Tampa St Petersburg Tile & Grout Cleaning & Sealing Process

The Floor Cleaning Experts specialize in restoring tile and grout back to as clean as new.

We do this by cleaning tile and grout twice with two different types of cleaning detergents. The first grout restoration cleaning detergent breaks down greases and oils in the grout and is a strong alkaline grout cleaner. This is brushed into the grout with a grout brush and left to work for 15 to 30 minutes.

Rinsing the dirt and detergent from the grout is a very important part of the process. The Floor Cleaning Experts use powerful truck mounted hot water extractors that rinse the grout with 1200 psi hot water. This is done under a contained grout cleaning rinse tool that sprays the water on the tile & grout and creates a rinsing cyclone of water scrubbing the dirt and detergent from the tile and grout.

After all of the first detergent has been rinsed from the floor a tile and grout restoration acid cleaning agent is applied to the grout lines. The grout restoration acid restores the grout back to that new condition by dissolving a fine layer of grout to get to pristine new grout underneath.

Special grout cleaning tools are used to rinse hard to reach areas like corners and edges. This ensures the grout on the edges and in the corners is as clean as the rest of the floor. The tile and grout are then dried with microfiber mops and towels.

The Floor Cleaning Experts offers two types of grout sealer. A water based grout sealer that lasts between 3-5 years or Dry-Treat StainProof solvent sealer that permanently bonds with the grout and comes with a fifteen year warranty when applied by a Dry-Treat Authorized Applicator. The Floor Cleaning Experts have been a Dry-Treat Certified Applicator since 2005 and have permanently sealed over 100,000 feet of grout.

If you are tired of looking at dirty grout contact us and we will make your grout look like brand new again!

Tampa & St. Petersburg New VCT Floor Strip & Wax

This Tampa VCT (vinyl tile) floor was a new installation that needed to be stripped of the light factory coating, cleaned of construction debris and paint, then coated with six coats of wax. This job was complicated by the fact the client needed the floor on Saturday and the VCT was being installed Friday night with a full crew working in the building. Newly Installed VCT should be given between 4-24 hours to set up before stripping and waxing the VCT. We did our best with the conditions at hand and delivered the floor as shown 2 hours before opening.


To ensure the highest quality appearance and durability of the VCT floors we Strip and wax, we apply 2 coats of a urethane reinforced floor finish to seal the vinyl composite tiles and 4 coats of a high solids floor wax. We high speed polish the VCT every other coat. Lightly burnishing the VCT every other layer hardens the wax and increases the shine. This allows us to fix things by polishing off a layer and building it back up.


This picture is of the VCT floor after 1 month. There were foot prints in the wax because the AC guy walked on the VCT while it was still wet. We used a high speed floor buffer with diamond embedded polishing pads to polish out the foot prints.




The Floor Cleaning Experts can set up your new VCT floor or strip & wax your existing vinyl floor.

Call us for a free estimate.

Tampa Construction Clean up of Saltillo Tile also known as Mexican

When Saltillo tile is installed it is very dull and porous. It may come bare of any type of coating or it may have a light coating from the factory that will need to be stripped before waxing the Mexican or Saltillo tile and grout.

When the floor has been down during the construction process construction clean up can be complicated by paint, mortar, and drywall mud. The Saltillo tile and grout need a thorough cleaning before stripping and waxing the Mexican tile.

This Tampa construction clean up of Mexican tile involved cleaning drywall mud and paint from the Saltillo tile and grout,stripping the wax coating, and then waxing the Saltillo tile and grout with a urethane reinforced acrylic floor finish. This makes a hard coating over the soft sun baked clay of the Mexican tiles.

This Mexican tile floor was in the common areas of a busy apartment complex. After a years worth of traffic and abuse they are still in great condition with a consistent even shine.

The Floor Cleaning Experts cleans, polishes, and seals all types of floors. We clean Saltillo tile & grout, restore Saltillo and Mexican tile and grout, and strip and wax Saltillo tile and grout.

Tampa Onyx Floor Polishing and Sealing breaks our record for most expensive floor.

This Tampa onyx polishing job set the record for the most expensive floor we've ever cleaned, polished and sealed.

This 432 ft entry lobby of a luxury Tampa condo was freshly installed green onyx floor with a brown marble trim. At $200 per square foot this client didn't think twice about paying to have it permanently sealed with Dry-Treat StainProof and polished. Dry-Treat StainProof comes with a 15 year warranty when applied by a Dry-Treat certified applicator.

The diamond marble polishing was complicated because the brown marble was very hard and the green onyx is very soft. The marble was hand polished with small marble restoration polishing pads. The onyx polishing was done using a 5X powder polish.

Onyx is a very soft stone and requires regular powder polishing to keep its luster.

The Floor Cleaning Experts provide onyx cleaning, onyx polishing, onyx sealing, and onyx restoration.

We seal specialty stone floors with Dry-Treat StainProof penetrating sealer. As a Certified Dry-Treat Applicator we can offer a 15 year warranty on all Dry-Treat StainProof applications.

Floor Cleaning Experts Service Overview for Carpet in Tampa St Petersburg Clearwater

Carpets: Carpets require regular maintenance to stay healthy and looking clean. Carpets are big filters and filter out the dust, pollen, and other airborne contaminants we don’t want to breathe. This keeps them from being redistributed into the air supply and keeps them out of our lungs and sinuses. But the carpets need to be kept clean for this to work. Once they get overloaded with soil they stop working. Billions of dollars have been spent to engineer carpet so it doesn’t look dirty. When your carpets look dirty it means they are REALLY dirty.

