How to care for zellige tiles

Zellige is the most characterful wall tile in Australian residential design right now — and also the most misunderstood when it comes to care. The handmade, hand-glazed surface is softer and more varied than machine-made porcelain, and a few specific cleaning mistakes will permanently change the surface in ways that cannot be undone. Used correctly, zellige ages beautifully for decades; cleaned with the wrong product once a week, the glaze will lose its sheen within a year.

What zellige is and why it behaves differently

Real zellige is fired clay, hand-glazed with a reactive glaze that pools, varies and shifts in tone across each individual tile. The clay body is significantly softer than porcelain, and the glaze surface has micro-pores, ripples and tonal variation that machine-made tiles do not have. This is not a defect — it is precisely the characteristic the tile is chosen for. But that same softness has practical consequences. Alkaline cleaners can strip the glaze slowly over months of repeated use, acidic cleaners will etch the glaze surface on contact, and steam cleaning forces moisture through the glaze and into the clay body.

Treat zellige the way you'd treat a piece of glazed studio pottery, not the way you'd treat a porcelain floor tile.

Daily cleaning DOs and DON'Ts

DO — use warm water and a soft cloth or sponge for routine wipe-down after cooking or showering. Use a pH-neutral tile cleaner once a week for deeper maintenance — the same neutral cleaners sold for natural stone are appropriate. Dry the surface after any wet cleaning, particularly in hard-water areas, to prevent mineral deposits building up in the surface texture. Buff lightly with a soft microfibre cloth to bring the glaze sheen back after a wash.

DON'T — use vinegar, even diluted (it is an acid and it etches the glaze over time, dulling the sheen permanently). Don't use lemon juice or any citrus-based cleaner. Don't use bleach — it discolours the glaze unevenly and irreversibly, and the damage is most obvious on darker, richer zellige colours. Don't use ammonia-based cleaners, including most generic glass and bathroom sprays — they strip the glaze sheen with repeated use. Don't use steam mops or steam cleaners — the steam forces moisture through the glaze into the clay body, which can crack tiles and stain through. Don't high-pressure hose zellige.

Grout care for zellige

Zellige is typically laid with 3–5mm grout joints to accommodate the natural size variation of handmade tile — wider than the 1.5–2mm joints used with rectified porcelain. That extra grout surface area means meaningfully more grout to maintain across the same wall area. Seal the grout with a penetrating sealer on installation, and re-seal every two years to keep cooking oils, soap residue and water staining out of the joints.

Clean grout with a soft brush and the same pH-neutral cleaner you use on the tile face — never an acid-based grout cleaner, which will etch the surrounding zellige surface the moment it overflows the joint. And it always overflows.

Stain removal

Hard-water mineral deposits (white film or chalky residue from dried soap and tap water): use a dedicated calcium and mineral deposit remover formulated for glazed ceramic — not a generic acid-based descaler. Test in a hidden area first.

Oil or food on a kitchen splashback: pH-neutral degreaser on a soft cloth, left in contact for five minutes before wiping clean with warm water. Repeat rather than scrubbing harder.

Grout haze (milky film left when grout has not been fully washed off during installation): set haze should be removed by a professional tile cleaner with a product safe for zellige, rather than a DIY haze remover, most of which are acid-based and will etch the glaze.

When zellige gets damaged

Surface chips and cracks — zellige chips more readily than porcelain, particularly at exposed edges. Small chips are visible but rarely catastrophic, and they often read as part of the handmade character. Always keep a small stock of spare tiles from your original delivery batch — colours vary kiln-to-kiln, and matching a chipped tile from a fresh order years later is rarely successful. A tiler can remove and replace a single zellige tile if the damage is significant.

Bleach discolouration — bleach damage to the glaze is permanent. The tile cannot be restored and must be removed and replaced. This is the single biggest reason we tell every zellige customer never to use bleach anywhere near these tiles.

Frequently asked questions