Brick Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of Brick Cleaning and Renovation work carried out in Suffolk.

Brick Tile Cleaning and Restoration

Brick Paved Driveways & Patios are very popular in the UK but are easily degraded by the weather and can end up in quite a state with weeds growing between the bricks and dirt and algae covering the surface. Annual maintenance with Tile Doctor Patio & Brick Driveway Cleaner and jet washing is recommended to ensure the paving is looked after and to prevent it becoming slippery.

Internal Brick floors add an industrial look to any room and although less common today can be a very attractive flooring option. The rough surface of Brick however will attract dirt and can be quite tricky to keep clean.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Flood Damaged Brick Floor Renovation Needham Market

Renovating a Flood Damaged Brick Tiled Floor in Needham Market

1 Comment / Brick Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Ipswich Tile Cleaning, Stowmarket Tile Cleaning /

This Brick tiled floor was in an old timber framed house just outside the village of Needham Market. The customer had been flooded from Storm Babet in 2023 which impacted over 750 properties in Suffolk. It was now April 2025 and it had taken the house that long to dry out. The brick floor was now monochrome with ingrained with dirt and almost unrecognisable.

Brick Tiled Floor Before Cleaning Needham Market

I visited the property to survey the floor and recommended the bricks were given and intensive deep clean to remove all the dirt and then sealed with a colour enhancing sealer that would put the life back in the floor. I worked out a detailed quote for the work which was accepted and a date set of the work to start.

Brick Tiled Floor Before Cleaning Needham Market

Cleaning a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

To remove the ingrained dirt the floor was sprayed with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go which was left to soak in for ten minutes. This gives the solution time to break down the dirt and contaminates in the brick. The floor was then scrubbed with a rotary buffer fitted with a Silicone Carbide brush, this action works the solution into the brick and lifts the dirt to the surface where it was extracted with a wet vacuum.

The next step was to give the floor an acid wash with Tile Doctor Acid Gel to dissolve any efflorescent salts left in the brick by the flooding. This product is also a good cleaner and will remove other contaminates from the brick such as mineral deposits and rust stains. Finally, it will neutralise the floor after the use of Remove and Go which is a strong alkaline. The gel was brushed into the floor, left to soak in for ten minutes as before but this time worked into the floor with a 120 wire pad fitted to a rotary machine.

The floor was then inspected and spot cleaning carried out where needed including a further clean of the grout which was scrubbed by hand using wire brushes. The slurry was then rinsed off with water and extracted using the wet vacuum. The floor was then given a final rinse by hand with cloths.

Sealing a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

The floor was left to dry out thoroughly and when we returned tested with a damp meter to ensure it was ready to be sealed. Happy the floor was dry the sealer was applied for which we had chosen Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This product contains a colour enhancing formula and works by soaking into the pores of the brick to occupy the pores and prevent dirt from becoming ingrained there, this ensures soiling remains on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away. Colour Grow is also fully breathable so any moisture still in the brick will not be prevented from evaporating at the surface.

Brick Tiled Floor After Renovation Needham Market

The process went very well and the customer was thrilled that we had managed to get the floor looking like new again. The new sealer will also ensure it nice and easy to maintain and we left a complimentary bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner to get them started. This is a mild, ph neutral tile cleaner that is safe to use on sealed floors, we recommend this as many of the products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong and will strip off the sealer with repeated use.

Brick Tiled Floor After Renovation Needham Market

 

Professional Restoration of a Flood Stained Brick Tiled Floor in Suffolk

Renovating a Flood Damaged Brick Tiled Floor in Needham Market Read More »

Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor Renovated in Edwardstone

Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor Deep Cleaned and Sealed in Edwardstone

1 Comment / Brick Tile Cleaning, Sudbury Tile Cleaning /

I was recently asked to renovate this Brick tiled floor installed in the kitchen of an older property in the small hamlet of Edwardstone near Sudbury. It had been some time since the floor was professionally cleaned and the brick tiles were deeply ingrained with dirt and looking very dirty and dull. The owner of the property was finding it difficult to keep the floor clean and had decided it was time to call in some help.

Brick Kitchen Floor Before Renovation Edwardstone

I visited the property to survey the floor and it was clear to me that any sealer that once protected the floor was no longer working and dirt was being trapped in the pores of the brick. Whilst there, I also noticed there was no evidence of a damp proof course being installed and given the age of the property it was unlikely the floor had a damp proof membrane either and had probably been laid directly onto the soil.

