Here is a red and black quarry tiled floor that had been given a new lease of life in Oswestry.

 

We had the opportunity to work for another lovely customer on their quarry tiled floor in their recently purchased property.

It is always sad to see an old floor in a neglected state. On the other hand it is so satisfying to bring them back to presentable condition.

Apart from the usual ingrained dirt and grime there was plenty of paint splashes and huge amount of plaster ingrained. Emulsion paint can be fairly straight forward to remove from the surface of the quarry tiles. On the other hand plaster is a bit more challenging.

There was a section in front of the original open fire where the tiles were smashed up. The only logical explanation for it was that someone chopped firewood there. The homeowner wanted the floor to be preserved rather than trying to fill the area with new tiles. A repair like that would make the problem so obvious. After discussing the options, we agreed that we will try to find reclaimed tiles that blend in. It was unfortunate that there were no black replacement tiles available at the time so the part with the missing tiles had to stay for now. Reclaimed quarry tiles in this large-format less frequently come up for sale. The black ones of the same size are even more difficult to source.

 

The process we carried out:

We carried out a restorative deep cleaning on the floor first. When it was dry enough to take the sealer we sealed the floor. As it an old floor with no damp proof membrane, we used a premium grade impregnating sealer. This particular sealer has a colour enhancing additive to it. Using this sealer the colours of the tiles become more vibrant. The added benefit for using an impregnating sealer on period floor is that it is fully “breathable”. It also means that moisture naturally coming through the tiles can evaporate instead of getting trapped under a coating.

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The Victorian geometric tiled hallway floor in this post needed some well-deserved attention.

We had the pleasure to carry out work on a Victorian hallway floor for a lovely customer in Wrexham. The enquiry started the same as most of the enquiries but it turned out to be more interesting.

About the floor itself

The old Victorian house was separated in the past for a number of years. When the new owner bought the property, they wanted to make it one house again. They had the intention to restore it back to its former glory. When the house was divided into two flats, the hallway was separated too to provide a separate entrance for the flats. The floor in both sides had been covered with laminate flooring. When the new owner lifted the worn laminate boards, they realised that they found a real gem. Luckily, the beautiful Victorian geometric tiled floor underneath was in good structural condition. Due to previous finishes that failed and the fact that it was covered for a number of years, the floor looked pretty neglected though.

Victorian Hallway Floor Cleaning

Due to the many coats of old sealer and finishes, it took a while to bring the tiles back to life. By stripping and cleaning the floor it got to the cleanest possible state. As these are both wet processes and as these floors do not have damp proof membrane underneath result in a fairly lengthy drying time. This Victorian hallway floor needed almost a week to dry out properly.

Victorian Hallway Floor Sealing

Once the floor was dry enough, I was able to apply a premium quality impregnating sealant. This is the best option for any Victorian hallway floor as it doesn’t form any coating over the surface. This sealer enhances the beautiful depth of colours of the clay tiles with the added benefit of being fully breathable. Breathability is a must with these old floors to avoid further problems caused by moisture. The pictures below show how the floor looked before we started working on it and after the work was completed and the floor was sealed.

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We received a call from a lady in Telford.  She had a ceramic tiled floor in her property and needed help with tile and grout cleaning.

 

As mentioned above, this customer in Telford has a ceramic tiled kitchen and utility room floor. Due to the amount of traffic and having a dog the tiles and grout were very grubby. With years of ingrained dirt and the homeowner felt that bringing the floor back to life was beyond their tile and grout cleaning capabilities.

 

When I visited the customer to provide a quote, I mentioned that it is possible to re-colour the grout.This could be really handy if they are not happy with the existing one for any reason. They were interested in the option so with their permission, I have cleaned a section of the floor. Once that section was dry, I re-coloured three areas with three different colours to help them choose the best one.

 

On the day we booked in for the work I thoroughly cleaned the floor concentrating mainly on the grout cleaning. After this, I had to treat the grout with a specialist product that makes the grout colourant adhere even better. The next step was to dry the floor. Once it was dry, I proceeded with the colouring process which took a little while but the finished result made it worthwhile.

