Glazed tile is the easiest surface in the house to clean and the hardest to keep looking clean, because the tile is not the problem. The grout is: porous, slightly below the tile surface, and the place every mop pushes the dirt. Cleaning a tile floor is a grout program with a tile floor attached.
A mop moves dirty water across the tile and leaves it in the grout lines, where it dries. Over months the grout darkens along the traffic lanes while the tile stays bright, and the floor looks dirty no matter how often it is mopped. The fix is a routine that treats the grout as its own surface: a brush along the lines, a cleaner that suits grout, a rinse, and a sealer that keeps the next month’s water out.
Two facts decide the chemistry. Cement grout is alkaline and porous, and acids — vinegar, most bathroom cleaners, anything that says it removes hard-water deposits — eat it. Epoxy grout is inert and needs neither sealing nor care. Glazed porcelain and ceramic are indifferent to almost everything, which is why the tile survives what the grout does not.
An alkaline grout cleaner worked in with a brush, left to dwell, scrubbed, rinsed twice. A steam cleaner with a brush attachment does the same with less chemistry. Then reseal. If the grout is stained through rather than dirty on top, it is a regrout, which the repair guide covers.
Cleaner residue or the ghost of a soap-based product. A neutral cleaner, a rinse with clean water, and a dry with a towel. Glazed tile rarely needs anything more.
It is scratched — polished porcelain is the one glazed surface grit marks. A professional polish can revive it; the prevention is mats and a vacuum.
Tile itself carries little in the way of warranty because it rarely fails; the grout and the installation are where problems live, and neither is covered by the tile manufacturer. Grout makers warrant epoxy grout against staining for years and cement grout against almost nothing. The practical rule is that grout is a wear item: cleaned, sealed, and eventually redone.
The same routine, deep and never lists the material pages carry, so the guide and the page cannot disagree.
Vinegar cleans the tile and dissolves the grout a little each time. The lines get rougher and more porous, hold more dirt, and eventually crumble. Every acidic "bathroom" cleaner does the same. An alkaline grout cleaner is what the lines want.
The mop lifts dirt off the tile and pushes it into the grout, where the water evaporates and the dirt stays. The tile is clean and the floor looks dirty. A flat microfiber mop, rinsed often, and a separate pass on the grout.
Unsealed grout absorbs the mop water and everything in it. A penetrating sealer takes an hour every year or two and is the difference between grout that wipes clean and grout that needs a brush.
Bleach removes the stain and some of the grout with it, and it does nothing about why the grout stained. It also yellows some colored grouts and is hard on the sealer. Oxygen bleach is gentler and does the same job.
The tile is clean. Scrubbing a glaze with anything abrasive scratches it, and then it holds dirt too. Look at the grout lines: that is where the dirt is.
Vacuum, then damp-mop with a neutral tile cleaner and a flat microfiber mop, changing the water when it clouds. Once a month, treat the grout as a separate job: an alkaline grout cleaner, a stiff nylon brush along the lines, and a rinse. Seal cement grout every year or two so the routine mop does not stain it.
An alkaline grout cleaner or an oxygen-bleach paste, left on the lines for ten minutes, scrubbed with a stiff nylon brush, and rinsed twice. A steam cleaner with a brush does the same with less effort. If the color does not come back, the grout is stained through and the answer is regrouting, not more scrubbing.
On the tile, yes; on the grout, no, and the grout is on the floor. Vinegar is an acid and it erodes cement grout with every use. A neutral cleaner for the routine and an alkaline cleaner for the grout do everything vinegar was doing without the damage.
Yes — glazed porcelain and ceramic with cement or epoxy grout are the floors a steam cleaner was made for. It lifts grout dirt without chemicals and does not harm the glaze. Avoid it on natural stone and on any tile with cracked or missing grout, where water can get underneath.
Cement grout, every one to two years, and after any deep clean; the test is whether a drop of water beads on the line or darkens it. Epoxy grout is never sealed. Sealer goes on the grout lines, not the glazed tile, which cannot absorb it.
Residue. Most tile cleaners leave a film if they are not rinsed, and soap-based cleaners always do. Mop again with clean water only, then dry with a towel. If the dullness is only in the traffic lanes on a polished porcelain, it is fine scratching from grit, and the fix is entry mats and a vacuum.