How to clean tiles with a steam cleaner

A steam cleaner cleans your tiles with heated water and nothing else. The heat softens grease and grime, the pressure loosens it, and you wipe it away with a cloth. No soapy water, no cleaning products and no residue left behind.

So you get a hygienic clean without chemicals, on floor tiles and on the tiles in your living room or bathroom.

Which tiles can you clean with a steam cleaner?

Always check the care instructions from your tile or flooring manufacturer. Test on an inconspicuous spot, use the lowest setting that works, keep moving and dry the surface afterwards. The table below is a set of guidelines.

Tile type	Steam?	Why
Ceramic tiles, glazed	Yes, on intact tiles and grout lines	Fired and sealed, so they stand up well to heat and moisture
Unglazed, matt ceramic tiles	Yes, if sealed	No glaze, so more porous than a glazed tile. If in doubt, check whether your tiles have been sealed
Porcelain and gres porcellanato	Yes, on intact tiles and grout lines	Densely fired and hard. For polished finishes, check the manufacturer's care advice, as it may differ
Glass tiles, mirrored walls, glass shower screens	Yes	Use the window squeegee. Keep away from silicone sealant and coatings
Granite and quartzite (natural stone)	Usually, yes	Contain no lime and are hard. They do vary by type of stone, so check the care advice
Marble, travertine, limestone, Belgian bluestone (natural stone)	Only if your stone supplier allows it	Calcareous and porous. Even when sealed, there's a risk that heat and moisture will break down the protective layer or dull the shine. Never use an acidic cleaner here
Terrazzo and granito	Only with the manufacturer's approval	Marble chips in a cement or resin-bound base. What's suitable depends on the composition and the finish
Quarry tiles, terracotta and slate	Only with the manufacturer's approval	Porous, and almost always sealed, oiled or waxed. Heat can dissolve that protective layer
Cement tiles (Portuguese, Moroccan)	No, unless the manufacturer allows it	Porous and calcareous, with a protective layer that washes out quickly
Mosaic	Depends on the material	Ceramic mosaic is often fine. With natural stone or glass mosaic, the rules for that material apply, and watch out for the adhesive and the many grout lines
PVC or vinyl tiles	No, unless the manufacturer allows it for your floor	Often glued, and heat can loosen the adhesive or warp the top layer. This also applies to click PVC
Tiles with hairline cracks or damage	No	Moisture gets under the tile. Have the tiles, grout and subfloor checked first
Silicone sealant	No	The high steam pressure removes the sealant. Clean silicone sealant with a soft cloth

How to clean tiles with a steam cleaner

The steps are the same for every surface. What changes is the attachment and the direction you work in. Where that matters, we've noted it for each type of tile.

1. Check your surface. Are the tiles and grout intact, and can this material handle steam? See the table above. Keep away from silicone sealant.

2. Remove loose dirt first. Loose dirt doesn't belong in your steam cloth. If you pick it up, you'll scrub it across your tiles and your cloth will be full after two passes.

• Floor tiles: sweep or vacuum. It takes a minute and prevents most streaks.
• Wall tiles: a quick wipe with a dry cloth is enough.

3. Fill the water tank and let it heat up. Use clean water, or demineralised water if you live in a hard water area. It keeps limescale out of the unit and helps on dark tiles too.

Heat-up time, water tank and steam time by model

Model	Heat-up time	Water tank	Steam time	Steam temperature
TS Compact	approx. 10 seconds	900 ml	Refill while you clean	approx. 125°C
TS1	approx. 2-8 minutes	1.5 litres	approx. 40 minutes	approx. 100°C
TS2 Performance	approx. 2-8 minutes	1.6 litres	approx. 50 minutes	approx. 100°C
TS3 Edge	approx. 1 minute	2.5 litres	Refill while you clean	125+ °C

How much you get done with one tank depends on your setting, your nozzle and how often you press the trigger. Want to keep going without waiting for the unit to heat up again? The TS Compact and the TS3 Edge are the models you can refill while you clean.

