Sealing Marble Archives - South Essex Tile Doctor

Sparkle Returned to Dull Marble Floor in Chigwell Essex

This premium Marble Tiled floor was installed at a property in Chigwell around fifteen years ago and had only ever been mopped clean, never polished. The floor had long since lost its sparkle and the owner wanted to know if anything could be done to bring back the deep shine it once had.

Polished stone floors like this example will become dull with use if the polish isn’t maintained so it’s quite a common issue. The solution is to maintain the polished appearance using a very fine burnishing pad which is encrusted with diamonds that hone the stone and return the deep polish. We do offer this as a maintenance service however in this case the sealer had also worn off and so it would be necessary to deep clean the Marble first, rebuild the polish and then re-seal.

Having visited the property to understand all the issues and measure up I was able to email over a detailed quotation for completing the work and products needed. Happy with the quote and keen to have the Sparkle restored the quote was accepted and a date set for the work to start which would take two days.

Deep Cleaning Polished Marble Flooring

To restore the deep polish and deep clean the stone a series of Tile Doctor Diamond Burnishing Pads were run over the tiles in sequence from coarse to extra fine. The coarse 400-grit pad opens up the pores in the stone and flushes out ingrained dirt and residues. Water is used to lubricate the process, and this turns into a dark slurry as the work progresses. Once each tile has been burnished several times with the coarse pad, the floor is rinsed with more water and the slurry extracted with a wet vacuum.

The coarse pad is then swapped for the 800-grit pad which is the first of three finer pads that gradually close the pores in the stone and rebuild the deep polish. Again, these are applied with water and the floor rinsed and extracted afterwards to remove the slurry.

Next step was to deep clean the grout lines using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with 4 parts water and scrubbed in using a stiff grout brush. The pads also help clean the grout but can struggle to reach into the recesses of the grout line so I find doing this step by hand is the most effective way to get the grout clean.

After another rinse and extraction to remove soiling from the grout cleaning work moved onto the final step in the stone polishing process by applying the very fine 3500-grit burnishing pad. This pad is applied dry with only a little water using a process we call a spray burnish leaving the marble smooth with a deep light-reflecting finish.

Sealing a Marble Tiled Kitchen

The floor was left to fully dry out overnight and on the second day the marble was finished with the application of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer. This is Tile Doctor’s impregnating colour enhancing sealer that penetrates deep into the stone protecting it from within. The sealer brings out the colour in the stone whilst adding long-lasting protection from spills, stains, and moisture.

Marble Floor After Cleaning Polishing and Sealing Chigwell

Once complete the Marble and Grout looked so much cleaner and I’m pleased to say the sparkle had returned. The floor now looked like a new installation again and my customer was very happy with the transformation.

For aftercare I recommended Tile Doctor Stone Soap which is a gentle yet effective cleaning product that contains a patina enhancer and won’t impact the sealer.

Professional Restoration of a Marble Tiled Kitchen in South Essex

Marble Mosaic Tiled Sauna Room Floor Renovation Epping

Revamping a Marble Mosaic Tiled Sauna Room Floor in Epping

1 Comment / Chigwell Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Marble Tile Cleaning / Matthew Tyler

The pictures below are of a large Marble mosaic tiled Sauna room at a property in Epping. I was asked for advice regarding the mosaic tiles on the floor which had whitened and lost all their character since it was installed approximately four years ago.

Having inspected the tiles and discussed their cleaning regime it became clear that strong cleaning products had been used to clean the floor tiles and this had stripped off the sealer prematurely. The sealer which was still present on the seating added colour and depth to the Marble and there was now a stark contrast between them.

Marble Mosaic Tiled Sauna Room Before Cleaning Epping

To restore the appearance of the tiles I came up with a renovation plan that included deep cleaning and then burnishing to restore their honed appearance before re-sealing. Happy with the plan I worked out a quote which was accepted and a date set for the work to start.

Renovating Marble Mosaic Sauna Room Floor Tiles

Being a wet room and with little prep to do I was able to get to work straightaway cleaning the tiles using a 1:4 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. This is a strong alkaline tile and grout cleaning product that’s safe to use on stone. For best results the solution was left to soak into the Marble for about ten minutes before being scrubbed in. This gives it time to breakdown the dirt and other contaminates first.

Next, I started burnishing the mosaics with the Pro-Clean worked in with a 6-inch 400-grit burnishing pad fitted to a hand-held buffer. The area was relatively small so I felt 6-inch pads would allow for a more detailed approach and cope better with the shape of the floor, corners and grout. The pad is slowly run over the mosaics several times turning the cleaning solution black in the process. The soiling was then rinsed off and the extracted with a wet vacuum.

The burnishing was then repeated with the 800 and 1500-grit pads, this time using only water to lubricate the process. These finer burnishing pads start building the polish on the mosaics and restore the honed appearance of the Marble. After each pad the soiling is rinsed off with more water and extracted with the wet vacuum.

The wet vacuum was then used to get the floor as dry as possible and then left to dry off naturally for a few hours.

Sealing Sauna Room Marble Mosaic Floor Tiles

Once dry the Marble mosaics were buffed with an even finer 3000-grit pad to achieve a semi shine before sealing, this is the last pad in the burnishing process and is applied to the tiles dry with only a little water sprayed onto the tile. This is a technique we call “Spray Burnish” and has the advantage of leaving the tiles dry.

The final step of the renovation was to seal the floor with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a hard-wearing impregnator that works by soaking into the pores of the stone thereby preventing dirt from residing there. The sealer will ensure dirt and water remains on the surface where it can be easily removed.

Colour grow as its name suggests contains a colour enhancer which I felt would best match the sealer that was used on the seating. The choice worked well and once complete you really couldn’t tell the difference.

Marble Mosaic Tiled Sauna Room After Renovation Epping

Before leaving I took time to discuss aftercare cleaning which was so important to ensure the mosaic tiles didn’t degrade like they had done previously. For this floor I recommended they use Stone Soap which is a gentle but effective floor cleaner that contains an enhancer designed to maintain the patina on polished stone.

Professional Renovation of a Marble Mosaic Tiled Sauna in South Essex

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