Quarry Tiles Archives - Wiltshire Tile Doctor

Quarry Tiles Before and After Cleaning Salisbury

Kitchen Quarry Tiles Floor Treated to a Deep Clean and Seal in Salisbury

1 Comment / Work History / Wiltshire Tile Doctor

When the sealer wears down on sealed tiled floor dirt will become ingrained in the pores of the tile and floor becomes more and more difficult to clean effectively. Even hard wearing tiles like Quarry tiles will experience this problem over time more so if you use acidic floor cleaning products to regularly clean your floor as they slowly eat away at the sealer.

This is a problem we come across relatively often and was the case this customer, living in the town of Salisbury contacted Tile Doctor for assistance. I paid them a visit to survey the floor and arranged a date to come back a give these brown Quarry kitchen tiles a thorough clean and fresh seal to provide durable protection against future soil build up.

Cleaning a Dirty Quarry Tiled Floor

Taking a close look at the tiles, it was clear that they would need to be cleaned using a strong solution of the high alkaline Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, with special attention to be paid to the grout and to deal with some spots of grout haze.

To begin, Pro-Clean was applied across the floor and left it to dwell for 15 minutes to eat through any old sealer and dirt. A black pad was then to a rotary machine, and this was used to scrub the area throughly, lifting the muck away. Following this, a wet vacuum was used to remove the dirty cleaning slurry.

Next, I tackled the grout haze around the edges, by applying Tile Doctor Acid Gel to the affected areas, which is a mixture of Phosphoric and Hydrochloric acids in a handy gel form. This was scrubbed again with a black pad and rinsed with cold water to neutralise the area. Having successfully eliminated the dirt and grout haze, I left the floor to dry for a couple of days.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Floor

Upon my return I tested the area for damp using a damp tester; this should always be carried out before sealing as excess moisture can negatively affect the performance of the sealer.

When satisfied with the results of the damp test, I proceeded to seal the floor with five coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go, which is a topical sealer suitable for sealing internal, unsealed porous surfaces. It works by building up a durable surface seal, preventing any dirt from becoming ingrained in the stone. Additionally, Seal and Go provides a subtle, but pleasant looking, low sheen finish and being water based no smell is given off as it dries.

The customer was very pleased with the results. Since she had struggled to keep the floor clean, I made sure before leaving the property to give the customer some maintenance tips to help her maintain the appearance of the Quarry tiles. I also assured her that Tile Doctor are always on hand to assist if any new problems occur.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Restoration in Wiltshire

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Cleaning and Sealing Quarry Tiles in Brinkworth Sealed

Quarry tiled floor Deep Cleaned in Brinkworth

1 Comment / Work History / Wiltshire Tile Doctor

This house in Brinkworth was once a pub so as you can imagine the quarry tiled floor has certainly seen some foot traffic and abuse over the years. The owner contacted us to see if they were able to keep it as a feature entrance hall so we carried out a test which went very well and they booked us to do the work straight away.

Cleaning and Sealing Quarry Tiles in Brinkworth Before

Cleaning Quarry Tiles

Due to the level of ingrained dirt we started by covering the floor in Tile Doctor Remove & Go which is a very strong product usually reserved for removing coatings such as sealers from tile. We let it dwell for 10-15 minutes before working it in with a black scrubbing pad attached to a rotary machine; we scrubbed the area making sure that we covered it thoroughly. At this point It became apparent that there were many pitted areas with ingrained dirt so the process was repeated using a nylon scrub brush attached to the rotary machine to help get into all the pitted tiles. We then went round scraping any adhesives, paint or existing seal with a Stanley scraper.

Once we were happy with the result we then removed the slurry with a wet vacuum and rinsed with cold clean water several times with the aid of a deck brush to make sure ALL trace of cleaning product was removed. This process took most of the day and made a significant improvement to the state of the floor which was still quite damp at this stage so we left for the evening agreeing to come back in three days’ time to give the floor sufficient time to dry.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

Upon our return we used a damp meter in several areas to check the floor had dried, most sealers won’t take to a damp floor and you can get unexpected results so it’s important to check first. The test results were fine so we started sealing the floor using Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based sealer that doesn’t give off a smell whilst its drying, it also adds a subtle sheen to the tile and enhance the look of the floor as well as protecting the tile from future staining.

Old Quarry tiled floor deep cleaned in old Wiltshire

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Quarry Tiles in Sherston Before and After Cleaning

Cleaning and Sealing Quarry Tiles in Sherston

1 Comment / Work History / Wiltshire Tile Doctor

I recently paid a free home survey visit to a home owner in the village of Sherston near Malmesbury where the sealer on her Quarry Tiled Floor had started to fail in places and was becoming difficult to keep clean. Whilst I was there I did a sample clean and after reviewing the results she was happy to book us in for the job.

Quarry Tiles in Sherston Before Cleaining

Cleaning Quarry Tiles

To clean the Tiles and strip off the remaining sealer we used a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-clean mixed 50/50 with Nanotech Ultraclean, the Nanotech product adds tiny abrasive particles to the mix making it a more effective cleaning product. This was left to dwell on the floor for twenty minutes before being worked into the tile using and black buffer pad fitted to a rotary buffing machine. The whole area was cleaned in this manner along with a stiff hand brush to get into the grout lines and a wet vacuum which was used to suck up the dirty residue before the floor was rinsed down with cold water.

Once the floor had started to dry it had become apparent that there was still some seal left behind. To resolve this problem I used Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a powerful coatings remover product. It was left to dwell on the Quarry tiles for ten minutes before being scrubbed in with both a deck brush and black pad. I was still having problems removing all the seal so I then used a steamer with Remove and Go and a stiff deck brush to remove the last of the evident seal. The floor was then thoroughly rinsed the floor several times with clean water to remove any product build up and the ware removed using the wet vacuum.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

The floor was left to dry for a couple of days and then I returned to seal the floor first testing it was dry with a damp meter. The floor was fully dry we applied multiple coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which will protect the floor from stains going forward making it easier to clean and also adds a nice shine to the tile.

Quarry Tiles in Sherston After Cleaining

Before leaving I advised the customer on the use of a Neutral tile cleaner to help prolong the life of the sealer, there are a number of acidic floor cleaning products available which should not be used with stone or sealed floors as the acid will eat into the sealer over time reducing its life.

Restoring the Seal on a Quarry tiled floor near Malmesbury

Cleaning and Sealing Quarry Tiles in Sherston Read More »