floor restoration

Limestone Tile Before and After Burnishing Gainsborough

60m2 Limestone floor tiles restored in Gainsborough

1 Comment / Gainsborough Tile Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Work History /

This was a large 60m2 Limestone tiled floor installed in the entrance hall and kitchen of a residence in the town of Gainsborough. The Limestone tiles had lost their shine and cracks had appeared in a number of tiles which was due to the floor settling after it had been built, any previous sealer was failing and the tiles were getting very dirty with visible staining.

Limestone Tile Before Cleaning Gainsborough Limestone Tile Before Cleaning Gainsborough

Burnishing Limestone Tiles

To clean the floor and remove the stains Limestone needs to be stripped back to the original tile with burnishing pads removing the old sealer along the way. To do this a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads are applied in sequence along with a little water. The pads come is a setup of four and you start with the coarse pad which fitted to a buffing machine running on slow speed, the coarse pad removes old sealers and then you move onto the medium, fine and very fine pads until the Limestone is cleaned and polished again. In-between pads we filled in the cracks that needed attention with Limestone flexible filler which does a great job of hiding the unsightly lines, the burnishing of the tile then makes the filler blend in and become invisible. Once the burnishing was finished the floor was rinsed down with clean water and then left to dry.

Limestone Tile During Cleaning Gainsborough

Limestone Tile Sealing

On the 2nd day the floor was dry and we applied the two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer to the tiles, the sealer fills the pores of the stone making it water and resistant and will protect it from stains in the years to come, this particular sealer has a natural matt finish and as its name suggests add a subtle lift to the natural colours in the stone.

Limestone Tile After Burnishing Gainsborough Limestone Tile After Burnishing Gainsborough

To demonstrate the floor was sealed we carried out a small test in front of the customer where she could choose any tile on which to pour water and simply watch the water form a bead and dance across the tile surface and not mark or be absorbed into the tile in any way. Even after a few minutes it just simply wipes away with no sign of a darker area visible. This shows the seal is doing its job of sealing and protecting the Limestone. She was delighted with the result so much that she is now reconsidering putting the house up for sale and staying there for another year.

Limestone Tiled Floor resurfaced and polished in Gainsborough

60m2 Limestone floor tiles restored in Gainsborough Read More »

Limestone Tiles in Louth Before and After Sealing

Dirty and Cracked Limestone floor tiles restored in Louth

1 Comment / Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Louth Tile Cleaning, Work History /

This customer from Louth had a very dirtyLimestone tiled floor with some cracks evident installed throughout the kitchen, hallway and conservatory. It was dull and not looking it’s best so she had asked several companies in the local area to quote but they did not feel able to help. Fortunately she discovered Tile Doctor and gave us a call, naturally this sort of work is well within our ability so not only were we able to help restore the appearance but also repair the cracks at the same time.

Limestone Tiles in Louth Before Cleaning Limestone Tiles in Louth Before Cleaning Cracked

Burnishing Limestone Tiles

To resolve the surface cracks and remove the dirt from the floor we used a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads which incidentally are a very environmentally friendly system which only requires water. The pads come is a setup of four and you start with the coarse pad which fitted to a buffing machine running on slow speed, the coarse pad removes old sealers and then you move onto the medium, fine and very fine pads until the Limestone is cleaned and polished again. The floor was washed down with clean water at this point to remove the soil generated by the burnishing process and left to dry overnight assisted by a turbo dryer.

Limestone Tiles in Louth Mid Cleaning Limestone Tiles in Louth After Cleaning Drying

Limestone Tile Sealing

The next day the floor had dried and we applied two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer to the tiles, the sealer fills the pores of the stone making it water and resistant and will protect it from stains in the years to come, this particular sealer also lifts the natural colours in the stone.

Limestone Tiles in Louth After Sealing Limestone Tiles in Louth After Sealing Buble

The client was delighted with the results as she had nearly given up on having a nice looking floor, see feedback below which was left on our automated feedback system.

I am very pleased with the work which was completed yesterday. From my first enquiry to the completed work was excellent,
Mrs V Pedder, Tetney

Limestone Tiled Floor resurfaced and polished in Louth

Dirty and Cracked Limestone floor tiles restored in Louth Read More »

Sealing Marble Tiles Woodhall Before and After

Removing Scratches from Marble floor tiles in Woodhall SPA

1 Comment / Lincoln Tile Cleaning, Marble Tile Cleaning, Work History /

This Marble Tiled floor was installed in the conservatory of a house in Woodhall Spa who had asked if we could remove the scratches from their inherited marble tiles around the door area and where furniture had been dragged across the tile as shown in the photos. Interestingly our customer is a chief engineer on cruise ships all over the world and knew what this floor could look like if restored professionally.

