battersea Archives - South London Tile Doctor

Shower Tile and Grout Cleaned and Renovated in Battersea Shower Cubicle

Ceramic Tiled Shower Cubicle Refreshed in Battersea

I was contacted by a customer in Battersea who was concerned about the state of their Ceramic Tiled shower cubicle. Ceramic tiles are glazed so usually very easy to keep clean however grout has a rough surface and attracts dirt easily. Where this happens it best to keep on top of the problem with regular cleaning as once you get a deep-seated stain on grout it’s very difficult to get it clean again.

The photograph below shows the worst of the problem where dirt had collected behind a wire basket that was fixed to the wall. The basket allowed dirt to build-up behind it and had deposited rust on the tile and grout.

Ceramic Shower Before Tile Cleaning Battersea

Maintaining grout is a large part of the work Tile Doctor does and we have several tried and tested products and processes for doing this. Having spoken to the client over the phone and having been sent photographs via email I created a quote for the work which should only take a few hours. My customer was happy with the quote and we agreed a date to do the work.

Cleaning a Ceramic Tiled Shower Cubicle

To begin, I cleaned the grout lines using our acidic cleaning product, Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up. The product is decanted into a spray bottle and sprayed onto the tile and grout where it was left to dwell for ten minutes before being scrubbed in with a handheld scrubbing brush. Spraying the solution onto the wall mixes it with air to make it lighter and more able to stick to the wall.

Being a concentrated phosphoric acid cleaner, Grout Clean-Up effectively removes mineral deposits including rust and old grout smears from the tile surface to leaving it looking much fresher, it also prepares the grout for a superior bond with the grout colourant that was to be added later.

Following this, I rinsed down the tile and grout with water to remove the dislodged dirt. The next step was to remove all the existing silicone mastic with a sharp knife; the mastic sealant stained with mould and much in need of replacement. Once all the rubbish was swept out, I dried any remaining dampness from the grout and tiles with a heat gun.

I then moved onto to recolouring the grout using a Tile Doctor Grout Colourant which is simply painted onto the grout lines using a small brush and any excess wiped of the tile before it dries. There are eleven colours available in the Tile Doctor colourant range and in this case, we chose a colour to match the tiles.

Ceramic Shower After Tile Cleaning Battersea

The application of Grout Colourant not only colours the grout joints – it also seals the grout in so dirt can’t become stuck in its rough surface, this also makes it very easy to clean going forward.

Once the restoration was finished, I resealed the shower base with fresh mould resistant silicone mastic to match the tile and grout. Tile Doctor don’t sell this but there are many makes available from local DIY stores.

Ceramic Tiled Shower Cubicle Cleaning and Grout Recolouring in South London

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Neglected Victorian Tiled Path Restoration Battersea

Restoring a Neglected Victorian Tiled Path in Battersea

1 Comment / Battersea Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning / Daniel

Here we have an old Victorian tiled path in front of a property in Battersea which was very much worse for wear. Tiled in a red and black diamond pattern it had seen a lot of use and weathering and the owner now wanted it renovating or improving at the very least.

Neglected Victorian Tiled Path Before Restoration Battersea

I was asked to pop over to the property, survey the path and provide a quote for its restoration. Hopefully you can appreciate from the photographs the numerous cracks and missing tiles. It was certainly going to need a lot of work to improve its appearance, which I was happy to do but I had to lower the expectations of the owner as it would never be perfect. We agreed a price for the work and booked the job in.

Repairing a Victorian Tiled Pathway

Before starting work we tried to source salvaged tiles that would blend in with the originals, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find any that were a close enough match, so had to make do with modern tiles. These are still suitable but the metric sizing makes it a little tricker.

Work started by digging out the broken and loose tiles and then cleaning what could be salvaged. Once removed the base was then cleared of debris and where required rebuilt with cement. There were numerous affected areas, so it took quite some time to complete. Finally with the preparation done the tiles were re-laid using a mixture of original and new. The new tiles being metric had to be cut to shape as needed. The repair work was extensive and took two days to complete.

Neglected Victorian Tiled Path During Repair Battersea

Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Pathway

On day three the replaced tiles had set, and I was able to clean up the whole path by scrubbing in Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel which being a gel cleaner doesn’t require a lot of water. This was then followed by giving the path an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Acid Gel which further cleans the tiles and again being in gel format doesn’t require a lot of water and is much easier to control. After each stage in the cleaning process the soils were extracted with a wet vacuum.

I recommend the use of gel cleaners on old tiles like this example as they were laid before the invention of the damp proof membrane and less water means it dries quicker. This was important as it was planning to apply a sealer the next day and the tiles must be dry to achieve the best result.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Pathway

The weather held out and after leaving the path to dry overnight I confirmed they were dry the next morning with a damp meter. Two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer were applied to the tiles which is a fully breathable sealer that works by soaking into the tile, occupying the pores and thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained there. With the dirt forced to remain on the surface they are much easier to clean. This product also contains a colour enhancing formula which helps improve the deep Red and Black colours in the tile.

Neglected Victorian Tiled Path After Restoration Battersea

The tiles responded very well to the treatment and transformed the appearance of the path. Expecting only a small improvement my client was over them moon with the difference.

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Path in South London

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Removing wax from a Terracotta tiled floor in Battersea

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

Traditionally Terracotta tiled floors were protected using wax and this floor at a house in Battersea had been protected with a number of treatments including wax and other sealers, without a full history of the floor it’s not that easy to tell what you’re dealing with. Wax isn’t an ideal sealer as it can scratch easily which allows dirt to become ingrained and modern sealers outperform it in many ways.

Terracotta Tiles Before Cleaning in Battersea

Cleaning Terracotta Tile

To get the floor clean I started the job using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was scrubbed into the tiles using a rotary machine fitted with a scrubbing pad. Pro-Clean is a heavy duty alkaline cleaner which can be used to remove wax residues and old sealants and being an alkaline product its safe for use on tiles. Unfortunately because there was so much old sealer and wax in the tiles it took several attempts to get the tiles clean and in the end it took five days to get them back to their natural state. Once this was done the floor was given a thorough rinse to remove any trace of cleaning product and allowed left to dry.

Terracotta Tiles Before and After Cleaning in Battersea

Sealing Terracotta Tile

Tiles need to be bone dry before sealing or it will upset the final effect of the sealer and in the end I had to wait three weeks before I was happy to start sealing, Terracotta being clay based is very porous so this is not that unusual.

To seal the tiles I used eight coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based topical sealer which leaves no smell as it dries and also adds a nice sheen to the floor, eight coats is not unusual for Terracotta again due to its porosity.

Terracotta Tiles After Sealing in Battersea

The customer could not believe the transformation and even though it took a lot longer than first anticipated he was really pleased, especially when he got his invoice, because he was expecting to be charged for the extra time it took to complete. I told him that once I had given him my price I do not add extras.

Terracotta Tiles Before and After Sealing in Battersea

Terracotta Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Surrey

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