terracotta tiles Archives - South Essex Tile Doctor

Sticky Linseed Oil Removed from a Terracotta Kitchen Floor in Brentwood

This is a Terracotta tiled floor at a property in Brentwood that had been recently installed. Unfortunately, the tilers decided to seal the terracotta with a linseed-based sealer that hadn’t gone off and was still tacky to the touch causing it to trap dirt. I suspect they simply put too much down; however, I was surprised they used linseed as this is a very old-fashioned method of sealing terracotta when modern sealers offer far better performance.

Terracotta Floor Before Cleaning Brentwood

The solution I offered was to strip the linseed off the floor, give the tiles a good clean and then re-seal with a modern based sealer designed for the job. Happy with my quote and relieved the problem could be resolved, we agreed a date to complete the work.

Cleaning a Terracotta Tiled Kitchen

To strip off the Linseed Oil I applied a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a powerful alkaline coatings remover. It was left to work breaking down the linseed for about ten minutes and then scrubbed in using a rotary machine fitted with a black 17″ pad. The soiling was then rinsed away with water extracted using a wet vacuum. This process had to be repeated several times before the floor was clear and I used several pads in the process.

The grout was then hand scrubbed using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, these were small terracotta tiles so there was a lot of grouting to cover. Afterwards the soiling was rinsed off and extracted as before using the wet vacuum.

The last step in the cleaning process was to give the floor an acid rinse using a dilution of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up. It was scrubbed in with a deck brush to remove excess grout smears and neutralise the pH level of the floor following the use of alkaline cleaners. Once done it was rinsed away and extracted as before.

Terracotta Floor During Cleaning Brentwood

Sealing a Terracotta Tiled Kitchen

I left the floor to dry out for a couple of days, before returning to apply a new sealer which for this floor we had chosen Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is an impregnating sealer that soaks into the pores of the tile preventing dirt from becoming lodged there and thereby protecting it from within. Colour Grow as its name suggests includes a colour enhancing formula that improves the lovely orange/red colours so ideal for Terracotta.

Made from clay, Terracotta is a porous material and so does need quite a few coats before its fully sealed. For this floor I needed to apply give coats of Colour Grow, allowing for each coat to dry before applying the next. This is a low sheen sealer which will give the floor a much more hardwearing surface and it really brought out the natural colours in the Terracotta.

Terracotta Floor After Renovation Brentwood

My client was very happy with the difference and left the following 5-star review.

“Matthew was a pleasure to work with and did a fantastic job on a tricky terracotta renovation.”

For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, which is a pH neutral tile cleaner, it’s a gentle yet effective product that won’t impact the sealer.

Terracotta Floor After Renovation Brentwood

Professional Restoration of a Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor in Essex

Sticky Linseed Oil Removed from a Terracotta Kitchen Floor in Brentwood Read More »

Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor Refreshed in Wickford

1 Comment / Basildon Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History / TileProf

Sealers really do bring out the best in Terracotta tiles, however the catch is they will wear off over time and if you want to maintain that appearance you have to work out a regular maintenance plan. If you don’t maintain the sealer you will find that the sealer near the most heavily used areas such as doors etc. will wear away first and once that happens dirt will become ingrained in the tile and becomes difficult to clean resulting in a patchy appearance.

The remaining sealer on this Terracotta tiled kitchen floor at a house in the town of Wickford, Essex was no longer effective and had worn completely off in places. The solution was to strip off the old sealer, clean the Terracotta tile and gout and then re-seal with a fresh seal.

Terracotta Kitchen Floor During Cleaning Wickford

Stripping Sealers from Terracotta Tiles

I started by giving the floor a deep clean with Tile Doctor Pro Clean diluted 2 parts water to 1 part cleaner. This is quite a strong dilution designed to allow the removal of the sealer and 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. Surprisingly the sealer was proving difficult to shift in certain areas and I had to repeat the process a few times and made sure to give the grout a good scrubbing as well.

I managed to get rid of most of the sealer using this process and for the remaining stubborn areas I used a stronger product called Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a very effective coatings remover that is safe to use on tiles. This did the trick and the floor was now free of sealers and the grout was looking much better too, the resultant slurry was removed using a wet vacuum and I then rinsed the floor several times with water before leaving it to dry for weekend.

Stripping Sealers from Terracotta Tiles

Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that seeps into the pores of the tile to block them and prevent contaminates becoming ingrained in there and it also enhances the natural colours. Once this was dry I followed up with a number of coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is topical sealer that will protect the surface and adds a nice sheen to the floor and is a popular choice for Terracotta and Quarry tiles.

Terracotta Kitchen Floor After Cleaning and Sealing Wickford

I’m not sure my photographs do this post any justice however hopefully you can see that floor was quite transformed, the grout is much cleaner and the colours in the Terracotta have really come to life.

Maintaining Terracotta Tiles in Essex

Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor Refreshed in Wickford Read More »

Terracotta Tiled floor Restoration in Chingford

1 Comment / Chigwell Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History / TileProf

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

Terracotta Tiled floor Restoration in Chingford Read More »