4. Steam the condensation away from you. Into the sink or a bucket, until only steam comes out. After heating up, there's condensed water in the hose. If you attach the cloth straight away, it soaks up that water and gets drenched before you've finished your first pass. This is the step that makes the difference between a damp surface and a wet one.

5. Choose the right attachment for the surface.

• Floor tiles: the floor head with a microfibre cloth. Without a cloth you're only steaming. With a cloth, you pick up the dirt too.
• Wall tiles, shower screen and mirror: the triangular brush with the white cloth.
• Grout, corners and edges: the precision nozzle with a small nylon brush.

6. Work in small sections and keep moving. Do a section, wipe it, move on. Don't stay in one spot, and only use as much steam as you need to loosen the dirt.

• Floor tiles: work in slightly overlapping strips, from the furthest corner towards the door. That way, you won't walk over what you've just done.
• Wall tiles: work from top to bottom, so loosened dirt doesn't run over areas you've already cleaned.

7. Wipe away loosened dirt straight away. A steam cleaner doesn't pick anything up. If you leave the dirt, it simply dries back on. Change your cloth as soon as it's full: a full cloth no longer cleans, it just moves dirt around. For an average floor of a home, you'll easily need two to three, so have them ready before you start.

8. Dry off where needed.

• Floor tiles: the floor usually dries within thirty to sixty seconds. If it stays wet for longer, there was too much water in your cloth. On dark or polished tiles, and on anything porous, give it a quick wipe with a dry microfibre cloth.
• Wall tiles and glass: here it's all about a streak-free finish. Click on the window squeegee and wipe the surface dry. Don't use steam while you squeegee, or the tile stays wet and you'll get streaks. Hold the squeegee at a slight angle rather than dead straight, as this prevents streaks at the edges. Still getting streaks? Skip the squeegee and dry off with a dry microfibre cloth instead.

What about the grout?

Grout lines need their own approach, using a small nylon brush on the precision nozzle instead of the floor head. To find out why your grout is usually dirty rather than discoloured, and what to do about mould, read cleaning grout with a steam cleaner.

Why steam works differently from soapy water

Most people who make the switch say the same thing afterwards: it was only when they started steaming that they saw how much was still left on their tiles. There are three reasons for that.

Heat softens grease. Lukewarm soapy water has to break down grease chemically, and it only half manages, especially on the kitchen splashback or the floor in front of the cooker. Steam at around 100 to 125°C or higher, depending on the model, softens it so you can wipe it away.

It gets into grout lines and textured surfaces better. A cloth mainly works on the smooth surface. A targeted jet of steam with a small brush reaches into the grout and the texture of matt tiles. That's where the dirt you still see after mopping is hiding.

You don't mop with dirty water. When you mop, you rinse the mop in the same bucket that holds the dirt. By halfway across the floor, you're spreading grey water. When you steam, the dirt goes into the pad and stays there, and you swap pads when it's full.

How steam compares with what you're probably using now

Steam compared with other cleaning methods

Method	What it's good at	Where it falls short
Bucket, mop and all-purpose cleaner	Quick, everyone has one	Leaves a thin film, spreads dirty water, mainly cleans the smooth surface
Spray mop or disposable wipes	Handy for quick cleans	Surface only, no heat, ongoing costs
Scrubbing with a brush and cleaner	Works on a single stubborn spot	Physically hard work and time-consuming, impossible to keep up on large areas
Vinegar or citric acid	Cheap, works on limescale	Acidic, and attacks cement grout and limestone-based tiles
Soda crystals	Cheap, cuts through grease	Alkaline and slightly abrasive, can leave dull patches
Wet-dry vacuum	Picks up dirty water straight away, quick on large areas	Usually doesn't deliver the same targeted heat on grease and ground-in dirt
Steam cleaner	Heat and moisture tackle grease and dirt, no cleaning products, little residual moisture	Doesn't pick up water, needs to heat up, not suitable for every tile

For many households, the answer is a combination: a wet-dry vacuum or broom for loose dirt, and steam for the dirt that's stuck on.