Chigwell Tile Cleaning

Chigwell Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find examples of the cleaning and renovation of tiles carried out in Chigwell.

Terracotta Tiled floor Restoration in Chingford

These photographs are from an old Terracotta tiled floor in Chingford, Essex that had been under carpet for years. The owners had removed carpet which had been glued to the tiles beneath and found this lovely floor which they wanted to restore as an original feature. As you can see it was in a bad state and needed some work on it.

Terracotta Tiles in Chingford Before Cleaning

Remove Grout Haze and Cleaning Terracotta Tiles

We started by giving the floor a deep clean with Tile Doctor Pro Clean which was left to dwell on the floor for ten minutes before working it into the floor using a scrubbing machine fitted with a black pad. I knew this wouldn’t resolve all the problems but it was a good start and would show what was going to be removed easily.

As expected there were a number of stubborn areas including the surface glue especially around the edges which needed to be tackled with a stronger product so the next step was to apply Tile Doctor Remove and Go which as the name suggests is a coatings remover that will remove almost anything and is safe to use on tiles. Hand scrapers were used along the edges of the floor and although the area was relatively small it took a long time to remove all the various contaminants.

Another issue we found was grout haze on the surface of the tile and for that we need to apply Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up which was applied to the tile surface and scrubbed in with black scrubbing pads.

Terracotta Tiles in Chingford During Cleaining

Once satisfied the haze was removed we washed the floor down three times with water to remove any residue using a wet vacuum to pick up the slurry and suck any remaining liquids from the floor to allow it to dry quicker..

The floor turned out to be quite acceptable to customer who was happy with the results. They were going to seal the floor themselves once all the decorating had been completed.

Terracotta Tiles in Chingford After Cleaning

 
 

Restoring Terracotta tiled floor in Essex

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Grout Haze Removal from a new Quarry Tiled floor in Woodford, E18

These photographs are from a recently laid Quarry tiled floor in Woodford. East London where the tiler had smothered the tiles with grout and left it on the surface too long where it had then dried and he was unable to remove it. Unable to rectify the problem the Quarry tiles were then sealed, I suspect this was in an attempt to improve the look of the floor which unfortunately left it looking quite the opposite.

Quarry Tiles with Grout Haze

Remove Grout Haze and Cleaning Quarry Tiles

Undeterred by the state of the floor which we were confident could be put right we took the job on. The first step was to remove the sealer by using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean mixed 3 parts water to 1 part Pro-Clean. This was left to dwell on the tile surface for ten minutes before scrubbing with black pads fitted to a rotary scrubbing machine.

Removing Grout Haze

Once we were happy the sealer had been removed we could tackle the Grout Haze with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up. It’s applied to the tile surface and again scrubbed in with black scrubbing pads. There was a lot of grout haze so the processes had to be repeated; all the edges were done on hands and knees with small doodle bug pads. Once the haze was removed we washed the floor three times with water to remove any residue.

Quarry Tile During Cleaning Quarry Tiles with Partial Grout Haze

The dirty solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor was rinsed three times to remove the residue and neutralise it, the floor was then left for 48 hours to allow it dry fully prior to sealing.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

When we returned we sealed the Quarry tiles using Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is recommended for sealing quarry tiles and give’s a nice low sheen effect. Five coats of sealer where needed in total which took some time to apply as you have to let the sealer dry before applying the next coat.

Quarry Tiles Cleaned and Sealed

The result was a very satisfied customer.
 
 

Grout haze removed from new Quarry tiles in East London

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Saltillo Terracotta Tiled Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Abridge

Pictures below of a job we did cleaning and re-sealing a 25m2 Saltillo Terracotta tiled floor installed in the kitchen of a house on a working farm outside Abridge, Essex. The owner had been applying coats of sealer for the last 10 years or so and over the course of time a bad build-up of layers of sealer had occurred causing and un-even and darkening effect on the tile (see picture below).

Saltillo Terracotta Floor Before

Cleaning Saltillo Terracotta Tile

Removing the old sealer to get back to the bare Terracotta surface was incredibly hard work, normally we can get most of the sealer off with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean but in this case something a lot stronger was required so we applied Tile Doctor Remove and Go (which is a coatings remover designed for taking off sealers and other coatings from tile) mixed 50/50 with Nano Tech Ultra-clean which adds tiny abrasive particles to the mix. We applied the resulting solution and let it soak in for 30 minutes before tackling it with scrubbers and a steamer, gradually over the course of three days we managed to remove all of the sealer. We rinsed the Terracotta down with clean water to remove any trace of chemical and neutralise the floor before sealing and then left it to dry out.

Saltillo Terracotta Floor After Cleaning

Sealing Saltillo Terracotta Tile

We left the floor for 10 days to dry out and came back to seal it using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour enhancing sealer that protects the tile as well bringing out the natural colour in the tile.

Saltillo Terracotta Floor Part Sealed

I left the floor to cure overnight, and came back the next day to finish sealing with Tile Doctor Seal and Go, Seal and Go is 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 low sheen finish. In the end the floor actually took seven coats of Seal and Go before it was fully sealed, this naturally took a long time to apply as you have to wait for it to dry before applying the next coat. Needless to say this was a very long job but the difference was remarkable and the owner was very happy with the result.

Saltillo Terracotta Floor After Sealing

 
 

Difficult Saltillo Terracotta Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Essex

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South Essex Tile Doctor

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