Damaged Marble Tile Woodhall Scratched Marble Tile Woodhall

Burnishing Mable Tiles

Other than the scratches the majority of the floor had been well maintained so the solution was to burnishing the marble back to its original condition using a set of diamond encrusted pads fitted to a slow speed machine and lubricated with a little water. The burnishing pads come in a set of four and applied to the floor with a little water one by one using a rotary machine running at slow speed.

Cleaning Marble Tiles Woodhall
The process starts with the coarse pad which strips back the top layer and removes sealers and dirt from the surface of the stone. The pads then become finer and finer with the last pad being a final polish that takes the tile back to near it’s originally intended shine. You can see from the photographs that we actually managed to resurface the marble, remove the scratches and we also filled in some small holes and then allowed the floor to dry overnight helped by our turbo drying system allowing for minimal drying times.

Polishing Marble Tiles Woodhall

Marble Tile Sealing

The next day we applied two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer to the tiles, the sealer fills the pores of the stone protecting it from stains and this particular sealer also lifts the natural colours in the stone.

Sealing Marble Tiles Woodhall
As you can see the scratches were removed and the tiles now shine and are protected and polished to a stunning finish that the customer was over the moon with and couldn’t thank us enough for the professional and excellent job on time and budget.

Marble Tiled Floor resurfaced and polished in Woodhall Spa

Removing Scratches from Marble floor tiles in Woodhall SPA Read More »

Victorian tiled floor near Horncastle Before and After Cleaning

Restoring a Victorian Tiled Bathroom in Horncastle

1 Comment / Louth Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History /

The owner of this Victorian tiled bathroom floor in Horncastle had tried scrubbing and scraping these tiles will little to show for it, in the end after spending hours on this cold floor and trying lots of different products he was fed up and it still looked less than satisfactory. The tiles were very old and dirty and had remnants of glue stuck around the edges indicating they had previously been covered by something else such as lino, fortunately Victorian tiles are our bread and butter and we have managed to restore tiles in a much worse state than this.

Victorian tiled floor near Horncastle before Cleaning3 Victorian tiled floor near Horncastle before Cleaning2

Cleaning Victorian Tiles

We set about cleaning the tile using Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a strong coatings remover which is ideal for removing old sealers and adhesive products. It was left it to dwell on the floor for a while in order to give it chance to soak into the tile and get to work on the glue before being agitated using a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. The soiled solution was then removed using a wet vacuum and the floor given a good rinse with clean water again using the wet vacuum to get the floor dry. This process tackled the glue but the tiles were still in need of a good clean so Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a strong alkaline cleaning product safe to use on tile and stone was applied; this was left to dwell and then scrubbed into the tiles to get a really deep clean, stiff brushes were used along the grout lines to get them clean as well and then the floor was given a thorough rinse to neutralise the tile and remove any trace of cleaning products.

Sealing Victorian Tiles

The next step was to seal the floor, however the tiles need to be dry before you can do this so we got our Turbo drying system out of the van, switched it on and it soon had the floor dry. Four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go were applied to the floor allowing twenty minutes to dry between coats; this particular sealer is recommended for Victorian tiles and does a great job of adding a nice sheen to the floor as well as adding stain protection.

Victorian tiled floor near Horncastle after Cleaning2 Victorian tiled floor near Horncastle after Cleaning1

We managed to complete the work in a single day and the owner was absolutely delighted by the results.

Deep Cleaning Victorian Tiles in Lincolnshire

Restoring a Victorian Tiled Bathroom in Horncastle Read More »

Natural Stone Floor in Boston Resealed

Natural Riven Stone floor stripped and re-sealed in Boston

1 Comment / Boston Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Details below of a Natural Riven Stone tiled floor installed in the Kitchen of a house in Boston, Lincolnshire. The client had previously sealed this floor with a commonly available sealer and found the results unsatisfactory; the floor had a riven surface and that combined with two large dogs made cleaning was a constant burden.

