Tips and Techniques - Victorian Floor Restoration in York, England

The owner of this beautiful period property on the outskirts of York was renovating the whole property and had uncovered a Victorian tiles floor in the hallway. The tiles were extremely dirty and stained with white paint spots from decorating at some point in its long history.

 

I visited the property to survey the floor and come up with a renovation plan. It was indeed dirty but fortunately in reasonably good physical condition for its age. It needed a deep clean and there were some small repairs needed. I conducted a test clean on a small part of the floor which responded well and based on that I was able to give them an accurate quote for the renovation. They were happy to go ahead, and we arranged a mutually convenient time to complete the works.

 

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

The first thing needing attention was to re-set some loose tiles at the door entrance which is a common problem with old floors. The sub floor and old tile were cleaned and reset using a fast-setting adhesive and grout. This was left to set for a time before making a start on deep cleaning the hallway floor.

First up was to apply Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is our go to Tile and Grout cleaner which is diluted before being mopped on to the tile and allowed to soak in for ten minutes before being scrubbed in with a black pad and rotary machine.

After rinsing off the now dirty cleaning solution I could see something stronger was required to really shift the deep-seated dirt, paint sports and who knows whatever else had been used on the floor over the years. So, to turn up the cleaning power a notch I applied a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go using the same process and extracting the soil with a wet vacuum. This process where repeated and hand scrubbed some areas until I was satisfied the floor was clean.

The final stage was to give the tiles and acid wash by scrubbing in Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up, this process is designed to counter and salts in the tile, remove old grout smears and neutralise the pH level of the tile after using the alkaline cleaners earlier.

The floor was given a final rinsed and the wet vacuum was deployed for the las time until as much moisture as possible was taken out of the floor. The floor was left to dry naturally for a few days before returning to carry out the sealing.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

On returning to the property to carry out the sealing it was first tested for moisture using a damp meter. The tiles needed to be dry before sealing and any high readings can be resolved using a heat gun.

Once satisfied the floor was dry the floor it was sealed using four coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which will provide maximum protection from staining and enhance the colours in the tile. Additionally, Colour Grow is fully breathable which basically means it will allow any damp in the subfloor to rise through the tile and evaporate at the surface. This is an important consideration for old floors without a damp proof membrane as a non-breathable sealer can cause problems with damp building up under the floor.

 

The client was delighted with the result and was really pleased to see the floor restored to its former glory. As you can see from the photos the floor now looks clean and bright and this vastly improved the appearance of the hallway in keeping with the rest of this beautiful period property.

 

Source: Victorian Tile Cleaning and Restoration Service in Macclesfield