No one appreciates a sticky feeling underneath their barefoot and if you’re here reading this article, chances are you have some questions like why this happens, how to fix it, and how to prevent it, running through on your mind. I’d like to reassure you that you’re at the right spot. I’m going to show you 4 reasons why marble floors become sticky and simple hacks to fix and prevent it.
So why do marble floors become sticky? One of the main reasons why marble floors become sticky is due to the amount of surfactants that are contained in a particular type of cleaning product we use to clean the marble floors. Also, the marble floor becoming sticky can be attributed to the wrongful mixture of home cleaning solutions that may contain acidic substances like vinegar or bleach instead of something like baking soda or simply warm water.
Figuring out what causes the frustrating stickiness on your marble floors will be the first approach to help get rid of it much quicker. To learn more on how marble floors become sticky and details on how to avoid it, keep reading this article.
1. Using The Wrong Cleaning Products
One of the main courses of sticky marble floors is using the wrong cleaning products for your floors. What happens is we sometimes rush the process of buying cleaning products and do not take a few seconds to do a quick review of the ingredients and the kind of effect it may have on the surface we are trying to clean.
So choosing the right cleaning product is important to clean your floors without leaving any sticky residue. Generally, most cleaning products will contain 3 primary ingredients of a solvent, surfactants, and water.
Among the ingredients contained in most cleaning products, you can always attribute your floors and surfaces becoming sticky to the surfactants in the cleaner – as they tend to leave sticky residue on the surface you’re trying to clean.
While some cleaners will immediately leave the sticky residue, others will happen so gradually that it will be difficult to tell if it is indeed the cleaner you have used that is causing the stickiness on your marble or other natural floors.
However, there are other cleaners you can use that will not have the same sticky effect.
A typical example is most healthcare facilities, hotels, and schools buy products that contain a lot of quaternary ammonium compounds that can kill harmful pathogens and clean their floors. Apart from the quaternary ammonium compounds being such a great disinfectant ingredient, it is incredibly sticky especially if it’s not properly cleaned off.
So if you don’t choose the right products with the right chemical components, although they would remove the dirt, bacteria, and make your marble floors clean, it will also leave behind a sticky residue that will make using your floors not very fun.
Solution:
What most people do when they notice their marble floors are sticky is to clean more and you might have probably done that. Sometimes we also begin to suspect the cleaning guy did not do a great job.
Usually, what more cleaning will do if you’re lucky is to solve the problem temporarily and within a couple of hours, your floor returns to being sticky. But the solution is not doing more cleaning but instead, you would want to get cleaners the leave less residue or a complete residue-free cleaner for marble or natural stone floors.
The biggest challenge with getting a residue-free cleaner for your marble floor is while not all residue-free cleaners are the same when it comes to their ingredients, there are a lot of manufacturers who hide the ingredients that make their cleaning products unique.
Oftentimes, these ingredients are long-standing family recipes and usually, these companies do not like to share and have their recipes stolen.
So you would want to get yourself equipped with a lot of information like you’re doing now on this article or be will to test out a couple of products and see which one you’re happy with.
If your marble floors becoming sticky are of great concern to you, which I think it is, then your will need to equip yourself with more information beyond this article on the kinds of chemicals to avoid.
To make your choice relatively easy, you can check out another personal go-to choice for a cleaning product that is residue-free that you can use for your marble floors so they don’t get sticky.
2. Mixing Wrong DIY Cleaning Solutions
Chance are, after reading the first point about using wrong, you might be thinking “but I never use any ready-made cleaning products for my marble floors”. Yes, you’re right.
Not only do ready-made cleaning products cause stickiness on your marble or natural stone floors but also even the non-chemical or chemical substances you mix and use to clean your floors can result in stickiness on your natural stone floor.
And yes, this goes to you if you particularly love to DIY a lot of things like me. We often love to mix things up for our cleaning solutions and although these will often work you would want to take a second look at mixtures you use for your marble surface cleaning purposes.
Just to be a lot more clear and precise, your marble flooring will typically become sticky if you mix the wrong type of solution to clean your marble floors. You do not want to use things like bleach, vinegar, or even Windex on your marble floors.
