I didn't have any of our usual floor cleaner left so used a squeeze of sugar soap in the bucket of water.
The floors are tiles.
After washing them the floors dried looking ghastly, every footprint was visible and there were mucky looking stripes on the floor.
I have since washed it twice with floor cleaner but it is still awful.
Any tips for rectifying this?
The floor looks grubby and every tread of each shoe that walks over it shows etc..

I would try warm water with a little white vinegar added

Raewyn G

Sorry Raewyn, but I would not use Vinegar. We have a solid marble basin in the bathroom and when I googled how to get it to shine, a fix that came up was vinegar and something else, but it wasn't strong. Well I ended up in tears, as the vinegar being acetic ate into the marble. Mr Bloggs wouldn't be aware looking at it, but I am and learnt a tough lesson

Vinegar may well be the answer. Irene our tiles are not marble and won't be anything flash. just grey ish non shiny tiles.
It is amazing how long the sugar soap reidue is hanging on and I only used a splash.

I'm following this with interest. Last week we had run out of floor cleaner so I used sugar soap - by the sounds of it a much stronger solution than Helen's - 1/2 c in a bucket of water. It took a lot of dirt off but the tiles when dry were unevenly cleaned and a bit chalky looking. I haven't got around to re-washing them yet so I await some suggestions.

Our floor tiles are porcelain and were quite expensive; as I understand it porcelain tiles are less porous than ceramic tiles, so that may be why ours aren't such a disaster as Helen's, but they still look less than ideal.

Have you thought of phoning the help line for advice? There should be contact details on the bottle. I hope it’s not bad enough to make it an insurance job.

A wash with a vinegar solution is on the job list for tomorrow morning.
I will report back afterwards.

If it's not too late, I suggest you test a bit on one tile in a corner before using the vinegar wash over the whole floor. You might be exacerbating the problem. Don't throw caution to the wind - tread carefully!

I was thinking same thing as Lorna.

So instead of the vinegar I did another wash with a floor cleaning product and it has improved a bit.
I think it is going to be a time thing and just washing the floor almost each day until all sugar soap residue has gone.

oh I am so glad my suggestion didn't make it worse.
I didn't even think to ask if they were glazed tiles or not.
When you get them back to normal, I believe there is a sealer you can put on them which should prevent a repeat
Sorry to anyone who took my advise
It was untested.

Raewyn G

How about a good couple of rinse/scrubs with very hot water and no extra cleaning products? I have always used sugar soap mixed with liquid disinfectant on our floors and they come up fine. I only use a small amount of sugar soap, probably less than 1/4 cup in at about 3L of very hot water.

Does anyone have any advice about steam cleaners for tiles? I believe Karcher is a good brand but I haven't done any research. We have a huge area of tiles and this thread has made me think about alternative ways to clean them.

I recently had professional painters in to paint all our exterior wooden joinery and a couple of rooms in the house. I told them I would have all the window joinery washed before they came and said I would be using sugar soap. Their advice was to be very careful when using sugar soap because it can take the surface of the paint off and damage some surfaces. They said to rinse all the surfaces well after using. I would be inclined to do as someone suggested and contact the Sugarsoap company helpline to see if it may have broken down the glaze on your tiles. Or you could contact a tile shop, they might have both an answer and a product to help.

I have been a bit preoccupied with a couple of desperate families that we are helping via Guardian Angels.
Anyway last night I noticed shoe tread marks on the floor, realising the problem is still there.
As it isn't a large area and as it is only me noticing I think I will just keep cleaning and hope things sort themselves out but it looks as though sugar soap isn't suitable for our tiles.