 

My Customers were really delighted with the final result. They also admitted that the floor was cleaned professionally before but never was it this clean. Both of tehm mentioned that the new colour of the grout makes the whole room appear a lot brighter.

 

Apart from changing the colour of the grout without actually replacing it, there is another advantage to it too. The product used is epoxy-based. Therefore if it is applied correctly, it acts as a sealer making the grout more resistant to staining.

 

With hard work and know-how, we had another happy customer.

 

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Cleaning Ceramic Tiles

The free quotation/survey is not only good for the customer to see how well the floor would come up, but it is also a great opportunity for us to determine what type of product is working the best in that particular situation. Different soil types need different products. On this fooor for the ceramic tile cleaning we used an alkaline product with a built-in degreaser. This was the most suitable to deal wit hthe problem.

We applied the cleaning solution then left it to dwell on the surface. It started to breake down the ingrained dirt and grease straight away. We then agitated it in with our specialist machine to get the best result. As the final push we scrubbed the grout lines with a brushd designed for grout. After each section we thoroughly cleaned, we rinsed the whole area twice to neutralise any remaining residue. Once the floor was dry it was in its “like new” condition again as the pictures show below.

Further options

There are other things can be done to the floor which in this case the home owner did not want doing.

Sometimes the grout discoloured and that discolouration can not be removed with cleaning. In other cases the home owner does not like the colour of the grout anymore. Luckily we have solution for these occasions too.

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Also, it is always the best practice to read the entire label of every product that you intend to use. In this situation, a mixture of several mistakes led the floor to be in that miserable state. The floor was clearly beyond an easy fix, therefore I had to strip the old sealer off the entire floor. This process is never easy on a riven surface and caused some difficulties here too.

In the end, it took nearly twice as long to completely remove the old coating than expected, but it did worth it.

Once the floor was clean I neutralised it again to get rid of any residue which could upset the sealer. After all this, I left the slate floor to dry overnight.

On my return the next day the floor was completely dry so I could start applying the new sealer. The customer decided to go with a topical sealer to make the floor easier to maintain. So I applied four coats of a good quality water-based topical sealer which gave the floor a nice sheen too.

As you can see in the pictures below I managed to make quite a transformation. My customer was over the moon with the results.

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Before

The Floor areas were definitely in a need of a deep clean, but the shower required some serious attention. Here are some pictures to demonstrate the state of the tiles on the first visit.

Travertine can make beautiful flooring, but there certainly are difficulties with it. The stone naturally have a so-called honeycomb structure. Which means there are holes in it. You can buy it in different grades and with different finishes. Can be filled or unfilled. Tumbled, honed or polished. But regardless of all this, more than likely that in the main traffic areas there will be new holes appearing over time. These can be filled with grout, resin or hard wax depending on a number of factors.

Floor

In this particular case, the tiles were filled with honed finish wich gives a low sheen to the floor. Luckily there were not too many holes, but typically they were in the worst locations. I did fill them with a good quality epoxy resin, then honed the areas to match the level of sheen on the rest of the floor. When this was done, I could start the cleaning process. After cleaning the tiles, I concentrated on the grout lines to achieve the best possible result. Once I finished with the process, I could re-hone the entire area.

Travertine Tiled Shower

The next challenge was the shower cubicle. In here apart from the cleaning of the general built up dirt and soapy residues I had to deal with mould as well. To restore the floor and wall tiles in the shower cubicle nearly took as long as the restoration fo the whole kitchen floor but it did worth it.

When all areas were as clean as possible I had to leave it to dry overnight. On my return, I have checked if the tiles are dry enough to take the sealer. My damp meter showed that I can carry on sealing as both the floor and the walls were dry enough. I applied a good quality impregnating sealer to protect the tiles from staining and help daily maintenance.

After

My customer was over the moon with the results I could achieve. You can see on the pictures bellow that the floor and the shower look great now.

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