The Victorian floor tiles were in a very poor condition and to make matters worse a central heating pipe had been laid through the width of the hallway floor destroying the Victorian tiles. I assured the owners something could be done and a booking was made and arranged for me to return and do the work; in the meantime I spent a considerable amount of time sourcing tiles with the right measurements to replicate the original. Luckily, I managed to find a similar looking tile with the supplier called Original Style.
Rehabilitating Victorian Floor Tiles
As always, my first task was to check for moisture then to scrape as much adhesive and paint off the tiles as possible; then resorting to a chisel and small jackhammer tool around all the edges of the area to be restored to take out any more badly damaged tiles.
It was obvious right from the start that I was going to need all the assistance I could get to clean this floor and lift the stains out. In order to deep clean the tiles I put on Tile Doctor Remove and Go mixed 50/50 with NanoTech UltraClean which adds fine abrasive particles to an already powerful coating remover. I brushed the solution over the whole floor and then went over it with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. I left it for the solution to seep in for at least an hour before going over it again with the machine. Next was to wash the floor with water to remove the worst of the dirt and to enable further attention to be focused on the more stubborn stains. Further cleaning was required so I covered the tiles in Tile Doctor Pro Clean which is a strong alkaline cleaning product and then rinsed the floor again scrapping off any old paint and stubborn glue residue in the process.
The floor was looking much better however there were still areas with light cement smears and deeply ingrained dirt so this time I opted to apply Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which is an acid based product so you can’t leave it on too long but it’s the only effective way to treat mineral type deposits. I wanted to be sure all this product was removed so afterwards the floor was rinsed three times using a wet vacuum to remove the water. Once I was convinced that the floor was clean enough already, I applied a levelling compound to the area damaged by the heating pipes for the new base so I could tile it the following day.
Refurbishing a Victorian Tiled Floor
During the second day, I begun by cutting larger tiles into small pieces as the tiles were only certain sizes available from the tile supplier, but the color match was nearly perfect so I went on with it. Next was for me to tile the area using a fast setting adhesive so I could grout the tiles the same day. Once everything had set I gave the rest of the floor a final steam clean to make sure there was no trace of chemical that could upset a sealer.
Victorian Floor Sealing
I left the floor to dry out completely over the weekend and then went back on the Monday to seal the tiles with Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is ideal for this type of tile as it adds a nice shine. Three coats were applied leaving and interval in-between so it could dry before putting on the next coat.
The client was ecstatic with the results and that she chose Tile Doctor to do the work, we were not the cheapest quote she had received but you have to admit the floor looks like new so it was money well spent.
