Earlier this summer I received an enquiry from a homeowner in Wargrave near Twyford regarding their Limestone patio which was “looking tired”. The patio had been laid around five years prior and during that time the UK weather had degraded its appearance significantly resulting in ingrained dirt and algae.
The client tried pressure washing themselves over the years however the stone needed more work to return its former glory. The client was on the High Street in Wargrave which is notoriously difficult to park especially if you have a large van like myself.
A quote was provided, materials were ordered, and a date was booked in. The client had seen a recent work history of mine where I had restored a marble table, having one herself in similar condition she asked if anything could be done. Confident we could dramatically improve it that was also booked in to be restored on the same day. If you have been though my website you will see I have restored several stone tables in the past and I’ll detail the restoration of this one as well in a future article.
Deep Cleaning a Tired Limestone Patio
Usually, I use a van mounted high pressure cleaning system to help clean exterior stone, however due to the parking issue this wasn’t going to be an option. The alternative was to initially clean the stone using a combination of cleaning products and abrasive burnishing pads, similar to how I would tackle internal Limestone.
The outside elements had certainly taken its toll on this patio, fortunately Tile Doctor have a wide variety of products that help us resolve numerous issues with stone. In this case I decided to start with Tile Doctor Patio and Driveway Cleaner. This is a very strong product that I normally wouldn’t recommend for use on Limestone however its very effective at removing algae, lichens and black spot which was exactly what this patio needed.
I applied the patio cleaner diluted 50/50 with water to a small area, allowing dwell time before scrubbing with a mechanical scrubbing machine. The dirty slurry was rinsed down and vacuumed away. Once I was happy the contamination was eliminated, I ran a series of burnishing pads across the stone, starting with a coarse 400 grit burnishing pad, followed by 800, and finely a fine 1500 grit pad which gradually closed the pores, and restored the appearance of the stone. This is a messy process which generates a lot of slurry which is removed after each pad with the wet vacuum.
Sealing a Limestone Tiled Patio
I offered the option to seal the stone, however on this occasion the client said she would rather me come back every one or two years to repeat the process. The drainage wasn’t particularly good on this patio installation and water tends to pool on the stone for long periods of time, so they were concerned the seal wouldn’t last over the upcoming autumn and winter.
Should they have wished to go ahead and seal the stone I would have used either Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal for a natural look or Tile Doctor Colour Grow to enhance the colours of the stone.
Completed in a day the patio now looks like it was only just installed and the owners are looking forward to showing it off to their guests of the rest of the summer.
Tile Doctor have the products, equipment and experience to tackle all sorts of stone, tile and Limestone related problems; internal and external including full refurbs and even stain removal with products such as Tile Doctor Reduxa which can lift Red Wine stains out of natural stone.