Friday, June 26, 2015

Restoration of Quarry Tiled Floor in Grove Park, South London

I just concluded this Quarry Tile restoration work for a young couple in Grove Park, South London. They were refurbishing their property and wanted to keep as much of the original features that they could. In the kitchen they had the original quarry tiles and had attempted to clean the floor themselves but weren’t successful. I quoted for the job and took time to explain the process and which products I would be using.

They contacted me a couple of days later to let me know that they wanted me to do the work which was pleasing as I had put a lot of time into the quote. Turns out I got the job because they could see I knew what I was talking about giving them confidence I could do the work and another company had quoted twice the price I gave them and didn't even pop round to carry out a site survey.

Cleaning Hallway Quarry Tiles

I turned up at the agreed time and set about by cleaning the floor with a mixture of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and NanoTech UltraClean which combine well together to produce a very effective cleaning product that is safe to use on tile and stone. The solution worked into the floor using a rotary scrubbing machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad; after a while the soiled solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor was given a thorough rinse with clean water to see what I had left to deal with.

What was left was a mixture of paint, grease and sticky residues from old carpet tape and if that wasn't enough there were lime scale deposits. To tackle this a stronger product was required so I laid down Tile Doctor Remove and Go and left it to dwell on the tile for about 45 minutes which was sufficient to break down the stubborn marks and allow for them to be scrubbed out. Remove and Go is a strong coatings remover which as its name suggests should remove just about anything and with the exception of the lime scale it lived up to its name.


I think it's a fair statement to say that Tile Doctor have a product to treat every problem and to remove the lime scale I used Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up which is an acid based product usually used to remove excess grout but it's also effective on the removal of mineral deposits; needless to say it removed the lime scale without a problem. You do have to be very careful when using strong products like these on tile so I only left it on the floor long enough to do the job.

Finally, it was time to fit a brush head onto my rotary floor machine and gave the floor a thorough rinse neutralizing the floor and making sure that all trace of cleaning products were removed. Once I had finished, I locked up the house and left the floor to dry for several days.

Sealing Hallway Quarry Tiles

When I came back, I first checked that the floor was dry enough to seal using a moisture meter. The floor was dry so we started the process of sealing the floor with Tile Doctor Seal and Go, the Quarry Tiles were very porous and it tool seven coats of sealer before the tiles were completely sealed. Seal and Go was chosen as the customer wanted liked the low sheen finish this sealer provides whilst also offering excellent stain protection.

The owners were absolutely delighted with the results and they put in a fantastic review about me on the Tile Doctor website.

"Bill Bailey provided an extremely professional and high quality service from first point of contact to end result. He took time to assess the tiles to be cleaned and approached the job with a genuine commitment to get it right and achieve the best possible results. He carefully explained all the processes involved and was able to answer all our questions and provide advice. We would not hesitate to recommend him very highly.” -  Gemma, London