Rehabilitated Riven Slate Tiled Floor in old Barn Conversion in Ince

A client in Telford recently bought this barn reconstruction in the village of Ince, Cheshire. The unit had Riven Slate floor tiles set up on the ground floor from hallway and corridor through to the utility room and downstairs WC. The tiles were not looking good and in fact the old polyurethane based sealer had gone somewhat yellow and begun to peel off in places. The building was originally built in 1886 and is grade 2 listed and after the first shot to bring the floor back to life and didn’t work out as planned and the owner decided to get professional help.

Cleaning Quarry Tiled Floor

To have the floor back to its original state so it could be re-sealed, the old sealer would have to be fully removed off the tiles, favorably we have a product available that does exactly that called Tile Doctor Remove and Go. Working in portions, the tiles were coated with a mixed solution of Remove and Go which was left to absorb into the slate for twenty minutes before being brushed using a rotary machine fitted with a stiff brush head. The soiled solution was then removed from the floor using a wet vacuum and the process was repeated until all the old sealer had been removed and the floor was looking refurbished again. Furthermore, I needed to steam clean the whole floor and scrub hard areas with a hand brush. After the whole floor was clean I gave it an intensive wash down using fresh water to get rid of any trace of the cleaning product and then use the wet vacuum to get as much water off the floor as possible to minimize the drying period.

Sealing a Quarry Floor

I left the floor to dry off for several days and then came back to apply the sealer while also investigating the moisture level of the floor first to be sure it was dry enough to apply a sealer. I had deliberated the different options for sealing and the client wanted a satin finish so we decided to use Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based sealer that brings forth the required finish and being water based, it can be applied without leaving a solvent smell as it dries. Four coats of Seal and Go were necessary to completely seal the slate.

It was quite a huge area and originally I had predicted it would take around two days to get rid of the old sealer and get the tiles clean in the end nonetheless it took us three days to clean the floor due to the state of the tiles and a day to seal. The client and his wife were really ecstatic with the end product and left the following feedback for me on the Tile Doctor feedback system.

“I would like to commend Jozsef on his hard work and tile doctor on their faith and training in there staff to achieve such a high standard in an end result. The experience from start to finish has been a very pleasant one. Jozsef was very professional, polite and punctual, knowledgeable, very hardworking and trustworthy. Both my wife and I would not hesitate to recommend Tile Doctor & Jozsef.”
Many Thanks again Mr & Mrs Pasquali!