Cleaning Terracotta Tiles
The first step was to clean the floor and strip off any remaining sealer using a strong mixture of Pro-Clean combined with Remove and Go, the resulting solution creates a powerful and very effective cleaner/coatings remover. This was applied to the floor and left to dwell on the tile for a while before being worked into the floor using a heavy rotary machine fitted with scrubbing pads and brushes; we then hand cleaned all the grout lines using a quite abrasive combination of Pro-Clean mixed with Nano Tech Ultra-Clean. It took some time before we were happy with the floor but we managed to remove all the soiling and old sealer; the floor was then double rinsed using a hot water extraction machine and spinner tool and allowed to dry overnight.Terracotta Tile Sealing & Grout Colouring
The second day we started by applying a single coat of Tile Doctor Seal and Go to the floor, this would make the Terracotta less porous and make removing any grout colourant from the tiles easier. We allowed this coat to dry then started to apply the first coat of light grey grout colourant along the grout lines, this was left for about five minutes and then any excess was wiped off from the tiles. After the first coat of Grout Colourant was dry we applied a second coat and when this second coat was dry we continued with the tile sealing process, applying a further seven coats of sealer before it was done. Terracotta is one of the most porous tiles you can buy and so needs plenty of sealer to ensure its properly protected; you can see from the photographs that the floor has been transformed.
Source: Terracotta Tiled Floor Maintenance
