Restorative Cleaning of Victorian Floor Tiles at St Peter and St Pauls Church Black Notley
Recently I was asked to clean a Victorian Quarry tiled floor at St’ Peter and St’ Pauls Church in Black Notley on the outskirts of Braintree. Originally of Norman origins the Nave floor was probably laid in 1879 when the church was renovated by the Victorians. Naturally these floors see a lot of wear from parishioners and the tiles were now dull and in need of a restorative cleaning and sealing.
I paid a visit to the church to discuss its renovation and quoted for cleaning and sealing the aisles in Nave which had seen the most wear. Any remaining sealer on the tiles would need to be stripped off before the floor was cleaned and then re-sealed so I quoted for deep cleaning and then re-sealing. The quote was accepted and a date set for the work to start that would work into the schedule of the church.
Deep Cleaning a Victorian Quarry Tiled Nave
Working in sections the floor was sprayed with a dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go which was left to soak in for ten minutes before being scrubbed in with a black pad fitted to a rotary machine. This process removes any remaining sealer and pulls ingrained dirt out of the pores of the tile and grout to the surface where it becomes held in the cleaning solution. The solution darkens as the dirt is released and is then rinsed with water and extracted from the floor with a wet vacuum.
Next step was to ensure the grout was clean which was done by inspecting the floor and hand scrubbing the grout with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up where required. Once done the soiled solution was rinsed off with water and extracted with the wet vacuum as before.
The last step in the cleaning process was to give the floor an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Acid Gel. Using too much water when cleaning is always a concern on old floors like this that were laid before the invention of the damp proof membrane so using a gel product helps minimise that. Being an acidic product, it neutralises the floor after the use of Remove & Go which is a strong Alkaline and it will counter acts any alkaline efflorescent salts inherent in the floor. After being scrubbed in with a brush It was extracted with the vet vacuum and the floor rinsed with water and extracted again.
The floor now needed time to dry out completely before the final step applying the sealer so it was sectioned off and left to dry for several days.
Sealing a Victorian Quarry Tiled Church Floor
When I returned my first task was to check the floor was dry using a damp meter. The readings were fine so started by applying a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating hard wearing matt sealer that improves colour. Once dry it was followed up with several coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go which adds a nice sheen to Quarry tiles and leaves a satin finish.
Once complete the floor had re-gained its vitality; the Church Warden and his wife were extremely happy with the results and left the following feedback:
