sealing

Victorian Tiled Hallway Renovation Chesham

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Deep Cleaned and Sealed in Chesham

This customer had just moved into a property in Chesham around eighteen months ago. During that time, they had completely renovated the property and in the process had pulled up the hallway carpet to discover a lovely Victorian tiled floor which appeared to be in good condition but very dirty. Period features like these can add a lot of value to a house these days and so they decided to investigate having it professionally cleaned and contacted me for a quote.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before Cleaning Chesham

Although I can give some indication of price over the phone you never know exactly what to expect so my preference is to visit the property a conduct a test clean. It’s a little trickier to do this now due to COVID-19 but using a combination of PPE, maximum ventilation and social distancing measures I was able to work on the floor. The tiles were in good order with no replacements needed so my focus would be removing carpet adhesive and ingrained dirt. The test went well, and I followed up with a quotation which was accepted, and a date arranged to do the work.

Deep Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor in Chesham

I had worked out previously that the quickest was to deep clean the floor and remove the glue and any old seal was to apply Tile Doctor Remove and Go which as its name suggests is a coatings removed designed for Tiled floors. My method was to spray strong a dilution of Remove and Go onto the Victorian tiles and leave it to soak in for fifteen minutes. Then it was scrubbed in with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine. The soil was rinsed off using a minimal of water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor During Cleaning Chesham

Once the floor had dried, I inspected the tiles and could see more work would be needed to get the white tiles really sparkling. For this I went over the floor using a 200-grit resurfacing pad using water to lubricate the process, I also used handheld burnishing blocks of different grits to do the edges. With this extra effort and another rinse with water to remove the soil the floor looked great, and so I left for the day so it could dry out ready for sealing.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

I came back the next day and started by taking moisture readings with a damp meter to ensure the tiles were dry and ready for sealing. This is important as you don’t want to apply sealer to a damp tile and old floors can suffer from damp issues due to the lack of a damp proof membrane.

All was well with the floor, so I was able to move straight onto sealing which started with the application of a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is an impregnating sealer that soaks into the pores of the tile enhancing colour and adding protection. Once this had dried, I followed up with another seven coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which adds further protection and leaves a nice subtle sheen to the tiles. This product works really well on old Victorian Tiles like these and being water based it doesn’t leave a smell as it dries.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor After Cleaning Sealing Chesham

The Victorian tiles looked so much cleaner and brighter after I had finished, and my customer was very happy with the transformation. For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner to maintain the floor, it has a nice fresh smell and can be used regularly due to its pH neutral nature which won’t prematurely erode the sealer like stronger bleach based cleaners.

 

Professional Victorian Tiled Hallway Renovation in Buckinghamshire

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Polished Limestone Before and After cleaning in Aston Clinton

Cleaning and Polishing a Limestone in Aston Clinton Communal Hallway

This Polished Limestone floor had been laid in the communal hallway of a block of flats in Aston Clinton and as you can see from the photograph below the stone had become ingrained with dirt over time and was now overdue for a deep clean and polish. Apologies for sounding like a dentist and also the photographs as the lighting wasn’t brilliant in the corridor.

Polished Limestone before cleaning in Aston Clinton

Cleaning Limestone Tile and Grout

Due to the heavy soling of the stone and grout lines we started by applying a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an alkaline cleaning product that’s safe to use on Stone and Grout. The solution was scrubbed into the floor using a commercial rotary machine fitted with a fitted poly brush; once the cleaning solution had become dirty the floor was rinsed with water and the process re-applied until the stone and grout were clean.

Polishing Limestone Floor Tile

Our next task was to re-build the polish on the stone using a set of Tile Doctor Diamond encrusted burnishing pads which are applied to the tile in sequence from Coarse to fine further cleaning and polishing the stone until its returned to its original condition. The pads come in a set of four and you start with the coarse pad together with a little water. This this cuts through and removes surface grime, dirt and any remaining sealer. The floor is then rinsed and you move on through the remaining pads until the polish has been restored to the tiles. This process took up much of the first day so the floor was given a final rinse and left to dry overnight.

Sealing Limestone Tiles

On the second day we returned to find the tiles had dried and we started to seal the Limestone using three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour intensifying sealer that soaks into the pores of the stone bringing out the natural colours whilst providing that all important lasting protection.

Polished Limestone after cleaning in Aston Clinton
 

Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire

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Slate Tiled Floor in Tring Bucks Before and After

Riven Slate Tiled Kitchen floor cleaned and sealed in Tring Bucks

These Riven Slate tiles at house in Tring Buckinghamshire had been laid five years earlier and the original sealant had worn off especially around the high traffic cooker and fridge areas. This has led to dirt getting trapped into the pores of the tile and the whole floor becoming rather dull.

