tiled floor

Quarry Tiled Floor Before After Cleaning Levington

Restorative Clean of an Old Quarry Floor in a Levington Gamekeepers Cottage

The Quarry Tiled Floor pictured below was located in a wood on the outskirts of the pretty coastal village of Levington, just East of Ipswich. The client had recently purchased this old Gamekeepers cottage and they were looking to redecorate and refurbish the property including the floors.

Quarry Tiled Floor Gamekeepers Cottage Before Cleaning Levington Quarry Tiled Floor Gamekeepers Cottage Before Cleaning Levington

The floors in the house were all very dirty and the new owners wanted them cleaned in time for Christmas. I visited site and conducted a demonstration on a small section of Quarry tiles which covered the whole of the ground floor. The demonstration went well, and the client was very pleased to see the kind of result they could expect. We agreed a price for the work and arranged a suitable time to return.

Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Floor

I knew from the age of the cottage it very unlikely to have a damp-proof membrane present under the floor so I had to consider damp and efflorescence issues could become factors during cleaning. Efflorescence occurs when salts trapped in water from the ground rise through the porous Quarry tiles and are left on the surface of the tile as white deposits when the moisture evaporates.

Before starting with the cleaning process, we set about taping up the wooden skirting and doorways to protect them. Then because of the lack of a DPM I decided to clean the floor with Tile Doctor Acid Gel which would require less water and counter any alkaline salts trapped in the floor. It was applied to the floor and then worked in using a rotary machine fitted with a scrubbing pad. The grout was then scrubbed by hand using a wire brush and the resultant slurry vacuumed using our wet vacuum.

Once I was satisfied the floor was as clean as possible the floor was rinsed with warm water using the least amount of water possible. This removed any trace of cleaning product and the floor then dried using the wet vacuum and microfibre cloths. The floor was then inspected, and any stubborn areas were spot treated before leaving the floor to dry off fully overnight.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Floor

The following morning, I conducted a damp test with a moisture meter to ensure the floor was dry enough to take a sealer. Sure enough, due to the cleaning method used, the floor was dry, and I was able to move on to applying the sealer which for this floor I used Tile Doctor Seal & Go Extra.

I selected Seal & Go Extra as it has a special acrylic-based formula which allows moisture vapour transmission making it partially breathable and well suited for floors without a damp-proof membrane. This is important as to use non-breathable sealer can result in damp building up in the tiles and under the floor where it can cause damage and spread out to the walls resulting in rising damp. Six coats of sealer were applied to the Quarry tiles to ensure the floor was fully sealed and this left a nice low sheen finish.

Quarry Tiled Floor Gamekeepers Cottage After Cleaning Levington Quarry Tiled Floor Gamekeepers Cottage After Cleaning Levington

The clients were extremely happy with the result, as you can see from the the pictures the floor looked in much better condition.

For aftercare I recommended the use of the Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner to keep the floor in the best condition and make maintenance easy for them. This would ensure the newly applied seal stayed put.

 

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Sandstone Flags before after cleaning

Sandstone flagstone floor cleaned in Boxford, Suffolk

This sandstone flagstone floor measured around 15m2 and was installed in a house in the village of Boxford, Suffolk, you can see how dark the stone had become from the build-up of dirt and soil over time, clearly they were in need of a deep clean and seal.

Sandstone Flags before cleaning Sandstone Flags before cleaning

Cleaning Sandstone

We cleaned the floor using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with 10 parts warm water and worked in using a Black Scrubbing pad. This action certainly gave the floor a good clean but there were some staining that was proving stubborn to shift so we tried a stronger product called Remove and Go combined 50/50 with NanoTech UltraClean which add nano sized abrasive particles into the mix. We left the resulting formula to soak into the sandstone for about a while and then used a steam to penetrate deep into the pores of the stone and lift out the dirt, this did the trick and so we then removed the cleaning products with a wet vacuum and washed down the floor with clean water to neutralise the floor before sealing and left for the evening so the floor could dry overnight.

Sealing a Sandstone Tiled Floor

We came back the next day, the floor had dried overnight so we proceeded to seal the Sandstone with Tile Doctor Seal and Go which gives a nice low sheen finish; Sandstone is fairly porous so it took five coats of sealer in the end. Seal and Go is a topical sealer which works well on Sandstone to really bring out the veins and natural colour in the stone, it also leaves them a lot easier to clean as flagstones invariably have a rough riven surface.

Sandstone Flags after cleaning Sandstone Flags after cleaning

 

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