You know? Blue dawn works for lots of cleaning jobs. I remove oily stains from clothing with a little dab of dawn gently scrubbed in. It also works great on skin oils that get deposited around cuffs and collars of light colored garments...it's great stuff. However, regarding flooring... A poster said, and I quote,...'I hate the tile floor and would never get it again.' Tile or stone floors are not for everyone and neither are wood or any other resilient material. You have to know what you're buying. If you've got cleaning issues, i.e. you want the floor to clean up easily and totally, you cannot beat a quality sheet vinyl or an equivalent material in the sheet format, because you can get it totally clean. Same thing applies...if you want a floor that is resilient, sheet vinyl or an equivalent sheet material can't be beat for comfort. And...if you want a 'natural' choice, then stone or wood is for you, although stone cannot be considered resilient. Porcelain and ceramic floors are somewhere in between, they are not strictly 'natural', but they are not resilient and come with cleaning issues for those who insist that their floors be completely clean when cleaned.

You won't find anything any easier. Because of the fact that porcelain has almost no absorbsion, it's next to impossible for stains to get a good grip. making it much easier to keep clean than most any other surface. All you should need for the most part is hot water to clean it, although every once in a while, you might want to use a mild floor cleaning detergent.

It will be VERY easy to clean because nothing [like a dried on drop of red wine] will stain it or stick to it. Since all the soil sits right on the surface, you very rarely need more than hot water to lift the dirt. Also, since unglazed is low gloss it doesn't show particles the way a glossy tile does. Colors with some variation, light and dark areas in each piece, tend to hide dirt better. But I made a pattern of several different colors of unglazed in my current kitchen, and I wouldn't say the near white shows dirt any worse than the med. beige or darker rust and green shades. But even with narrow grout, I'd choose as dark a color as you think you can live with. The grout in my entry and laundry is a dark charcoal, is unsealed, and never needs special attention.

I recently had porcelain tile installed in my house. It is a wood-look Italian tile that is light in color and resembles roble. When viewed in a particular light an imprint can be detected on the face of some of the tile. The imprint is a diamond pattern matching the pattern found on the back of every piece of tile in the box. A tile representative could not explain the cause of the imprint and attempted to remove it using acid. (He also felt that I had grout haze left over from installation.) Long story short; I had the tile professionally cleaned (at the supplier's expense) and much of the imprint is less apparent; however, the tile continues to have a hazy, dirty/dingy or spotty look when natural light shines on it at certain points of the day and in the evening when overhead lights are on. It is difficult to capture in a photo. I have found some blogs/newsletters (issued in Australia) that address consumer dissatisfaction with what is being referred to as "optical haze" (as opposed to "grout haze"). I suspect this may be part of the problem I have - the dingy/splotchy appearance that can be seen on the face of the tile in certain light. Some theories state that the optical haze is caused by a coating on the tile (such as a waxed based coating used by some manufacturers to protect the tile from scratching while in transit). I had the professional that cleaned my tile try a wax solvent on a small spot of my tile, but he advised that he did not get any beading suggestive of a wax coating. (He noted that my tile had a low luster glaze thus a sealant of some sort.) I am interested in hearing about similar problems with tile in the U.S. and how it was corrected and/or whether any consumer complaints were pursued via legal action..