How to Get Ice Melt Off a Tile Floor

Rock salt can damage your tile floor.

With winter comes snow, and snow brings slushy ice melt that sticks to the bottom of shoes and boots. The ice melt that has just been tracked all over your tile floors contains more than water – it also holds bit of rock salt and de-icing chemicals that can damage your floors and leave behind a film. To prevent the salt and other chemicals from harming the tile, it must be cleaned off as soon as possible.

Things You'll Need

• Paper towels
• Floor tile cleaner
• Vinegar
• Measuring cup
• Water
• Bucket
• Stirrer
• Mop
• Soft towel

Instructions

1. Determine the size of the area where the ice melt has been tracked over your tile floor. You can clean one or two single footprints easily with a spray cleaner and some paper towels, while areas one-quarter of the floor or larger will require you to clean the whole floor.

2. Wipe up the water from the ice melt with one or two paper towels. This will leave behind any rock salt or de-icing chemical residue. For smaller ice melt messes, spray a tile floor cleaner onto the area, allow to set for five minutes, then wipe clean with an additional paper towel.

3. Mix 1 cup of vinegar and 1 gallon of hot water in a bucket for larger areas of ice melt. Stir until blended.

4. Dip the mop into the vinegar and water mixture and sweep it around the tile floor, wiping up the remaining salt from the ice melt.

5. Rinse with plain warm water. Dry with a soft towel or let air-dry.

References

• Mrs. Clean: How to Clean Tile Floors
• Clean Link; Winter Cleaning: When Snow and Ice Fight Back on Multiple Fronts; Ken Fracaro
• Utah State University; Ice-Melt Damage; Liz Braithwaite