How to Remove Mildew Stains from Limestone Tiles

The limestone tiles are a very common choice among home owners, and they are quite often used to decorate pools, bathrooms and even outdoor patios. Lately they have a very wide application all around the house, and they are practically one of the most common natural stone tiles used, right after the granite ones. But the fact that we use them in high humidity areas is not such a good thing, because this way the natural and porous stone gathers lots of moisture, which turns into mildew and mould after time. And you should never allow those to develop in your property, because there can be serious health consequences from this. Other singularity is that if you use the wrong kind of product to clean the tiles, you can damage the stone. This is why you should never use acidic cleaners, like ammonia, vinegar, or citrus oils to clean and disinfect limestone. But you can use a mild detergent containing bleach, if you need them deep cleaned. It won't create a reaction with the stone or the sealant. Just have in mind that all the cleaning solutions need to be thoroughly rinsed with water once the tile cleaning session is over. So, here's how to clean mildew from limestone tiles.

Supplies.

• A bucket

• A scrub brush

• A sponge

• Some bleach

• Warm water

Instructions.

1. First you need to prepare the cleaning solution for killing mildew. In order to do that, you'll have to mix one tablespoon of bleach with about 1 gallon of water and stir it well. The bleach will gently disinfect the tiles and help you scrub off all the mildew from the surface. It will also prevent future mildew from developing.

2. Then you should pick up the clean scrub brush, dip it in the water and clean the entire area, where you can notice mildew growth. Make sure the whole area gets entirely cleaned, because if you even miss one little spot, you'll have to start from the beginning. Mildew can grow quite quickly, once it's found a proper environment, so you should be very careful.

3. Once the bleach solution is applied to the surface completely, you should leave it to work and penetrate the limestone tile surface. It will take it at least five minutes to do that. As you probably know, many cleaning detergents need a couple of minutes in order to activate and start doing what they do, and even though the bleach is a strong detergent, it will need some time to get the work done when it's diluted with so much water .

4. Once the five minutes are over, you should pick up the scrub brush once more and scrub the entire area again. This is done, because the bleach actually helps loosen the dirt particles and the mildew on the surface, and this way you'll be able to remove more of it. Just don't leave the solution to soak there for more than 10 minutes, because then it can start eating through the tile, which is not pretty.

5. Once you're done scrubbing and you've made sure that there aren't any leftover spores from the mildew, you should get a bucket of clean water and the sponge, and wipe everything with it, until the bleach solution is all gone. If the tiles are located on the outside, you can also use a garden hose to wash away all the dirt and the cleaning solution.