Vacuuming is the most important part of maintaining your carpets and keeping that clean healthy carpet lasting a long time. Change your vacuum bag when it gets 1/3 full and keep the belts and beater bar clean. Heavy traffic areas should be vacuumed daily with light traffic areas being vacuumed once or twice a week.

Vacuuming will remove 87% of the soils that build up in your carpets. To remove the rest you will need carpet cleaning. This can either be a dry foam maintenance cleaning or a truck mounted hot water extraction restoration cleaning.

Truck mounted hot water extraction is a restorative cleaning process that uses a 12 step thorough cleaning process to get the carpets restored back to as close to brand new condition as possible. Treating the carpets with a DuPont Stainmaster Teflon or 3m Scotch Guard treatment will restore the carpet's stain resistance and will make vacuuming more effective by making it harder for dust to stick to the carpet.

Encapsulating dry foam cleaning is a great way to keep carpets cleans. Encapsulating dry foam cleaning is a maintenance cleaning process that works with your regular vacuuming to keep your carpets clean between truck mounted hot water extraction cleanings. Encapsulating cleaners envelope the soils in the carpet and then dry to a hard brittle crystal that shatters and vacuums up out of your carpets.

How often you clean your carpet is going to vary based on usage. A family of 5 with a dog and 6 neighbor kids will need more frequent service then a retired family of 2.

Carpets need to be cleaned every year no matter how little traffic they have gotten or if they look dirty or not. Your annual carpet cleaning is like the oil change for your car. It will keep your investment looking good, smelling fresh, and a healthy filer for your indoor environment. Families with children or pets should have their carpets cleaned 2-4 times per year.

Never ever have dirty carpets again!! How? Maintenance! Hot water extraction cleaning is much more labor intensive then encapsulating dry foam cleaning and therefore more expensive. The best and most affordable way to keep your carpets clean is to get it clean with a 12 step thorough hot water extraction carpet cleaning and then keep it clean with encapsulating dry foam cleanings. With the Floor Cleaning Experts Never Have Dirty Carpets Again program you get four cleanings for the price of two hot water extraction cleanings. Plus you get a free emergency spot visit per year.

The Floor Cleaning Experts is an IICRC Certified Firm and has two IICRC Certified Master Textile Cleaners on staff to answer any questions you may have about your carpets care and maintenance.

Contact us at 727-399-8803.

Grout Cleaning and Sealing, Grout Staining, or Grout Replacement. Which is the best solution for your floor?

When I’m asked to about grout staining I always ask why. Most of the time the reason is that, either the customer doesn’t think the grout will get clean or that a darker color is the only way to make keeping it looking nice possible.

The Floor Cleaning Experts have cleaned over 1,000,000 feet of grout since 2004 and one thing we’ve found is that grout cleaning can restore grout to original condition no matter how dirty and proper sealing can keep even bright white grout looking clean with proper care, there is only one good reason the change your grouts color and that is taste.

Changing your grout color can be done two ways: Grout staining or grout replacement. Grout staining is a lot less invasive then grout replacement but a lot less durable as well.

Grout Staining involves cleaning the tile and grout to clear the pores of the grout so the stain can penetrate. The grout stain is then painted into the grout lines and let to sink into the grout. The colored sealer only penetrates 1-3 millimeters into the grout and is vulnerable to harsh cleaners and direct sun light.

When a color stained grout floor gets dirty it can only be safely cleaned with mild detergents and a low pressure cleaning. Cleaning with a high heat high pressure system and restoration detergents can cause the color stain to lift out of the grout lines like strips of paint. Once this happens the grout needs to either have a grout stain reapplied or the color seal needs to be completely cleaned off.

Grout replacement involves cutting the old grout out of the grout joints and replacing it with freshly mixed new grout of the desired color. Properly sealed this will give you a long lasting easy to clean tile and grout floor. Any time you have it cleaned it will go back to looking like new.

If grout replacement is so good why do anything else. The mess is the short answer. All of the grout must be cut from the floor. The Floor Cleaning Experts uses multi-master with the vacuum attachment, but a lot of dust is still kicked up when regrouting a tile floor. Proper care needs to be exercised to ensure the dust doesn’t contaminate your air handling system.

So what is so bad about the grout you have now? Most people wanting to change grout color are doing it to make it easier to take care of. Keeping the color you have and restoring it to brand new with a full restoration grout cleaning and then sealing it properly will do that with a lot less money and headache the recoloring grout.

The key to keeping grout looking good is using a good sealer and applying it properly. The Floor Cleaning Experts uses a Flourochemical sealer that is good for 3-5 years and a solvent sealer that permanently seals the grout and comes with a 15 warranty.

If you still have questions feel free to call me at 727-399-8803.

New Video

It's my intent to put together a series of videos on some of the most challenging floor refinishing and floor cleaning solutions for problems faced by a home owner. In preparation, I put myself, and my cousin Bobby (who works with me at Floor Cleaning Experts) to do our first basic basic introductory video.

I learned much about my onscreen presence. Mostly I learned that I am better at work polishing your marble floors or making your grout look like new, or sandless refinishing your wood floors... and not being in front of the camera!

Regardless.. all humility aside.. enjoy the video, and I look forward to bringing you new videos that are more practical over time.


Tom.