limestone tiles

Black Limestone Before and After in Wimbledon

Black Limestone Floor installation problems resolved in Wimbledon

I was recently asked to this property in Wimbledon in to see if there was anything we could do to resolve the problem with a recently laid Black Limestone tiled floor. The builders that had laid the Limestone did not cover or clean the tiles prior to sealing with an impregnating seal thereby trapping in all the dirt from the building works. They then grouted the tiles but didn’t clean the grout off the surface before putting on another two coats of sealer all of which resulted in a very poor finish.

Black Limestone Tile Showing Trapped Dirt in Wimbledon
Naturally the customer was not happy so called them back to rectify the problem and so they came back and tried to strip the sealer off with cloths and a chemical stripper. Then without rinsing the stone to remove the chemicals they added another two coats of sealer; in desperation the lady gave up with them and called me in.

Black Limestone Tile Showing Trapped Dirt in Wimbledon

Stripping the Limestone Tiled Floor

To resolve I tried all the sealant strippers available to me but couldn’t budge the mess effectively. The only other option available was to diamond grind the surface so I discussed this with the customer and she agreed to this and left me to carry on.

Initially I started with a coarse 400 grit diamond pad but even that wasn’t having much effect so in the end I had to cut back the surface using a 100 grit pad moving up to 200 grit, then 400 before finally stopping at 800. To lubricate the process you need to use a little water and then rinse away the resultant soil after each pad. If this was a polished stone surface I would have continued with finer and finer grits to restore the surface polish however these tiles were rough limestone and I needed to leave it as near to how it should be.

Black Limestone Tile Grinded with Diamond Pads in Wimbledon
Once all the Limestone had been stripped back the stone turned an uninviting grey colour, so to bring it back to black I applied two coats of Tile Doctor Stone Oil which enhanced the colour.

Black Limestone Tile Adding Stone Oil in Wimbledon

Sealing Black Limestone Tiles

I left the floor overnight to allow the Stone Oil to dry out and then returned to seal the Limestone using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that enhances the colour in the stone and will protect it from staining going forward.

Black Limestone Grinded and sealed in Wimbledon
When the customer saw the final result she was overwhelmed and said she felt like crying with relief, because the floor now looked how she had imagined it to be. It was a great feeling for me to know that I had solved the problems for her.

Black Limestone Before and After in Wimbledon
 

Restoring Black Limestone Tiled Floor in Wimbledon

Black Limestone Floor installation problems resolved in Wimbledon Read More »

Polished Limestone After Cleaning in Leatherhead

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaning in Leatherhead

I was asked by a customer in Leatherhead, Surrey to clean the Limestone tiled floors that had been installed throughout the ground floor of his house. I popped round to take a look at the job and could see that the Limestone tile and grout was quite dirty; it was clear that the sealer had broken down and dirt was now becoming ingrained into the stone and grout.
The floor would need to be burnished and re-sealed to get it back to its original condition and so I provided a quote to do the work. The quote was accepted although he did ask if I could provide a couple of references from former clients; there are over 70 testimonials from past customers on my website so this was not a problem and I was happy to do so. Once he had received the references he called to book me in.

Polished Limestone Before Cleaning in Leatherhead Polished Limestone Before Cleaning in Leatherhead

Cleaning Limestone Floor Tiles

My first job was to protect the walls and units before scrubbing the first area with a hot solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean using a rotary machine fitted with a brush head attachment. This process lifted the dirt out from the grout, the surface and any holes.

The floor was then rinsed thoroughly with clean water to remove any cleaning products and I then proceeded to burnish the Limestone tiles using a set of four burnishing pads system fitted to a rotary machine. You start with a coarse pad lubricated with a little water and this removes any remaining sealers and ingrained dirt from the stone. Any slurry is then rinsed away and you move onto the remaining medium, fine and superfine polishing pads which bring back the polished surface, again each pad needs to be lubricated with a little water which needs to be rinsed away after each pad. It was a large area so as you can imagine this took some time to apply this process to the entire floor so I focused on the Kitchen then first day and came back the second day to work on the hallway and utility room.