Slate Tiled Floor in Tring Bucks Before

Cleaning Riven Slate Floor Tiles

We started with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an alkaline tile cleaner designed for use on tile, stone and grout. It was scrubbed into the tile and grout lines to give the floor a deep clean and then rinsed with clean water. To strip the remaining sealant we used Tile Doctor Remove and Go spread throughout the floor and then left for 45 minutes to soften the sealant, then with the use of an aggressive black pad fitted to a rotary machine the remaining sealant was stripped from the tile. The last step was to rinse the floor with clean water to remove any cleaning products and neutralise it before sealing, it was then left overnight to dry.

Sealing Riven Slate Tiles

The next day we came back to seal the floor, the customer had previously requested a matt finish for the floor so Tile Doctor Colour Grow was chosen as the sealer, this product provides the desired matt finish but also lifts the natural colours in the stone as well as providing the necessary stain protection going forward.

Slate Tiled Floor in Tring Bucks After
 

Cleaning and Sealing a Slate Tiled Floor in a London shop

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Mosaic Tiled Floor and Basalt Tiles Before and After

Basalt and Glass Mosaic tiles in a wet room London N6

This property in London N6 had been rented out previously by the owners and they were now renovating it before moving back in, this work included a wet room which had glass mosaic floor tiles and a dark Basalt tile laid on the wall. The main problem had been a general lack of maintenance over the years which led to a major unsightly build-up of lime scale throughout the wet room. We agreed to do the work but had to explain to the client how difficult the work would be and set their expectation for only an eighty percent improvement. I must apologise in advance for the quality of some of the photographs on this page, the size of the room, low lighting a nature of the stone surfaces didn’t lend themselves well to being photographed.

Mosaic Tiled Floor and Basalt Tiles Before Mosaic Tiled Floor and Basalt Tiles Before

Day 1 -Cleaning Basalt and Mosaic Tiles

Having protected all the chrome furnishings within the wet room we started to soak the Basalt tiled walls with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up followed by scrubbing and rinsing constantly with clear water. Grout Clean-up is an Acid based product so you do need to take care when doing this however it is particularly effective at shifting mineral deposits like Limescale. When we were satisfied this had removed the majority of soap scum and lime scale we proceeded to clean the Glass Mosaic floor tiles using the same method.

Day 2 -Polishing Basalt wall Tiles

The basalt tiled walls now needed to be restored back to their original factory condition using small diamond encrusted burnishing pads attached to a hand held polishing machine. We started with a coarse pad which removed any remaining Limescale which had impregnated the surface of the stone and moved onto the finer pads which polish the stone. Once this was complete the tiles were given a final clean with Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner which is an everyday cleaning product designed for regular use on stone or sealed tiled surfaces.

Day 3 -Sealing Basalt wall Tiles

We came back on the third day and after making sure the Basalt tiles had dried we gave it a final buffing to restore the stone to a deep high gloss shine. The last step was to seal the Basalt tile in order to protect it and make it easier to clean in the future and for this we applied three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that soaks into the pores of the stone.

Finally we used a rotary floor polisher fitted with a white buffing pad to buff the mosaic glass floor to a high shine.

Mosaic Tiled Floor and Basalt Tiles After Mosaic Tiled Floor and Basalt Tiles After

 

Tiled wet room cleaned and polished in North London

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Marble Floor Cleaned in Ealing

Marble Tiled Floor Cleaned and Polished in Ealing

These photographs were taken at a house in Ealing, West London where the customer had requested a deep clean and polish of the marble tiled floors installed in a kitchen and conservatory which had become dull and dirty over a period of time.

Marble Floor Cleaning in Ealing

Marble Tiled Floor Polishing

The first step was to give the Marble floor a thorough clean throughout with a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an industrial strength Tile Cleaner safe to use on natural stone floors, we also took this opportunity to use a stiff brush along the grout lines to get them nice and clean, the soiled cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor rinsed with clean water.

The next step was to use a set of diamond encrusted Twister Burnishing Pads fitted to a rotary buffing machine to polish the floor. The pads come in a set of four; you start with the Red pad together with plain water and this cuts through and removes surface grime and any surface seal. You then progress through one by one until you get to the final Green polishing pad which provides a high polish, we managed to complete most of this process before the end of day.

Marble Floor Cleaning in Ealing

Polishing and Sealing Marble Tile

The next day we completed the polishing process with the Green pad which really brought a deep shine to the floor. To protect the floor it was then sealed using Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer which provides a natural finish whilst enhancing the natural colours in the tile. We waited for the sealer to dry before buffing it with a white buffing pad to bring up the shine further.