Natural Stone Floor in Boston Before

Natural-Stone Tile Cleaning

The first step was to remove the existing sealer and give the floor a thorough clean; fortunately we were able to do this using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a multipurpose cleaner/stripper. Pro-Clean was applied to the floor and then left to dwell for a good twenty minutes giving it time to break down the remaining sealer before being worked in using a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. To get the grout clean we made up a further batch of Pro-Clean, this time with warm water and scrubbed it by hand into the grout lines using a stiff grout brush.

The soiled cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor given a thorough rinse using clean water. Stubborn areas were re-treated using the same process and the floor was left to dry overnight assisted with a turbo air blower.

Natural Stone Floor in Boston Stripped

Sandstone Tile Sealing

The next morning we applied three coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go to the tiles with each coat taking around twenty minutes to dry. Seal and Go is an ideal sealer for natural stone flooring and being water based there are no nasty smells to worry about like most solvent based products. Seal and Go also added a nice subtle sheen to the floor and will protect the tiles for years to come.

Natural Stone Floor in Boston Resealed
The customer was delighted with the results.

Natural Stone Tiled Floor Cleaned and Re-Sealed in Boston

Natural Riven Stone floor stripped and re-sealed in Boston Read More »

Italian Riven Slate Before and After Cleaning

Italian Riven Slate tiled floor cleaned and sealed in Boston

Boston Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History /

This Italian Riven Slate tiled floor installed in the dining room of a house in Boston, Lincolnshire was in need of a good clean and re-seal. If you look closely at the photographs below you should be able to see large areas where the surface has faded and become soiled which was probably due to the sealer wearing off allowing dirt to settle in the riven surface of the slate.

Italian Riven Slate Before Cleaning Italian Riven Slate Before Cleaning

Cleaning Italian Riven Slate floor tiles

We set about scrubbing the floor with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad together with a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an effective Tile and Grout cleaner especially recommend for stone floors due to its alkaline formula. It’s also quite good at stripping sealers from floors however this wasn’t too much of a problem on this floor.

The next step was to get into the grout lines with stiff brushes in order to give the grout a good scrub, this step has to be done by hand as the scrubbing pads can struggle to reach the grout. The next step was to remove the soiled cleaning solution with a wet vacuum and wash the floor down with clean water to remove any remaining cleaning product and neutralise the floor before the next step of sealing.

Sealing Italian Riven Slate floor tiles

Once the floor was dry we came back to seal it using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which really does help to bring out the natural colours in the slate and will protect the tile and grout from stains going forward.

Italian Riven Slate After Cleaning
The job took two days in total and the customer was absolutely delighted with the improvement in the floor.

Italian Riven Slate tiles restored in Boston

Italian Riven Slate tiled floor cleaned and sealed in Boston Read More »

Victorian Floor Before and After Cleaning and Sealing

Victorian Floor Tile Restoration in Lincoln

Lincoln Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History /

We asked to restore a hallway of very dull Victorian floor tile at a house in Lincoln. The customer had already called in another company and paid to have the floor acid cleaned and then sealed with a type of polish, you can see from the before photograph below the results were not very satisfactory and did not achieve the finish the client wanted.

Victorian Floor Before Cleaning

Victorian Tile Cleaning

Adding a new sealer on top of an existing product simply wouldn’t work and so we had to remove the old sealer first, this we managed to do with a strong 2 to 1 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean with water (2 Parts water); it’s a flexible yet effective alkaline product that can be used for stripping sealers, degreasing as well as cleaning.

Victorian Floor Tile Sealing

To seal the Victorian Floor tile we recommend Tile Doctor Seal and Go, it’s a breathable water based product which gave a much deeper shine to the tiles; also being water based it doesn’t give off any chemicals vapours and so it’s much nicer to work with. Victorian Tiles usually require around 4 to 5 coats, so it can take time to apply as you need to wait for it to dry before applying the next coat.

Victorian Floor After Cleaning and Sealing

The client was delighted with the results and has in fact booked us in to re-do their Quarry tile floors which they were happy with previously until they realised the results possible from our Tile Doctor Sealer.

Restoration of Victorian floor tile in Lincoln

Victorian Floor Tile Restoration in Lincoln Read More »

Quarry Tile Before and After Cleaning and Sealing

Quarry Tile Cleaning at a Public House in Boston

Boston Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Great set of photographs here for a client in Boston this time in an old Public House. The floors were made up of stone and quarry tiles and looked to be over 100 years old, there was no evidence of a sealer being applied and they were in need of a good clean.

