kitchen Archives - Lincolnshire Tile Doctor

Sandstone Floor Before and After Sealing Sleaford

Dull and Dirty Sandstone Tiles Revitalised in Sleaford

I can’t stress how important a sealer is when it comes to maintaining the look of a stone floor and although they can protect a floor for many years if not maintained they will all but disappear in high traffic areas allowing dirt and stains to penetrate the pores of the stone. This gradual degradation occurs over such a long period it usually happens without being noticed.

This Sandstone tiled kitchen floor and entrance hall at a barn conversion property in Sleaford had not been sealed in eight years. Since Sandstone is naturally highly porous, dirt and staining had easily become easily ingrained in the tiles. The result? A very dull and poor looking set of tiles.

Sandstone Floor Before Cleaning Sleaford

After difficulties trying to resolve the situation by themselves, the property owners asked me to deep clean the tiles to restore the appearance of the Sandstone which had faded over the years. Thankfully we have the right products, equipment, and experience to be able to carry out the restoration quickly and efficiently.

Cleaning a Dull and Dirty Sandstone Tiled Floor

The first day of work involved preparing the area by protecting other surfaces and removing the kickboards form under the kitchen units. This was followed by a deep clean of the floor firstly with our high pressure Rotovac system which applies hot water under high pressure to force out ingrained dirt and muck from the stone whilst simultaneously extracting the soil back to a tank on our van. I followed this by scrubbing and rinsing the tiles and grout with a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, a high alkaline powerful cleaner we use on natural stone floors. This helped to tackle any particularly deeply ingrained dirt and clean up the grout.

Sandstone Floor During Cleaning Sleaford

Following the clean, I installed turbo dryers and used the already in-built underfloor heating to dry the Sandstone, which was necessary as it is naturally a very porous stone and easily absorbs moisture.

Sealing a Sandstone Tiled Floor

On the second day, the tiles were completely dry and ready to be sealed however before sealing I asked for the underfloor heating to be switched off so the fresh sealer would cure more naturally. To seal the floor, I opted to use Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the Sandstone so dirt can’t, additionally it’s formulated to enhance the naturally occurring colours in the Sandstone – those which after such a long time the customer was keen to see again.

After two coats of Colour Grow were applied, the transformation was well and truly complete. The customer was also well and truly happy. After eight years, the Sandstone tiles were restored to better than their original condition.

One question I often get asked is how do you know when your sealer has worn down. The answer is to conduct a water test on your tiles, if the water forms a bubble on the surface of the tile as in the photo below then it shows the sealer is doing its job.

Professional Sandstone Tiled Floor Maintenance Service in Sleaford

Dull and Dirty Sandstone Tiles Revitalised in Sleaford Read More »

Travertine Floor Before and After Refurbishment Sleaford

Travertine Kitchen Tiles Transformed in Sleaford

1 Comment / Grantham Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History / Phil Barrs

This fantastic Travertine tiled kitchen floor was in a bad way. Not only had it not been treated to a proper clean and seal in a long while, but it has also suffered from natural pitting, leaving lots of little holes that damaged the overall appearance of the floor. Travertine is very aesthetic, but suffers from the drawback of being quite soft compared to other types of stone (typically it sits between 3-4 on the Moh’s scale of mineral hardness).

The customer, who lives in the town of Sleaford a small Lincolnshire market town, was keen to have the situation remedied through a complete restoration. This would need to include small repairs, along with a deep clean and a fresh seal.

Travertine Floor Before Refurbishment Sleaford

Cleaning and Burnishing a Travertine Tiled Floor

My first job was to deep clean the whole area, which I did using a solution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean and clean water. Pro Clean is a strong alkaline product which has a long history of producing reliable results of a wide range of natural stone floors, including Travertine, Granite, Limestone, and Slate. I applied the solution to both the tiles and the grout lines, and proceeded to scrub it in using a scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary floor machine.

This left the floor fresh and clean, but I would also need to restore the polish to the Travertine to really take its appearance to the next level. To do this I used the process known as burnishing, which essentially involves the consecutive application of different gritted pads to achieve a high quality polish on tiles. Our burnishing system, which consists of four pads, achieves fantastic results on high-end polished stone like Limestone, Marble and, of course, Travertine. I started by applying the Coarse grit burnishing pad, before gradually working my way through to the Medium, Fine, and finally Very Fine pads to achieve a brilliant shine and light reflection finish.

To round off the first day of the restoration, I used a flexible matching filler to fill up any pitted holes present on the surface of the tiles. Following this, I installed a turbo dryer to make sure the floor would dry fully overnight, and be ready to seal the following day.

Sealing a Travertine Tiled Floor

The next day I returned to the property and proceeded to seal the Travertine tiles using several costs of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer to protect the tiles and also really enhance the natural colours in the stone. As an impregnating sealer, Colour Grow penetrates into the stone and fills its pores to safeguard it against ingrained dirt and stains from within.

Travertine Floor After Refurbishment Sleaford

As you can see from the photographs, the combination of a deep clean, high quality polish and fresh seal really transformed the appearance of the floor from dull and lifeless to a really asset to the kitchen. The customer was absolutely delighted with the results, leaving the following feedback: “Very good job – delighted! Thank you Phil!”

Professional Tile Cleaning, Burnishing and Sealing for a Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor in Sleaford

Travertine Kitchen Tiles Transformed in Sleaford 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 / Phil Barrs

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 »

Natural Riven Stone floor stripped and re-sealed in Boston

1 Comment / Boston Tile Cleaning, Work History / Phil Barrs

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 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.

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.

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 »