cleaning Archives - South London Tile Doctor

Quarry Tiled Floor Before and After Renovation Coulsdon

Screed Covered Quarry Tiled Floor Renovated in Coulsdon

Pictures below of a Quarry Tiled floor that a customer had discovered when taking up the lino at her house in Coulsdon. Realising the floor was original and worth saving she contacted Tile Doctor and I popped round to take a look.

A lot of the tiles had been covered in a screed to provide a flat base for the Lino and that would need removing. In order to be sure what treatments would work to remove the screen and successfully restore the Quarry tiles without causing any damage I ran a couple of tests and everything seemed ok.

Quarry Tiled Floor Before Renovation Coulsdon

We could both see the job wasn’t going to be easy and would take some days to complete so I worked out a price which was accepted and we agreed a date for the work to start.

Removing Screed from Quarry Tiles

The Quarry tiles in the WC hadn’t been covered in Lino so they would just need a good clean and seal so the main work would be in the Hallway and Kitchen. Fortunately my customer was having a lot of other work done in the house and was in the middle of stripping the walls so I didn’t need to worry too much about protecting the skirting boards etc.

Working in sections I soaked the screed in water and then carefully chipped away at it until it came loose, it was slow work but I could see the process was working as expected and eventually all the Quarry tiles were revealed. There was still a lot of cement from the screed stuck to the surface of the tile so after sweeping up the chippings I set to work applying a strong solution of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up to the tiles and leaving it to soak in for a short while. Grout Clean-Up is an acidic product that we normally use for removing grout smears from the surface of tiles. The solution was scrubbed in and then rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

Quarry Tiled Floor During Renovation Coulsdon

To get the tiles in the toilet clean I gave them a good scrub with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a reliable and effective Tile and Grout cleaner. Once clean they were rinsed with water and dried with the wet vacuum.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

I had timed my visit between working being carried out at the property so I was able to leave the floor for a few days so it could thoroughly dry out. I returned later to check the Quarry tiles were dry and completed the renovation by sealing the floor with Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based sealer that works really well on Quarry tiles. Five coats of Seal and Go were needed to fully seal the tiles and the floor now looks transformed.

The owner was very satisfied with the improvements and before leaving I advised to cover the floor before starting the decorating work.

Old Quarry Tiles Restored in Coulsdon, Surrey

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Travertine Kitchen Floor Before After Sealing Sanderstead

Renovating Travertine Kitchen Floor Tiles in Sanderstead

1 Comment / Purley Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History / Daniel

This customer, who lives in Sanderstead located between Croydon and Purley in Surrey had been experiencing difficulties in keeping her beautiful Travertine tiled kitchen floor in good condition. Over the years it had suffered from a heavy build up of dirt and oily stains, not to mentioned a number of cracks and small holes. Needless to say, the customer was keen to have the Travertine tiles and grout renovated and made easier to keep clean.

Travertine Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Sanderstead

Restoring Travertine Flooring

To begin the renovation, I applied Tile Doctor Remove and Go across the entirety of the large tiled area. This heavy duty remover breaks down any old sealers and other coatings, leaving the area ready to cleaned or, in this case, burnished.

Burnishing is a method for cleaning and polishing certain types of high-end stone, including Travertine, Marble, and Limestone. Our burnishing system involves the application of four diamond encrusted pads of varying grits. Firstly, I applied the Coarse grit pad, which helps to break down any dirt and stains on the surface of the tiles. Then, I worked my way through the Medium, Fine, and Very Fine pads, using a little water which acts to lubricate the process gradually building the polish on the Travertine. The floor is rinsed with water between the application of each pad to remove the soil that is generated and also give a final rinse at the end before leaving to dry.

To round off the first day of work, I filled any cracks and holes in the Travertine using a colour matching resin which greatly improved the look of the tile.

Travertine Kitchen Floor Cracked Tile Before Repair Sanderstead

Travertine Kitchen Floor Cracked Tile After Repair Sanderstead

Sealing Travertine Tiles

The following day I returned to the property to seal the tiles checking first that the floor had dried. I use a moisture meter to do this and it confirmed the floor was dry so I proceeded to seal the floor using our colour intensifying impregnating sealer Tile Doctor Colour Grow. Once that was dry, I added the finishing touches by buffing the floor with a soft white buffing pad. As you can see from the photographs, the combination of a fresh seal and polish worked wonders.

Travertine Kitchen Floor After Sealing Sanderstead

We did such a good job with the floor that the customer asked if we could also improve the appearance of their natural stone fireplace which was suffering from bad rust and oil stains however I do a separate write up on that.

Cracked Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor Fully Restored in Surrey

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Honed Travertine Kensington Before and After

Honed Travertine Tiled Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Kensington

1 Comment / Battersea Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History / Daniel

I was asked to clean and reseal this Honed Travertine flooring in Kensington, London which ran through the ground floor area and to a small area in the basement. The floor had been laid nine years prior and had only had regular washing by the housekeeper and was now overdue a deep clean and re-seal..

Honed Travertine Kensington Before Cleaning

Deep Cleaning Travertine Tiles

It was a large area so it was necessary to work in sections which had the added complication of having to move the customer’s furniture around.

With each area I scrubbed the floor with a rotary machine fitted with a medium brush head and a hot 3:1 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. I scrubbed it in and left it for 10 minutes before scrubbing again then vacuumed it away with a wet vac. I then checked all the grout lines were clean in case the brush head had missed any.

Next I fitted a pad holder to the rotary machine and using a medium grade burnishing pad scrubbed the area again, I then followed this up with the fine grade pad to build a nice sheen on the stone to match the customers’ requirements.

Honed Travertine Kensington After Cleaning

During the cleaning process it became evident that some of the Travertine tiles had holes in them, it’s possible they had been this way when supplied but it’s also possible that they had been worn through by the use of an acidic cleaning solution. so after once the tiles were cleaned and polished I filled in the holes with a matching filler.

Sealing Travertine Floor Tiles

The next step was to seal the Travertine to protect it from future staining and for this I used Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour enhancing impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the stone. In total I had to use three coats on sealer on the stone due to its porosity. I finally buffed the floor using a white soft buffing pad; this was to take off any seal left sitting on the surface of the stone and helps to work it in.

Honed Travertine Kensington After Sealing

In total it took four days to do this job and the customer was really happy with the result and left a very nice testimonial on the Tile Doctor website.

Travertine Floor Cleaned, Polished and Sealed in Kensington

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