Marble Floor Cleaned in Ealing
 

Marble tiled floor cleaned and polished in Ealing

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Terracotta Tile in Denham Before and After

Terracotta Tiled Floor Maintained in Denham, Buckinghamshire

This terracotta floor installed in a house in Denham, at the southern end of Buckinghamshire, had become discoloured with ingrained soil and a mix of old sealers and wax coating leaving an unsightly looking kitchen floor that was in need of stripping, deep cleaning and reseal.

Terracotta Tile in Denham Cleaning

Cleaning Terracotta Tile

I started the job using a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, which is a heavy duty alkaline product ideal for cleaning natural products such as Terracotta; this was scrubbed into the tiles quite aggressively with a black pad fitted to a rotary machine on slow speed. Once this had been completed we could see the remaining old sealers and wax layers and started to remove them using a strong tile stripper called Tile Doctor Remove and Go. Once we were satisfied we had removed all of the coatings we gave the floor a thorough rinse with clear water to remove any remaining residue and left it to dry overnight.

Terracotta Tile in Denham Cleaning

Sealing Terracotta Tile

The next day came back to do the sealing and checked the floor first for any spots we might had missed and also to ensure it had dried sufficiently. Tile Doctor Seal and Go was used to seal the floor, it’s a water based sealer so it doesn’t give off an odour when it’s drying and also offers durable stain protection together with a satin finish. Terracotta is very porous and in the end the floor actually took nine coats of sealer before it was fully sealed. Applying a sealer does takes a long time to apply as you have to wait for it to dry before applying the next coat.

Terracotta Tile in Denham After
The work took two days in all and you can see the difference for yourself, the floor is much cleaner and will be a lot easier to maintain going forward.

Terracotta Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Buckinghamshire

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Limestone Floor Before and After Cleaning

Cleaning and Polishing a Limestone tiled floor in High Wycombe

The photographs on the page come from the kitchen and dining area of a house in High Wycombe which had previously been rented out to tenants and the client wanted required the Limestone Tiled floor tiles to be cleaned and polished before the next occupant moved in.

Limestone Floor Before Cleaning Limestone Floor Before Cleaning

Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Floor

We started the project with a deep clean of the tiles and grout using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a heavy duty alkaline cleaning product specially designed for use on natural stone floors. This was left to dwell for a while and then agitated using a rotary machine fitted with a Black Scrubbing pad. The soiled solution was then removed using a wet vacuum and the floor was then rinsed down with fresh clean water; the process was repeated until a satisfactory result was obtained and we also treated the discoloured grout lines with more Pro-Clean and a stiff brush.

Limestone Tiled Floor Polishing

We used a set of diamond encrusted Burnishing Pads fitted to a rotary buffing machine to polish the Limestone floor. These pads are ideal for restoring the shine on hard stone surfaces such as Limestone and Marble, the come in a set of four and you start with the Red pad together with plain water and this cuts through and removes surface grime and any surface seal. The floor was then washed down again, this time with Tile Doctor Neutral cleaner which is an everyday cleaning product and then left to dry overnight.

Sealing Limestone Tiles

On the second day we gave the Limestone a polish using a Green burnishing pad which is a very fine pad that provides a high polish. The last step was to seal the Limestone which we did with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour intensifying sealer that brings out the colours in natural stone and provide lasting protection.

Limestone Floor After Cleaning
 

Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

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Textured Marble floor in Chesham After

Polishing a Textured Marble Tiled floor in Chesham

A customer recently purchased a property the village of Chesham and hoped we could improve the appearance of her textured marble tiled floors which had over a number of years become dull and lost the polished marble look one would expect from a floor of this quality.

Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing

For polished stone like Marble and Limestone the only way to restore the finish is to burnish the floor and this floor was no different. The burnishing pads are diamond encrusted and come in a setup of four seventeen inch pads for use with a heavy rotary machine, each pad having a different purpose.

So we started with the Red pad which is designed to remove sealers together with a little water, we then took the opportunity to clean up the grout by applying a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and scrubbing it into the grout lines to get them clean. Next step was to remove the soiled cleaning solution and wash the floor down with water before moving onto the white burnishing pad which will grind off ingrained dirt and is the first step in polishing the floor. We then completed the floor polishing using the Yellow then Green polishing pads which smooth down the surface and produce a shiny finish.

Textured Marble floor in Chesham Before

Sealing Textured Marble Tiles

Once the floor was polished we applied Tile Doctor Shine Crystallising Powder to the marble tile using a rotary machine fitted with a white polishing pad. This last step gives a very deep high shine as well as a tough durable finish.

Textured Marble floor in Chesham After
When the customer returned she asked was it safe to walk on as the floor as at first glance it looked wet; we assured her this is the Tile Doctor high shine appearance and is perfectly ok.

