tiled floor Archives - South Essex Tile Doctor

Travertine Tiled Floor Cleaned in Dunmow Offices

These photographs are from the cleaning of a Travertine tiled floor installed in an old house in Dunmow that had been used as offices by employees of a Ford dealership. The house was empty when we started the cleaning process and you could see that the dirt had become ingrained into the tile and any sealer that had been present had now been worn away.

Travertine Tiles in Dunmow Office Before Cleaning

Cleaning Travertine Tile and Grout

We tackled the grouting first by applying Tile Doctor Pro-Clean (diluted 1 part cleaner to 3 parts water) which was left to dwell on the grout for about fifteen minutes before being scrubbed in using small stiff hand brushes. As you imagine this was time consuming but the grout came up really well so the end result was well worth the effort. The tiles were then cleaned using more Pro-Clean (diluted 1 part cleaner to 2 parts water) but this time we were able to use a scrubbing machine fitted with black pads. We scrubbed the tiles several times in order to bring them up to a good standard. The floor was also washed down at this point to remove the soiled cleaning solution, all liquids being removed using a wet vacuum.

Travertine Tiles in Dunmow Office During Cleaning

Burnishing Travertine Tile

The Pro-Clean worked well to clean the Travertine but if you want to restore the original appearance it needs to be burnished using a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads. The pads come in a set and you start with the coarse pad and a little water and move on through to the very fine pads until the surface is pristine.

To protect the floor and bring up the appearance even further Tile Doctor Shine Powder was polished into the floor using a buffing pad, the powder add a deep finish to the appearance of the travertine and hardens on the surface to provide durable surface protection.

Travertine Tiles in Dunmow Office After Cleaning

I think you will agree we have managed quite a transformation; certainly the customer was very happy with the work.

Travertine office floor maintained in Dunmow, Essex

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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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The result was a very satisfied customer.

Grout haze removed from new Quarry tiles in East London

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Terrazzo Floor Cleaned in Dagenham Food Hall

2 Comments / Romford Tile Cleaning, Terrazzo Floor Cleaning, Work History / TileProf

The photographs below are from a large commercial premises we were asked to clean recently in Dagenham, East London. The property had been used as a large furniture retail outlet and the 250m2 Terrazzo floor was in need of a deep clean before the new tenants moved in. The customer had struggled to clean and improve the condition of the floor and the tenant was going to use the premises as a food hall so it was important to get it clean. Time was tight so we completed the clean over a weekend between the old tenant leaving and the shop fitters moving the following week with fridges, counters and shelving etc.

Terrazzo Tiles Dagenham Food Hall Before Cleaning

Cleaning a Terrazzo Floor

To clean the floor we used Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted 1 part cleaner to 2 parts water, Pro-Clean is a heavy duty alkaline cleaning product and this was left to soak into the Terrazzo tile for thirty minutes to help soften the ingrained dirt. We then started working the solution into the floor using black scrubbing pages fitted a Numatic buffing machine. This activity was continued for the weekend over and over until we were happy with the condition of the floor.

Terrazzo Tiles Dagenham Food Hall During Cleaning

There were a few stubborn stains in places and we tackled those using Pro-Clean again but this time mixed 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra Clean which adds tiny abrasive particles into the cleaning solution; again this was left to dwell on the Terrazzo for up to one hour in order to penetrate deep into the surface and soften the ingrained dirt before being worked in with a machine. Remove and Go was also used in some areas of the floor to tackle some of the stubborn areas and we also brought in rotary machines with a faster RPM to progress the work as we found the heavier and faster machines made a difference.

For some of the really stubborn stains we concocted a poultice made up of a strong dilution of Pro-Clean and NanoTech Ultra Clean which we covered in a plastic sheet and left on the floor surface overnight; it did improve the stain quite a bit, not perfect but a big improvement. The end result was good and can be seen in the photograph below . There were some rust stains that we could not remove in places, but the customer was ok about this given the deadline.

Terrazzo Tiles Dagenham Food Hall After Cleaning

Terrazzo Tiles Deep Cleaned in East London

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