Mould Removal

Limestone Bathroom Tiles Deep Cleaned Sealed Windsor Berkshire

Mouldy Antalya Limestone Wall Tiles in Windsor Bathroom

I recently had a call out to an apartment in the town of Windsor on the river Thames, just west of London. The enquiry was to see if I could do anything with Antalya Limestone bathroom tiles that were ingrained with mould.

Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles Before Cleaning Windsor

Antalya Limestone is a Beige/Cream stone that is quarried in Turkey, its notorious for being a soft stone that is hard to maintain and probably not the best choice for a bathroom. Reluctant to replace the bathroom tiling the landlord was looking for another option as he knew something had to be done before putting it back on the market to find a new tenant.

Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles Before Cleaning Windsor Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles Before Cleaning Windsor

The homeowner had rented the property out for several years and unfortunately the most recent tenant hadn’t looked after the property particularly well. One of the problems was that the tenant had forgotten to inform the landlord that both bathroom extraction fans hadn’t been working for some time.

The apartment was located in the basement of the apartment complex, the bathrooms had no windows so without an extraction fan to remove moisture bacterial growth thrived. Having surveyed the bathroom tile I provide a quote to completely refresh the bathroom tiling which included deep cleaning and the removal of the ingrained mould.

Cleaning Antalya Limestone Bathroom Tiles

Tile Doctor has a range of products that can be used to clean and remove ingrained soils, old sealers, grout haze and other unwanted contaminations. For bathroom tiles I use Tile Doctor Duo Clean which is designed to remove mould from tile and grout. Before starting work though I carefully removed the glass shower screens and other fittings.

To ensure the product could penetrate deep into the tiles I first had to open the pores of the stone, I did this using a soft 200 grit milling pad fitted to a handheld buffing machine. After saturating the affected areas in Tile Doctor Duo Clean and allowing it to dwell for well over an hour, we could see it starting to work. Though effective it was clear this was going to take some time to completely remove the mould, so I saturated the stone again with Tile Doctor Duo Clean and left it to work overnight. Thankfully the property was empty.

Returning the next morning the results were incredible, about 80% of the mould had been removed but I knew if we repeated the process, we could achieve an even better result. I continued with the same method as before and left it to work overnight again. Happy with results I could continue with the next stage which was closing the pours of the stone by using a set of finer burnishing pads.

The pads I use have a 6-inch diameter and fit a handheld buffer machine, they are applied to the Limestone tiles in sequence and applied with water for lubrication. The sequence runs from coarse 400 to very fine 3000 and you rinse with water to remove the soiling in between each pad.

Sealing an Antalya Limestone Tiled Bathroom Wall

The stone was then left to dry out before returning to seal. The sealant chosen was Tile Doctor Colour Grow which as its name suggests enhances the natural colours in the stone allowing its beauty to stand out. Two generous coats of sealer were applied allowing an hour between coats.

Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles After Cleaning Windsor

With the tile and grout renovated all that was left to do was to re-fit the shower controls and shower glass after giving both a clean. The client was over the moon with the result, and his concerns over having to invest in a new shower room before letting the property out were gone.

Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles After Cleaning Windsor Mouldy Stained Antalya Limestone Bathroom Wall Tiles After Cleaning Windsor

 

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Limestone Tiled Wet Room Before After Renovation Sonning Eye Reading

Stained Limestone Tiled Wet Room Renovated in Sonning Eye

This enquiry came from a theatre buff at a house in Sonning Eye near Reading who regularly hosted cast members playing at the local Mill Theatre. Five years prior he had a Limestone tiled wet room installed and unfortunately the floor tiles were laid unevenly and the fall on the tiles didn’t allow the water to drain off efficiently. The water would therefore tend to pool in the centre and overtime heavy limescale built-up and mould had also started to appear.

Limestone Shower Before Renovation Sonning Eye

Cast members staying at his house although grateful of the hospitality had often mention the state of the unsightly shower and so we were asked to pop round and see what could be done to renovate it and restore its appearance.

Shower Tile and Grout Cleaning

The first task was to remove the mould that had ingrained the Limestone, to do this I used Tile Doctor Duo Clean and scrubbed it into the tile with assistance from a steamer. I repeated this action three times, after each time I could see a visible improvement in the affected area and once it had lightened to a very faint grey, I knew that the next cleaning process to burnish the stone would see it disappear completely so left it at that.

Limestone Shower During Renovation Sonning Eye Limestone Shower During Steam Cleaning Sonning Eye

Next job was to remove the limescale build-up and re polish the Limestone tiles. I found the best way to do this was with a small hand-held machine, this allowed me to get into all the edges and groves that would have been impossible with a larger machine which would have struggled to cope with the uneven tiles.

Limestone Shower During Polishing Sonning Eye

I started with a 400-grit burnishing pad, but this struggled to cut into the years limescale build-up, so I switched this for 100-grit soft milling pad which did the trick. Once all the limescale had been removed it was time to rebuild the polish on the surface of the stone, so the process was repeated working through finer and finer burnishing pads 200, 400, 800,1500 and finally 3000-grit until the appearance of the Limestone was restored. This is quite a time-consuming process as the pad are quite small, additionally each pad is applied with water to provide lubrication which turns into a slurry that has to be rinsed off before applying the next pad. The result however is worth at as it really restores the polished appearance of the Limestone.
The last part of the cleaning process was to give the grout a quick clean I did this by scrubbing in Tile Doctor Pro-Clean along the grout lines with a grout brush, again rinsing off the slurry afterwards. Pro-Clean is a strong alkaline tile and grout cleaner that’s safe to use on natural stone.

Sealing Limestone Tiles in a Wet Room

The final task was to seal the Limestone and replace the worn mastic/silicon sealant around the edges. Usually I would leave the stone to dry out overnight but as it was a small area, I was able to thoroughly dry it out using a heat gun. Once dry two good coats of Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal were applied to provide on-going protection. Ultra-Seal is an impregnating sealer that works by occupying the small pores in the stone thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained, also it doesn’t change the colour of the stone in any way leaving a very natural appearance.

Last step before finishing was to apply a fresh application of white mastic sealant along the edges of the tiling to ensure a good seal and no leaks.

Limestone Shower After Renovation Sonning Eye

My customer was over the moon with the result as initially he thought he might have to have it replaced. He was so pleased in fact that he left the following feedback on the Tile Doctor feedback system.

“Excellent prompt and courteous service from Dennis who I cannot recommend too highly. After completion of the work a previously very tired looking wet-room looked better than it did when new.”

Limestone Shower After Renovation Sonning Eye

 

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