Ultimate Guide to How To Clean Marble Floors in Bathrooms

Marble floors are the ideal touch of beauty and sophistication for any bathroom. However, if not cared for properly, they can go from aesthetic to eyesore. We’ve put together everything you need to know to clean, maintain, and preserve your bathroom marble floors to maintain their timeless beauty. Your marble is an investment in your home’s value; our ultimate guide to how to clean marble floors in your bathroom will help protect it.

What you will need

Broom 

Water Bucket

Clean Water

Marble Floor Cleaner

Untreated Mop

White Towel

Marble Floor Cleaner

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Easy Steps to Cleaning Marble Floors

There are just 4 easy steps to cleaning your marble bathroom floors. Let’s get started!

1

Sweep and dust the floor

Thoroughly sweep and dust the floor. Be sure to remove all grit and dirt prior to moving on to step 2. Leftover grit and dirt might act as an abrasive when mopping, which could scratch the surface of your marble. 

2

Add marble cleaner to bucket

Follow the instructions on your marble cleaner. You should add approximately 1-4 fluid ounces of marble cleaner for every 1 gallon of water.

3

Mop the marble floor

Mop the marble floors using an untreated mop. Be sure to keep the mop and water clean during use. This is important because sediment on your mop can scratch the marble, and a dirty mop can create unwanted streak marks. The Marble Institute of America recommends you mop in short, overlapping sweeps. 

4

Dry the marble surface completely

Once you have finished cleaning the marble floor, either dry the surface with a towel or let the surface air dry. It is important to let the surface dry to achieve a streak-free shine!

After you’re finished cleaning the marble floors, be sure to check and see if there are lingering stains. If there are still stains on your marble tile floor, you may need a more robust method of removal. Consult our 6 Easy Steps to Marble Stain Removal. This how-to guide will help you identify what type of stain you have and how to tackle it!

Pro Tip

To prevent marble tile floor stains, we recommend cleaning up spills on your floor as soon as possible. If given enough, time spills can penetrate the pores in your marble and leave permanent stains. 

Below is a great video from Granite Warehouse illustrating these simple steps.

Cleaning Up Urine Stains On Your Marble Bathroom Floors

An unfortunate consequence of having marble in your bathroom is experiencing problems with urine stains on your marble floor around the toilet. 

If, like us, you don’t want to cover your beautiful bathroom marble with a rug that wraps around your toilet, you may have urine stains around your toilet. Fortunately, these are easily removed, and we’ve broken down the steps below.

Urine can create etch marks, stains, or both on your marble surface. A stain will look more like a dark, shadowy mark, while an etch mark will look more like a light, dull spot on your marble. To remove etch marks on polished marble, follow the steps outlined in our guide to marble etch removal.

If the spots around your toilet are dark, shadowy marks on your marble, you can use a Marble Poultice to remove the stain as recommended by the US government’s organization General Services Administration (GSA). 

What you will need  

Baking Soda or White Flour

Glass/ Ceramic Bowl

Wooden Spoon

Plastic Wrap

Plastic/ Wooden Spatula 

Mineral Water

Hydrogen Peroxide

Masking Tape

Below is a video courtesy of The Marble Institute of America. This video details the marble poultice application process. The steps for making and applying the marble poultice are detailed below. 

​Steps To Make and Apply Marble Poultice

1

Mix up the poultice

Add one cup of hydrogen Peroxide into the mixing bowl. (Note: you may require more than a cup if your stain is large, and that’s okay. This mixture is scalable.) 

Mix the baking soda or white flour into the bowl with the solvent. About 1 lb. of solid absorbent material is needed for every square foot of stain.

When finished, the marble poultice should be thick, similar in consistency to peanut butter or cake icing.

2

Clean and wet the stained area

Wipe the stained area clean of any loose girt or dirt. (Any leftover dirt or grit could scratched your marble.) Then, wet the marble surface with the mineral water. Be sure the urine stain is covered in a small amount of water. The water will allow for the poultice to penetrate the pores of marble and remove the stain.

3

Apply the poultice 

Apply the poultice to the entire stain and add an extra inch of poultice around the stain. It should be about ¼ to ½ inches high off the surface of the marble. 

4

Check and prep the poultice

Ensure there are no air pockets left in the poultice. Then, completely cover the poultice with plastic wrap and secure the edges of the plastic wrap down with the masking tape. 

5

Wait 48 hours

Let the poultice completely harden and dry. This should take approximately 48 hours.

6

Remove the poultice 

Remove the masking tape and plastic wrap. Then, dampen the poultice by adding about ¼ of a cup of water over the poultice. Remove the moistened poultice with a plastic or wooden spatula. Clean the surface with warm water and dry completely. 

During this process, the poultice will penetrate the pores in your marble where the urine has stained it and pull the stain out of the marble. In most cases, the marble poultice is a very effective stain removal tactic against marble stains.

It is possible that once the stain as been removed an etch mark will linger. The urine could have both stained and etched the marble during its exposure to the marble surface. Once the stain is removed, an etch mark will look like a light dull mark compared to its surroundings. 

To remove the etch mark, follow the guide to remove etching if your marble surface is polished. If your marble bathroom floor is honed, it can be more difficult and we recommend contacting your local marble professional. 

Tips for Keeping Your Bathroom Marble Floor Looking Great

Marble bathroom floors are beautiful when they’re new and shiny. Make sure you take care of them or they might lose their luster. 

Contrary to what most people say, marble floors are not hard to keep clean and beautiful. You just need to protect them from marble etching and follow a few basic steps on a regular basis and you’ll have beautiful marble floors for a lifetime.

Follow the steps below and your marble will always be good as new. 

Example of a Household Bathroom Cleaner that contains Acids

• When cleaning your toilet, shower, and tub, be careful not to spray or spill cleaners on the marble surface. Most of these are very acidic or alkaline-based and will quickly etch your marble. If dull spots show up after cleaning these areas, we recommend following our etch removal guide. 
• In bathrooms, water can often sit on the floor for extended periods of time. We recommend wiping the water off your marble floor as quickly as possible. This will prevent problems down the road and help prevent hard water spots. 

• Regularly clean your marble floors with a mild detergent or marble floor cleaner. Do not use ordinary household cleaning products as they may etch your marble and remove its shine! 
• Use runners and mats at the entrance and exits of your rooms with marble floors. 

• Be diligent about regularly cleaning your marble floors. Diligence is key to preventing problems down the road!

• Apply a marble sealer to your marble floor if it does not already have one. This will help prevent stains in the future. If you don’t know if you currently have a marble sealer on your marble, the water test will tell you!

• If your entire marble floor has been dulled, we recommend you contact your local marble professional. They can re-finish the surface for you. We recommend getting a honed surface finish for your marble floors. 

If you have a marble shower in your bathroom, check out our how-to guide to clean and maintain marble showers.

If you still have questions, let us know! We read and answer every single comment, and believe no concern is too small.

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