This limestone tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house on the outskirts of Ipswich in Suffolk. The protective sealer had broken down over the years with use, and the limestone was now unprotected and had lost its lustre, it was now absorbing dirt giving it a permanently dirty and dull appearance. Natural stone is porous and without the protection of a sealer its appearance will degrade as more dirt becomes ingrained in its pores.
I visited site to have a look at the job, I carried out a test on a small sample area, which came up well; the client was happy to proceed with my quote so we arranged a date to complete the work later in the month.
Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Kitchen Floor
To remove the ingrained dirt and improve the limestone I spent a day applying different grades of diamond encrusted floor pads, worked into the tiles with only water to help lubricate the scrubbing action. These pads are called burnishing pads and to up the pores of the stone so the dirt can be released you need to start with a coarse 400-grit pad.
Once the pad has been run over each tile at least three times the floor is rinsed with water and the soil is extracted with a wet vacuum. Before starting with the next pad in the series a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean was run into the grout lines and scrubbed in by hand with a stiff brush before another round of rinsing and extracting.
The burnishing process was then repeated with a finer 800-grit pad and then a 1500-grit pad. The pads remove any remaining sealer and dirt and start building up the polish on the tile. At the end of the first day the floor was given a final rinse and dried with a wet vacuum. The floor was then left to dry off completely overnight.
Sealing a Limestone Tiled Kitchen Floor
Returning on the 2nd day I began by applying a very fine 3000 grit pad to close the pores up and add a nice subtle shine to the limestone. The floor was checked with the damp meter just to check it was dry enough to seal. The client wanted a slightly matt finish but wanted to ensure the natural colours of the floor came through with just a slight sheen. We selected to use Tile Doctor Colour Grow. It was then sealed with 3 coats, applying each coat after the previous one had soaked in and dried. It took 3 litres of sealer to fill up the stone with sealer which will now prevent dirt from becoming ingrained there.
The floor now has a nice, easy to maintain shine and the Colour Grow sealer provided a very durable finish. I recommended to the client to use Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, this is pH neutral cleaner so nice and gentle on the floor, it will ensure the integrity of the newly applied sealer is not compromised.
Never use a strong cleaning product or steam cleaner for the regular cleaning of sealed tiles as this will reduce the life of the sealer. We recommend using a specialist tile cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner for the regular cleaning of sealed surfaces, if you do use another product always read the label first, most supermarket tile cleaners are only suitable for use on unsealed Ceramic, Porcelain or Vinyl tiles.