Even a single use of the above-mentioned substances and other substances that are very acidic or alkaline will disrupt the type of finish placed on your marble floor and will begin to eat into the marble floors causing the marble surface to become highly susceptible to becoming sticky and dull.
Solution:
One of the common household items you can use to safely clean your marble floors so there’s NO sticky residue is using things like baking soda, warm water, among other common household ingredients with neutral pH levels.
3. Using Too Much Cleaners
It is true when they say too much of everything is bad. You might have the right cleaning products for your marble floors or have the right DIY mixture for your DIY cleaning.
However, if you use them excessively or in large quantities, or too frequently, this can cause your marble floors to turn very sticky.
This is because excess cleaning substances will build up over time and your marble floors will begin to develop gummy gunk that will make walking, sitting, or playing on your marble floors, an unpleasant one.
When you’re preparing cleaning substances for your marble floors, more cleaners will not equal better cleaning. It is better to use less than to use more so that you do not leave behind cleaning agent residue on your marble floors that can potentially cause it to become sticky.
Solution:
This begs the question “how much cleaner should you use for your marble or natural stone floors so that it doesn’t become sticky? I cannot give you one single answer that will be a complete solution to all cleaners including ready-made products as well as homemade marble cleaners because the amounts of ingredients will all not be the same.
However, your best bet is to consider using dilution control cleaning chemicals that have been concentrated. The concentrated cleaning products are a lot more effective when it comes to having a solution that is ready to be diluted and use for your natural stone floors. In addition to their effectiveness, they are also a lot more economical and less time-consuming.
4. The Cleaning Tools And Techniques You Use
How you clean and what you use to clean your marble floors can also cause your marble floors to be sticky even after cleaning.
We have all been there. We have all at a point used or seen our parents or grandparents use the traditional mopper commonly known as the string mop to clean the floor. As innocent as this tool is, it is one of the common ways through which your marble floors get sticky.
The traditional mop and bucket style that most of us use for cleaning will essentially not be cleaning the marble floor but instead, they will simply be spreading the dirt and gunk.
The same can be said for mops like the sponge mops and dust mops as they will all not do a good job of cleaning your marble floors thoroughly and can lead to the floor getting sticky almost immediately after cleaning.
Solution:
While others may consider using the flat mops as a better alternative to the traditional string mops – out of which the flat mop may offer a better finish on your floor, the outcome you will get in terms of how your floors become void of any form of sticky residue will not be completely eliminated.
So here’s a solution I will like to recommend that will make your hustle with sticky marble floors a thing of the past! If you’re interested, you can check out the I-Mop which has an excellent record of being 70% faster in terms of cleaning and efficiency than your traditional mops.
Another tool that has also become popular in more recent years for cleaning marble floors is the steam mop. The steam mops are among the very best cleaning equipment for floors – especially if you find a good steam mop like this one which is specially made to easily handle sticky mess on floors.
The solution will not only rely on simply having the right cleaning tools and equipment but also ensuring the right cleaning practices.
A combination of the two will go a long way to help remove and prevent your marble floors from getting sticky.
Cleaning Tips That Would Help Clean And Prevent Stickiness On Your Floors
Here are a few cleaning practices that will help to both remove and also prevent your marble floors from getting sticky.
- The most common cleaning practice that comes back to hurt us is not cleaning or dusting off the marble floors before using cleaning products. You always want to rid your marble floors of any kind of dirt or gunk before mopping or disinfecting them.
- Also, you never want to use a dirty mop, dirty water, or dirty towels to clean your marble floors. When your cleaning rags and mops are dirty and you decide to use it, the mop, instead of removing the dirt from the floor will do the complete opposite.
- What usually happens is, the dirty mop will leave the cleaning agent on the floor than to remove or pick up the dirt from the floor. This then causes the marble floor to be sticky and very uncomfortable to use.
- You will also want to change the water you use to clean your marble floor from time to time. Avoid using the same bucket or bowl of water to clean your entire floor. You will end up with marble floors that are dirtier and sticky than before.
- Always use clean water to rinse your marble floor after cleaning them.
