How do you clean your slate floor?

[brittone2]

We're moving into a house w/ a slate floor (in the entry and hall to the kitchen) in a few weeks. I'm wondering what you use to clean it? I know vinegar on natural stone is typically a no no. Is the texture a pain to keep clean?

[o_mom]

At our previous house we had slate. I just used the same stuff as my kitchen floor at the time. I would probably do some Dr. Bronners and baking soda (if you have hard water) in hot water now. A steam mop might be good. It was kind of a pain to clean in general with the texture. Ours was fairly old slate (60 yrs), though, with wide grout lines, so if it is newer, you might not have as much of an issue.

I would highly suggest a professional deep clean and sealer before you move in. We did this about a year before we moved as part of getting it ready for sale and it made a huge difference in keeping the grout clean. I wished I had done it 10 years earlier. We used Sears for it, and it wasn't too expensive (around $100 for our entry that was proably 4x8').

[brittone2]

Thank you! I've been debating a steam mop so that would give me an excuse There's more tile in general at the next house so it would work well for that too. Good tip about the cleaning/resealing...I will have to take a look and see what condition it is in. That price is great.