glaze to determine its source, but it probably isn't practical to pay for that service. Good Luck.