Quarry Tile Before Cleaining

Cleaning Quarry Tile Flooring

To start the Quarry tile cleaning we set about giving the floor a good scrub using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and a rotary machine fitted with a buffing pad. We find machines can take a lot of the work out of the job but can only do so much, to reach those tricky corners you have to get down on your hands and knees with a scrubbing brush and add a bit of elbow grease. We worked at it for much of the day finishing by washing the floor down with clean water to remove any remaining chemical and neutralise the floor ready for sealing.

Quarry Tile After Cleaning and Sealing

Sealing the floor with a Quarry Tile Sealant

We let the floor dry overnight and came back the next day to apply the sealer. For this we used Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is ideal for older Quarry Tile floors which were probably laid without any form of damp proofing, the sealer is water based and as well as bringing out the colour in the tile and providing protection it allows the transmission of moisture vapour up though the floor.

The Quarry Tile floor required 4 coats of Seal and Go to get the job done, we find it always best to do a water test to discover if the right amount of sealer has been applied as too much will lead to the floor going sticky. To do this you wait for the sealer to dry and add a drop of water to the top of the tile, if the drop sits on top of the tile in a bubble then enough sealer has been applied.

Needless to say the customer was delighted with the results and the pub is now open for business.

Cleaning Quarry Tile at a Public House in Boston

Quarry Tile Cleaning at a Public House in Boston Read More »

Terracotta Before and After Cleaning and Sealing

Cleaning Terracotta Floor Tiles Near Boston

Boston Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Details below of a terracotta floor cleaning job we did near Boston, that’s Boston in Lincolnshire which is small port on the east coast of the UK as opposed to Boston, Massachusetts which was given its name by emigrants from this area.

The tiles were expensive handmade terracotta tiles, a few of which contained finger prints that had been baked onto the tile during the manufacturing process. The owner had previously tried to seal the floor themselves using other products but was having difficulty and had delayed making use of their new kitchen extension until the floor could be sealed.

Terracotta Floor Tile Before Cleaning

Cleaning Terracotta Floor Tiles

To ensure a consistent finish we had to remove the previous sealer and make sure the Terracotta floor was clean it was scrubbed with a buffing machine assisted with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an effective alkaline cleaner and sealer remover depending on the dilution. Cleaning the Terracotta floor tiles took a day to complete before being washed down with clean water to remove any remaining cleaner and neutralise the floor.

Terracotta After Cleaning and Sealing

Sealing Terracotta Floor Tiles

The floor was left overnight to dry and we came back the next day to apply a sealer to protect the tiles, sealing those pores that collect dirt and make them easier to clean. We used four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go for this; it’s recommend for Terracotta floors bringing out the colour in the tile whilst providing a Matt finish. The customer was over the moon with the results and can now move into their new kitchen and sealed tiles.

Cleaning and Sealing handmade Terracotta floor tiles near Boston

Cleaning Terracotta Floor Tiles Near Boston Read More »

Slate Floor Before and After Cleaning and Sealing

Riven Slate Floor Cleaning in Lincoln

Lincoln Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Riven Slate Floor Cleaning in Lincoln

Slate floors especially riven slate can be a nightmare to keep clean as the uneven surface of a riven tile traps dirt and makes it difficult to clean. Our client in Lincoln had this issue, however as you will see from the pictures below we managed to get it looking like new again.

Slate Floor Cleaning

The Slate Floor Cleaning process involved a good cleaning with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean Tile and Grout cleaner, it’s an alkaline rather than acidic product that doesn’t harm the surface of the stone but is very effective at cleaning. We left the product to dwell for a while before giving the tile a good scrub to lift the soil and dirt trapped into the pores of the riven slate floor tile. Once the slate tile and grout were looking clean we gave the floor a good wash down to remove any remaining chemical and neutralise the floor.

Slate Floor Before Cleaning and Sealing Slate Floor Before Cleaning and Sealing
Slate Floor Before Cleaning and Sealing

Sealing the cleaned Slate Floor

We left the floor to dry overnight and came back the next day to seal it using Tile Doctor Pro-Seal which is gives the floor a natural look and really lifts and reveals the colours in the slate. You can see from the photographs the difference and how amazing the colours are.

Slate Floor After Cleaning and Sealing Slate Floor After Cleaning and Sealing
Slate Floor After Cleaning and Sealing

The client was so pleased he has booked us in to return and do some more work for him.

Slate Floor Cleaning in Lincoln

Riven Slate Floor Cleaning in Lincoln Read More »

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