Textured Marble Floor Tiles Cleaned and Polished in Buckinghamshire

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Terracotta Tiles Before and After Sealing

Terracotta Kitchen Tiles Deep Cleaned in Great Missenden

This customers Terracotta tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in Great Missenden and had become ingrained with dirt and soiling over the last twenty years leaving an unsightly black greasy appearance which was impacting the sale of the property.

Cleaning Terracotta Tiles

On the first day we covered the floor with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean which is a heavy duty Tile Stone and Grout Cleaner mixed 50/50 with Tile Doctor Ultra Clean which adds abrasive particles into the mix. The resulting combination provides a powerful cleaning agent that penetrated deep into the tile and in conjunction with a rotary machine fitted with a scrubbing pad managed to remove several layers of soiling. We then rinsed the floor with fresh water and removed the vast amount of slurry with a wet vacuum.

Terracotta Tiles During Cleaning
The next step of our cleaning process was to apply Tile Doctor Remove and Go across the tiles and let it soak in as before; Remove and Go is a coatings remover that will strip the floor of any seal or wax coatings which had been applied to the floor over the years, again the product was worked in using a scrubbing pad and then washed off.

Once we were happy with all cleaning and seal and wax removal and the floor had returned to its original condition we left the floor to dry.

Terracotta Tiles After Sealing

Sealing Terracotta Floor Tiles

Once the floor was dry we started to seal it in order to protect it and for this we chose Seal and Go which not only leaves a surface protection but also brings though the true colour of the stone returning the floor to its original beauty, Terracotta is very porous and it took seven coats before it was fully sealed.

Our customer was very happy with the difference and I have since been informed they have received a first offer on the property.

 

Terracotta tiles deep cleaned in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

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Limestone Floor with Slate Inlays After

Limestone Tiled floor cleaned and polished in Little Chalfont

This Limestone tiled floor with Slate Inlays was installed in a house in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire; the previous sealer had failed and was no longer offering any protection allowing dirt to become ingrained in the stone and become dull from soiling.

Limestone Floor with Slate Inlays Before

Cleaning and Polishing Limestone Tiles

To get the Limestone Tiled floor back to its original condition we used a set of diamond encrusted 17” Burnishing Pads fitted to a heavy rotary buffing machine. It’s important to give the floor a quick clean first to prevent grit from getting trapped in the pads and leading to deep scratches on the surface. You start off with the coarse red pad together with a little water which can remove sealers before moving onto the other pads.

At this point we gave the floor a deep clean using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a heavy duty alkaline cleaning product that’s safe to use on Stone floors mixed 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra-Clean which adds tiny abrasive particles into the solution; this combination is especially effective on grout so we took the opportunity to get into the grout lines as well. The resulting soiled solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor washed down with clean water before continuing the burnishing process with the White cleaning pad followed by the Yellow Polishing pad which smooth’s the surface and finally the Green pad which gives that high shine finish.

Sealing Limestone Tiles

The floor was washed down to remove any particles left over from the polishing and left to dry before we set about sealing using three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. Colour Grow is recommended for a number of stone surfaces and does well to lift the natural colours in the stone as well as providing on-going surface protection.

Limestone Floor with Slate Inlays After
Before leaving we recommended that the customer use Tile Doctor Concentrated Tile & Stone Cleaner for cleaning going forward, like Pro-Clean it’s an alkaline cleaning product that will clean the stone without eating into the sealant. The house owner was very satisfied with the results and promised to recommend our services to family and friends.

Limestone Tiled Floor Restored in Buckinghamshire

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Travertine Floor Aylesbury After

Honed Travertine Tiled floor Re-Sealed in Aylesbury

Details below of a newly laid Travertine Honed & Filled floor in Aylesbury that needed stripping and re-sealing. The work was done at the request of a building company who had just completed a pair of semi-detached houses laid with Travertine tiles on the ground floor. Unfortunately the tiling contractor had failed to clean the tile surface properly before sealing and had trapped particles of dust and debris into the sealer, as a result the whole floor was as rough as sandpaper and needed to be stripped and re-sealed prior to their clients moving in the following week.

Travertine Floor Aylesbury Before

Cleaning Travertine Tile

To remove the existing sealer and to polish the stone we used the Tile Doctor diamond burnishing system. This involves burnishing the floor with diamond encrusted pads fitted to a heavy rotary machine, the system consists of a set of four seventeen inch coloured pads and you work your way through the pads from red (sealer removal) through to green (final polishing). This work returned the stone to its original condition ready for sealing.

Travertine Floor Aylesbury After

Sealing Travertine Tile

We sealed the floor with three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which provides excellent stain protection whilst enhancing the natural colours in the stone. The building company was pleased that we had managed to resolve the problem before the owners moved in as it had avoided an embarrassing situation for them. Interestingly we have since completed three other jobs with this same type of problem.

Sealing Honed and Filled Travertine tiled floors in Buckinghamshire

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