Restoring Victorian Tiles
The first thing to do was to replace the missing tiles, fortunately replacements are still available so it was just a question of making the rest of the floor look as new as the replacements. We set about cleaning off adhesive from the edges of the floor which had to be done by hand using Tile Doctor Remove and Go combined 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra-Clean which creates a powerful stripper and cleaner. The resultant mixture was applied with a brush and left to dwell for fifteen minutes in order to break down the glue and old paint; this was an arduous task involving scrapers, wire wool and a lot of elbow grease, in total it took around five hours to get the edges completely clean.
The next step was to give the rest of the Victorian Tiles a deep clean for which we used a mop to apply Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted 1 to 5 with water and left to dwell on the floor for ten minutes. NanoTech Ultra-Clean was then applied over the top of the Pro-Clean and worked in with a buffing machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad
The dirty water was picked up with a wet and dry vacuum, and then mopped with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up which is an acid based product usually used for removing grout from the tile surface but also good for removing salt deposits which can happen on old floors with no damp proof course. The product was left for five minutes and then given a thorough rinse with fresh water to remove any leftover chemical and then left to dry overnight
Sealing Victorian Tiles
We came back the following day and started work by replacing the tiles I mentioned earlier. To seal it we applied four coats of Tile Doctor Color Grow which provides durable stain protection whilst enhancing color it also helped to improve the match between the old and new tile.
