How can I make my glossy tile shine again?

Question

I have this floor in the entry foyer of my home. You can see there's a small portion (near the top of the photo) that is shiny, but most of it is dull and scuffed (like in the rest of the photo). How can I give it a mirror shine again?

Here is another angle of the same portion of floor as in the first picture.

I have never shined a floor before. This floor has looked like this since I bought it. I'm not even sure what to call this tile. I have some different tile in my kitchen and bathrooms, what I understand is ceramic tile, that is not meant to shine. Is this porcelain tile?

I thought I might rent a buffer from Home Depot like I saw maintenance workers use in my schools and office buildings, but then I saw this video trying to explain the difference between buffers and burnishers. I don't know which I need. I don't know what stripping the floor means. Do I need to do that?

That video says not to use buff spray, but to use a "restorer". When I search Home Depot for floor restorers, they're all for wood floors. So now I'm really lost.

I want a shiny floor. How do I do it?

Answer 1

Mix vinegar and water to clean them up, then scrub away the grime. Try a tile polish or a baking soda paste, and buff with a dry cloth.

Answer 2

I don't believe that this is simply dirt. There seems to be a rather definite line across the floor between the shiny and dull surfaces:

Dirt would not follow a straight line like that. It would be more likely for the dirt to be seen at the curved edge of the floor, where people would walk. Dirt would make the middle at least of the shiny part dull, too, which is not the case.

Interestingly, the line is parallel to the edges of the tiles. This looks to me like there was a rug on this floor at one time. If the back of the rug was scratchy (like carpet is), and this floor was a bit soft in nature, like stone, the rug could have over time acted like sandpaper and scuffed the surface of the floor.

Scuffs make a surface look dull. A scuff is actually a groove carved into the surface. The grooves break up reflected light and make the surface less like a mirror. Knocking down the tops of the grooves with smaller grooves gets the surface less "groove-y", and can eventually, with small enough grooves from the sanding or buffing, the surface gets flat enough to become more like a mirror again.

The solution is to buff the floor with progressively smaller-grain buffing surfaces and compounds to get the scuffs knocked down and get the surface more flat.

Based on a web-search and one website:

Buffers are for stripping floors. Burnishers are for restoring floors' shine.

Looks like you'd use a burnisher. However, the exact process you'd use depends on the kind of floor you have. Stone may respond differently than porcelain or enamel. You really need to identify the floor tile type, then research the process for shining that kind of floor.