Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Cleaning Slate tiles in a shower

This bathroom in Richmond, Surrey was tiled in Slate on the walls and floor to create a wet room effect. Overtime the old sealer had perished allowing soiling and shower products to stain tile and grout there was also evidence of heavy Limescale deposits.

Slate Wet Room Before Cleaning

Cleaning the Slate Tiled Floor

We decided to give the tile and grout a deep cleaning using a strong mixture of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean combined 50/50 with Nanotech Ultra Clean to make it more effective. To get the cleaning solution to stick to the wall tile and grout it was decanted into a spray bottle and sprayed on to the tile, this combines it with air making it lighter and allowing it to dwell on the vertical surface. The solution was then worked into the Slate tile and grout by hand using a stiff scrubbing brush and then washed off using clean water, this process had to be repeated a number of times until we were happy that the tile and the grout were clean again. Pro-Clean is also an effective sealer stripper so will have removed any remaining sealer from the surface, this is important as the new sealer may not have been compatible with the old. There were a number of areas that had stubborn Limescale deposits so we treated them with Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a very strong product that as the name suggests will pretty much remove anything but is safe to use on Tile and Grout. Once this process was complete the whole area was given a thorough wash down with water a number of times to remove any remaining chemical and neutralise the surface ready for sealing.

Sealing Indian Slate Tiles

We left the floor to dry off overnight and came back the next day to re-seal the tile and grout. We choose to do this with Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that will sit in the pores of the tile and grout rather than on the surface and help protect it for longer, it’s also a great product to use on natural stone such as Slate as it really brings out the natural colours in the stone.

Slate Shower After Cleaning

Certainly my customer was pleased with the results and left the following message:
Jon was friendly and professional, working to a very high standard and keeping me well informed throughout the process.



Source: Slate shower room maintenance