Quarry Tiled Floor Cleaning and Removal of Grout Haze

A Quarry Tiled floor in a kitchen and family room of a cottage in Kemsing, Kent. The cottage was undergoing a full renovation and extension, and the quarry tiled floor was recently installed, however it was not sealed prior to grouting, and a grey grout haze was now sitting across the whole floor. Quarry tiles are highly porous and if not sealed before grouting the grout sitting on the tile soaks in leaving the colour of the grout as a haze over the tile.

Cleaning Quarry Tiles

There had been a number of tradesmen working constantly on the premises so it was difficult to tell what was grout haze and what was builders mess so I the first job was to give the floor a good clean. For this I used a strong mixture of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with water in a 3:1 ratio. I also added a squirt of Tile Doctor NanoTech Ultra-Clean” which is a nasty cleaner and processed it to apply the solution to the floor. I left the solution to seep in the floor for a short while and then scrubbed the floor using my weighted floor scrubbing machine fitted with a black 17inch scrubbing pad. The cleaning scum was removed using a wet vacuum and we could now see all the grout haze quite clearly.

Removing Grout Haze from Quarry Tiles

In removing the grout haze, one part Tile Doctor “Grout Clean-up” was mixed with three parts water and poured into a spray bottle; Grout Clean-up is a product specifically designed for removing grout haze. This was then sprayed onto the floor, covering an area of around 1m2 and spread so it covered the grout haze evenly. This was allowed to seep in the tile for three to four minutes before I agitated the solution by hand with a pan scrubber and water. This was then vacuumed up before I took a scrubbing brush and clean water from another bucket and scrubbed the area, before again vacuuming up. This ensured that all the formula had been cleansed from the floor; this process was repeated across the whole floor, working on 1m2 at a time and then left to dry ready for sealing.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

The floor was now ready for sealing; Quarry tile floors can accept two types of sealer, a topical sealer or an impregnated sealer. I usually recommend Tile Doctor “Seal & Go” for Quarry tiled floors which is a Topical sealer as it is easier to maintain. On this occasion however the client wanted to wait until they had completed decorating and was happy to seal the floor themselves, so I gave them tips on what sealers to use and how best to use them and left them to it.