kitchen tile cleaning Archives - Berkshire Tile Doctor

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.

Silver Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Spencers Wood Reading

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.

Silver Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Spencers Wood Reading

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

Dirty Terracotta Tiled Floor Before After Cleaning Bucklebury Berkshire

Dirty Wax Sealed Quarry and Terracotta Floor Renovated in Bucklebury

1 Comment / Bucklebury Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History / Dennis Buckland

I was recently asked to survey the floors at a substantial property in Bucklebury which used to be a school. At some point in the 1970’s there was a major makeover and the property was converted into two houses. During the conversion a combination of Terracotta and Quarry tiles were installed throughout the ground floor and then sealed with what we believed was a wax-based product. Although Wax was a traditional sealant for Terracotta there are better modern sealers available now that are designed for the job and so we don’t recommend it. In this case the wax had deteriorated over the years and left the tiles looking tired and dirty.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Bucklebury Before Cleaning

Terracotta Tiled Floor Bucklebury Before Cleaning

After reviewing the flooring, I demonstrated cleaning the tile and grout which went well and impressed the customer who after living with the floor looking dirty for some time was eager for the job to be completed. I gave the customer a price for renovating the whole floor which was agreed, and we set a date for the work to commence.

Cleaning Dirty Quarry and Terracotta Tiles

My first job was to strip off what remained of the wax sealer using Tile Doctor Remove and Go and a new Tile Doctor product called Wax Away which has been specifically designed for dealing with wax. Both products had very similar effects and together striped off the old coating with little issue. Of the two products my preference to use Wax Away as it foamed less when wet extracting with a spinner tool.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Bucklebury During Cleaning

After applying the Wax Away, I left it to dwell for fifteen minutes re-applying more product when it began to dry out. Leaving it to dwell allows it to penetrate the wax and weaken it so it’s easier to remove. I then used a 17-inch black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary floor machine to scrub the solution into the tiles. Finally, I used a spinner tool fitted to a hot water pressure extraction system that is housed in my van to rinsed away and extract the resulting slurry.

After the floor was clean, I set to work on the grout lines that still had traces of embedded wax sealer. The floor pads can struggle to reach into the recesses of the grout, so the solution is to use a stiff grout brush and scrub them clean by hand assisted with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is out go to grout cleaning product.

As a last step in the cleaning process I gave the floor and Acid Wash using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. I did this to further clean the floor and to neutralise Its pH after using so many high alkaline cleaning products.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Bucklebury After Cleaning

Terracotta Tiled Floor Bucklebury During Cleaning

Sealing Quarry and Terracotta Tiles

I returned at the end of the week and checked that the moisture levels of the floor, we always do this to ensure the floor is dry before sealing and would not recommend sealing a damp floor as the results can be patchy. The readings were spot on, so I was able to get a started.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Bucklebury After Sealing

The customer wanted to keep the rich terracotta colours in the tile and wanted a sheen, so I selected Tile Doctor Seal and Go as the sealer. To fully seal the tiles, I used six coats on the smaller Quarry tiles and nine coats on the large Mexican Terracotta tiles. Seal and Go is a modern water-based acrylic sealer that provides both a stain resistant seal and a durable low-sheen finish, also being water based it doesn’t give off a smell as it dries.

Terracotta Tiled Floor Bucklebury After Sealing

The result was a huge improvement, needless to say my customer was very pleased and left the following feedback.

”I had a large quarry/terracotta tiled floor in kitchen/conservatory badly in need of cleaning. Dennis did an incredible job. He was very efficient and the result is outstanding, very happy to recommend”

Professional Renovation of a Large Quarry and Terracotta Floor in Berkshire

Dirty Wax Sealed Quarry and Terracotta Floor Renovated in Bucklebury Read More »