Restoring the Appearance of a Polished Travertine Tiles

To restore high quality, polished stone such as Travertine, Marble, and Limestone, we find that the most effective method is to use a process known as burnishing. It involves the application of specialist diamond encrusted pads of different grits in sequence. The pads with coarser grits grind down out soil buildup, while the subsequent application of finer grit pads gradually hones an aesthetic polish on the surface of the tiles. Tile Doctor's system consists of four burnishing pads: Coarse, Medium, Fine and Very Fine. We use burnishing in these types of floor because we find that liquid cleaning products alone do not always achieve the best results. In fact, some household cleaning products can be damaging it not used correctly. One customer of ours, who lives in Andover which is west of Basingstoke, was having a particularly difficult time keeping her pitted Travertine tiled floor clean, leaving them looking exceptionally dirty and dull and we were asked to restore their appearance.

Burnishing a Dirty Pitted Travertine Tiled Floor

As mentioned, to restore travertine we find the best method to be burnishing which has the added advantage of tightening up the pores in the stone, creating a natural sheen before any sealer is even applied. To undertake the burnishing, I used our four pad system, polishing the Travertine with each pad in sequence - starting with the Coarse pad and ending with the Very Fine pad. This achieved a nice, even satin finish, which was ideal because the customer did not want a high shine gloss. With the stone tiles cleaned and polished, I turned my attention to the grout, which was similarly dirty. To clean this, I opted for a liquid product in the form of Tile Doctor's high alkaline cleaner, Pro Clean. I applied and scrubbed the product into the grout to eliminate ingrained dirt and stains, before rinsing the whole floor, using a wet-vac machine to remove the dirty cleaning residue, and leaving it to dry.

Sealing a Pitted Travertine Tiles Floor

Once the Travertine tiles were dry, I gave them a final polish in preparation for sealing. My choice of sealer was Tile Doctor Colour Grow - our impregnating, colour enhancing sealer for Travertine, Marble and Limestone. As you can see from the photo below, the sealer really lifted the natural shades in the stone. Both myself and the customer were really pleased with the overall result.


A bottle of Tile Doctor Stone Soap was left with my very happy customer along with instructions for aftercare. We recommend Stone Soap for the regular cleaning of polished Travertine as it enhances the natural patina in polished stone.


Source: Travertine Tile Polishing and Cleaning Service in Hampshire