Sealing Limestone Floor Tiles

On the third day I came back to seal the floors using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour enhancing penetrating sealer that brings out the different shades of colour in Limestone and is designed to provide maximum stain protection on natural stone floors. The last step was to buff the floor to a nice shine with a rotary machine fitted with a white pad.

Polished Limestone After Cleaning in Leatherhead Polished Limestone After Cleaning in Leatherhead

The grout is now back to its original grey as opposed to black and the Limestone look new again, needless to say the customer was really pleased with the finish and has since recommended my services to other friends.

Polished Limestone After Cleaning in Leatherhead
 

Limestone Floor, Cleaned, Scrubbed, Polished and Sealed in Leatherhead

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaning in Leatherhead Read More »

Limestone tiled floor Westminster Before and After

Limestone Kitchen and Hallway floor Cleaned and Sealed in Westminster

Details below of a Limestone Tiled Floor that I recently cleaned and sealed at a residence in Westminster in the heart of London. The tiles were not looking the best and after deciding to do something about the owner searched the internet for a solution saw my website and emailed to book me in 2 months before.

Limestone tiled floor Westminster Before Cleaning Limestone tiled floor Westminster Before Cleaning

Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Floor

I arrived on site at the agreed time and decided to scrub the floor first using a hot 4:1 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a heavy duty alkaline cleaning product specially designed for cleaning stone floors. This was left to dwell for a while and then agitated using a rotary machine fitted medium brush head. The soiled solution was then removed using a wet vacuum and the floor was then rinsed down with fresh clean water. Doing this removed a lot of dirt, that was ingrained in the stone, and by using the brush it got into the recesses of the grout, once I had done this the floor looked great but I could see it would still needed to be burnished to restore the original appearance.

Limestone tiled floor Westminster Initial Clean Limestone tiled floor Westminster Initial Clean

Burnishing Limestone Floor Tiles

We used a set of diamond encrusted Burnishing Pads fitted to a rotary buffing machine to polish the Limestone floor. These pads are ideal for restoring the shine on hard stone surfaces such as Limestone, Travertine and Marble, the come in a set of four and you start with the Coarse pad together with plain water and this cuts through and removes surface grime and any surface seal. You then progress through the Medium, Fine and Superfine polishing pads one to achieve a high polish.

Sealing Limestone Tiles

The floor was left to dry and I returned a couple of days later to seal it using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour enhancing sealer that brings out the colours in natural stone, finally buffing the floor using a soft white buffing pad.

Limestone tiled floor Westminster After Cleaning Limestone tiled floor Westminster After Cleaning

The lady was really pleased with the result and left a nice testimonial on the tiled doctor website, she has also booked me in to sort out two bathroom floors (one Marble and one Limestone) and she has also booked me in to carry out the cleaning of all her carpets.

Limestone tiled floor Westminster Before and After
 

Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing in Westminster, London

Limestone Kitchen and Hallway floor Cleaned and Sealed in Westminster Read More »

Limestone Floor Fulham Before and After

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaned and Polished in Fulham

This Limestone tiled floor was installed at a property in Fulham, I was asked round to quote for cleaning the floor and whilst I was there I did a patch test. The test worked very well and the owner couldn’t believe that the grout was actually white not dark grey.

Limestone Floor Fulham Grout Cleaning 1

Cleaning Polished Limestone Floor Tiles

The first step was to give the floor a quick sweep to remove any surface grit etc. Before starting the burnishing process which we use on hard stone surfaces such as polished Limestone to clean and bring up the shine on the floor. The burnishing pads and encrusted with diamonds and come in a pack of four consisting of Coarse, Medium, Fine and Very Fine 17” pads. I started with a coarse pad which removes sealers and dirt from the floor, a little water is added to lubricate the process.