Brick Kitchen Floor Before Renovation Edwardstone

Without a barrier between the bricks and the soil, efflorescence issues would be a distinct possibility. This is where alkaline salts from the soil rise through the floor and as the moisture evaporates the floor is left with white deposits on the tile, it would also mean I would need to use a fully breathable sealer to allow this to happen, anything else would results in moisture being trapped under the floor where it would reach out to the walls resulting in rising damp.

Cleaning a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

I didn’t want to increase the moisture levels in the floor by using lots of water during the cleaning process, so I opted to use a low moisture method that involved Tile Doctor Acid Gel. Being a gel cleaner, it is easier to manage the acid in the product and will also neutralise any alkaline salt issues.

The gel was worked into the tiles and grout using a special carborundum pad, fitted to our new Hyper Grinder rotary machine. This process removed any remnants of the original sealer and the dirt from the floor, four litres of Tile Doctor Acid Gel was used during the process. The floor was given a minimal rinse with fresh water to assist in the removal of the now soiled Tile Doctor Acid Gel and a wet vacuum was used to extract the soiling and dry the floor.

Sealing a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

The now clean floor was then left to dry overnight and on the 2nd day we tested it was dry using a damp meter. All was well so the Brick floor was sealed with five coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go Extra, 2 litres were used in total. It is worth pointing out that Tile Doctor Seal and Go Extra is a breathable sealer that will allow moisture to rise through the brick.

Brick Kitchen Floor After Renovation Edwardstone

The process went very well, and the floor is now cleaner and has a nice, easy to maintain sheen. For aftercare cleaning I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a mild, neutral ph cleaner. We recommend this as many of the products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong and bleach based which will slowly strip off the sealer and allow dirt back into the floor.

Brick Kitchen Floor After Renovation Edwardstone

 

Professional Restoration of a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor in Suffolk

Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor Deep Cleaned and Sealed in Edwardstone Read More »

Brick Tiled Floor Before After Renovation Thurston

Brick Floor in Barn Conversion in Great Green

1 Comment / Brick Tile Cleaning, Bury St Edmunds Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Details below of large Brick tiled floor we worked on at barn conversion in the village of Great Green on the outskirts of Thurston. The floor had been laid fifteen years ago when the barn had been converted. The customer was now finding it almost impossible to keep the bricks clean. They also had two rather large husky type dogs and five smaller breeds that had all been rescued from various parts of the world.

I knew this would be a challenge as the bricks had not been sealed when they were first installed, so dirt was just going straight into the floor and getting embedded in the rough surface of the brick. I discussed with client the process we needed to go through, first cleaning the floor and then sealing it. I demonstrated my cleaning method on part of the floor, and they were impressed with the result. They agreed to my quote and we arranged a time to carry out the work.

Barn Conversion Brick Floor Before Cleaning Great Green Thurston

Deep Cleaning a Brick Tiled Floor

We cleaned the floor in sections using Tile Doctor Acid Gel which was brushed onto a 1m2 area of the bricks and then left for five minutes to soak in. It was then worked in using a rotary machine fitted with a scrubbing pad. The slurry was then vacuumed of the floor using our wet vac. The bricks were then rinsed using warm water and dried with microfibre cloths – this is a long drawn out method but is very effective on porous floors as not much water is used which results in less being absorbed into the brick.

The whole floor took a complete day to clean and was then left overnight to dry.

Sealing a Brick Floor

The following day I conducted a damp test to ensure the floor was dry enough to take a sealer. I was confident it would be due to the cleaning method we had used, and I was not disappointed.

The sealer of choice was Tile Doctor Seal & Go Extra this is an acrylic sealer which I like to use on brick. My reason for using this sealer is that it fills all the pores in the brick and provides a surface coating making the brick nonporous and therefore easier to clean as the dirt has nothing to grip hold of.

The floor was very porous and soaked up six coats of sealant before it was fully sealed. You have to let each coat dry before applying the next which I usually do with a paint pad and then wipe off what little excess there is with a microfibre cloth. This process took up much of the first day, but the result was transformational. My clients were overjoyed at the clean floor and happy they would now be able to clean their floor without shredding mops!

Barn Conversion Brick Floor After Cleaning Great Green Thurston

For regular cleaning I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, as this is pH balanced it will ensure that the newly applied sealer is not compromised by the use of a strong cleaning product. It has a nice fresh fragrance and a small amount goes a long way. They were happy they would now be able to keep the floor clean and have asked for me to come round once a year to maintain the floor.

 

Professional Restoration of a Brick Tiled Floor in Suffolk

Brick Floor in Barn Conversion in Great Green Read More »

╳
Scroll to Top