Dirty Silver Travertine Kitchen floor in Spencer’s Wood, Reading

This client in Spencer’s Wood, a small civil parish village located south of Reading within Berkshire, had a spectacular Silver Travertine tiled floor that had become grimy, stained and generally dull from use. Unhappy with how it now looked I was asked to quote for renovating it.

I called in to survey the floor and I could see how the grout had become badly stained and the natural pits in the travertine had trapped a lot of dirt which had accumulated over time. Kitchen floors are generally the busiest in any house and with a build-up of dirt, grease and other soils ingrained into the pores of the travertine.

It was clear any sealer that had once protected the stone was no longer effective. Though the kitchen was the worse effected area the client wanted the whole tiled area cleaned which included the hallway and cloakroom. I worked out a quote for doing the work, which was accepted and a date was booked in.

Cleaning a Silver Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor

On arrival I applied a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was left to dwell for ten minutes so it could soak into the pores and break down the dirt, grease, and any remaining sealer. For best results I then went over the floor with a rotary buffing machine fitted with a nylon scrubbing brush. Personally, I find nylon brushing perfect for cleaning grout and pitted travertine as the brush gets into the depressions releasing the contaminations. The resulting slurry was then vacuumed off the floor using a wet vacuum, the floor was then rinsed with water and vacuumed again.

To improve the appearance of the Travertine and remove any potential imperfections caused by wear and tear, it was given a light burnish using a 400-grit then 800-grit burnishing pads this left the floor with a gentle satin sheen. We could then improve the shine further by adding a 1500-grit followed by 3000-grit however, it was the client’s request that they didn’t want the floor to look “too shiny”.

The burnishing pads are attached to the rotary machine and then run over each tile several times using only water for lubrication. After another rinse and extraction to remove the slurry, the floor was left to dry off overnight.

Sealing a Silver Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor

Returning the next day, the floor had dried out and looked stunning. I damp meter was used to test the floor for moisture and after confirming it was dry, I proceeded to seal the Travertine using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow.

Tile Doctor Colour Grow is an impregnating sealer that enhances and improves the colour and texture of natural travertine whilst providing durable protection.

The client was thrilled with the outcome of the floor and was glad to have it back to how they remembered it. Before leaving I took time to discuss aftercare and recommended the client to use Tile Doctor Stone Soap as a maintenance cleaner.

 

Professional Restoration of a Silver Travertine Tiled Kitchen in Berkshire