Limestone Floor Fulham Before Cleaning Zoom 2 Limestone Floor Fulham Before Cleaning 3

Once we had finished with the coarse pad the grout was cleaned up using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted 1 part cleaner to 4 parts water. The solution was then scrubbed into the grout with a stiff hand brush until it was clean. The floor was then rinsed with clean water to remove any cleaning products and we then continued with the remaining burnishing pads applied in order with Medium, Fine and Very Fine until the floor was thoroughly cleaned and polished. We left for the day at this point to allow the tiles to dry overnight.

Limestone Floor Fulham Before Sealing 4

Sealing Limestone Floor Tiles

The following day we returned to seal the floor using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a great sealer for natural stone such as Limestone as it works to lift the colours out of the stone. The last step was to buff the floor to a nice shine with a rotary machine fitted with a white polishing pad.

Limestone Floor Fulham After Cleaning Sealing 5 Limestone Floor Fulham After Cleaning Sealing 6

The customer was really pleased with the result and couldn’t believe that the floor could look so good.

Limestone Floor Fulham Before and After
 

Limestone Floor, Cleaned, Scrubbed, Polished and Sealed in Fulham

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaned and Polished in Fulham Read More »

Limestone Floor After

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaning in Fulham

This Limestone tiled floor hadn’t been cleaned properly for 5 years and we were asked to clean and reseal, hopefully you can appreciate the improvement in the photographs.

Limestone Floor Before Limestone Floor Before

Cleaning Limestone Floor Tiles

The first step was to scrub the Limestone tiles with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad and a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a strong multi-purpose alkaline cleaning product designed for use on stone. A strong dilution of Pro-Clean can remove sealer however it was apparent some sealer was still present on parts of the floor so Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a dedicated coatings remover was applied to remove the remaining seal.

The floor was then rinsed thoroughly with clean water to remove any cleaning products and we then used the Twister Burnishing Pad system with a rotary machine to complete the cleaning process and polish the floor. The pads come in four different colours and you work your way through them one by one until the floor is thoroughly cleaned and polished.

Sealing Limestone Floor Tiles

Once the floor was dry we set about sealing it using two coats of Tile Doctor Ultra Seal which is a no-sheen natural look penetrating sealer designed to provide maximum stain protection on natural stone floors including Limestone, Granite and Marble. The last step was to buff the floor to a nice shine with a rotary machine fitted with a white pad.

Limestone Floor After Limestone Floor After

The customer was extremely happy with the result and has since recommended us to others.

Limestone Floor, Cleaned, Scrubbed, Polished and Sealed in Fulham

Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaning in Fulham Read More »

Limestone Tile After Strip and Seal

Limestone Tiled Floor Strip and Seal in Wimbledon

Details below of a Limestone tiled floor strip and seal job we did recently for a lady in Wimbledon, South West London. It was a fairly common Limestone problem which had lost its polished appearance and was looking dull.

Stripping the Limestone Tiled Floor

To resolve we had to stripped back the Limestone surface using a set of burnishing pads, these diamond encrusted pads come in a number of different colours each one does a different job from scrubbing to polishing. I started with the red pad together with water and then carried on with the white, then yellow pads using water. Finally when I had dried the floor I used a green pad to buff the floor up. This activity took most of the day so left the floor to dry overnight.

Limestone Tiled Floor in Wimbledon Limestone Tiles in Wimbledon

Sealing the Limestone Floor

The next morning I arrived to find the floor had dried out enough for me to seal it which was done using a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a great sealer for lifting the natural colours in the Limestone floor as well as providing stain protection. Once the sealer had dried I then finished it all off with a quick buff using a white buffing pad.

Limestone Tile After Strip and Seal Limestone Tile After Strip and Seal

I’m not sure the photographs really show the difference in the floor however I can tell you that when the lady returned home from work that day she was over the moon with the transformation and wrote the following testimonial:

So pleased with the service and advice received. Prompt and Professional, My floor looks like new again. Would highly recommend and use again. Thank you.

 

Limestone Floor Restoration in Wimbledon

Limestone Tiled Floor Strip and Seal in Wimbledon Read More »

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