Restoration of Terracotta Tile and Grout

This small Terracotta tiled floor with tumbled travertine inserts at a house in Middlemarsh, Dorset was around 25M and had been in place for over ten years, since before the owner moved in. After a recent freezer leak caused the tiles and grout to become stained in the utility area; the customer Read more...

Solving Limestone Sealer Problems

Slightly unusual job this one involving a Limestone tiled floor at a house in Canford Cliffs which is a beautiful part of Dorset near Poole overlooking the sea. The tiles had only recently been laid and then sealed by a tiler, unfortunately however too much sealer had been applied and it had Read more...

Renovating old Limestone Flagstones in Dorset

This Georgian house in the beautiful historic town of Sherbourne, Dorset still had its original floor of black limestone flagstones. These were in a sorry condition, having been smoothed over with a cement screed to make it level for a carpet and, before that, painted at various times with both Read more...

Dealing with Very Dirty Slate kitchen tiles

This Shell Slate tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in Lytchett Minster and had not been sealed after its installation over twenty years ago and had now become deeply ingrained with dirt which the owner could not remove however hard she tried. Cleaning Shell Slate Tiles To clean Read more...

Restoring Old Portland Limestone Flagstones

Apologies in advance for the quality of the photographs below, they were taken in the sitting room of an old 18th century cottage near Weymouth and the lighting was not its best, although I'm sure fans of the TV series Poldark would have loved it. The floor was 20m2 Portland Limestone flags Read more...

Removing Glue from a Portland Limestone Patio

This Portland Limestone patio on Round Island in Poole Harbour had, together with a sun room indoors, been covered in a thick layer of carpet glue which had set hard in the warm sun over the years and the owner had found it impossible to remove themselves. There's no bridge so the island is Read more...

Cleaning, Filling and Burnishing Travertine Tiles in Sandbanks

Occasionally I get a call to pop down to Sandbanks on the Dorset Coast which is well known for containing the most expensive property in the UK outside of London. This particular residence had a Travertine tiled hallway which was badly in need of renovation, it had become very soiled and dirt Read more...

Cleaning Terracotta Tiles Marked With Dirty Boot Prints

I had a rather long conversation with this worried terracotta flooring customer in Weymouth. This was a new installation of around 30 m2 of terracotta tiles. The tiler had laid the tiles and was in the process of sealing with a rather nasty rubber based yellow coloured sealer when his assistant walked through from outside with dirty boots. Being a very absorbent tile the dirty prints penetrated into the tiles within the sealer leaving lovely dirty chevrons all over the new floor. To rectify Read more...

Sealing Reproduction Victorian Tiles

These Victorian Tiles had been laid in a hallway floor of a house in Dorchester ten years prior and sealed with what turned out to be an impregnator that had long ago lost its strength through oxidation and years of cleaning with flash which is far too strong and attacks sealers. What was left of the sealer was easily stripped off with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean agitated using a rotary scrubber and then washed down with a hot pressure wash. Sealing Victorian Tiles We offer the customer a choice Read more...

Polishing Tumbled Marble

This 50m2 Tumbled Marble tiled floor in Dewlish, near Dorchester had not been deep cleaned and re-sealed for at least five years and showed signs of the normal wear and tear associated with a busy kitchen/dining room and a dog that enjoyed muddy walks. The old sealer was now breaking down allowing dirt to become ingrained in the Marble making it difficult to clean. Stripping a Tumbled Marble Floor To restore the surface finish it needed to be burnished using a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads. The pads come in a number of different grades from coarse (used to strip off sealers and dirt from the Marble) too very fine (used for final polishing) and are applied one after another starting with the coarse pad and moving through to the very fine pad towards the end. Each stage requires a little water which captures the soil and is rinsed away and removed with a wet vacuum. This process completely removed the old sealer and surfaces scratches with a new shine. The floor was given a thorough wash down at this point again using a wet vacuum to remove as much water as possible from the surface before leaving it to dry for the evening. Sealing Tumbled-Marble Tiles The next day the Marble had dried and I started to seal the tiles using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer Read more...

Cleaning and Sealing Slate Tiled Floor

It helps to know the cleaning and sealing history of the floor, knowing this information can help with cleaning and sealing decisions. In this case however the slate tiled floor had been laid 15 years prior in a house in Sturminster Newton, around the time the house was built and had not been resealed since so that information was long forgotten. Cleaning the Slate Tiled Floor After testing I found it had been sealed with a wax based product which could easily be removed with Tile doctor Read more...

Limestone Patio Maintenance

Earlier in the year I was contacted by a client down in Broadstone (a town supposedly named after a local legend) to revamp 100 square metres of black Limestone patio, which hadn't looked right ever since it was first laid. The main problem was water ingress where water had been allowed to seep Read more...

Stained Marble Table Top

This beautiful Marble Table Top belonged to a lady living in Sturminster Newton whose slate floor I was restoring and she happened to ask me about the surface staining. She had had a quote from a stone mason who had said he would take it away, grind it, and bring it back which as you can imagine would not of been cheap. Polishing a Marble Table Top Unlike the stone mason I was able to restore the Table Top without moving it from the dining room using a set of six inch burnishing pads. I Read more...

Cleaning Old Ceramic Tiles

This fifty year old Ceramic tiled floor was installed in the communal parts of a small block of flats in Poole, Dorset. The tiles had not been given a deep clean in a long while and were now ingrained with dirt from many years of wear. Cleaning Ceramic Floor Tile and Grout To clean the tiles a Read more...

Victorian Tiled Floor hidden under Carpet restored

This Victorian tiled floor had been discovered under a carpet in a house in Blanford Forum by the customer and they wanted it restored back as close to its original condition as possible. The floor had been preserved well under the carpet although it had lost its vibrance and there was evidence of adhesive staining along the perimeter so I suspect the carpet had originally been glued to floor. Cleaning the Victorian Tiled Floor Cleaning the floor was straightforward and just needed a deep Read more...

Repairing Cracked Travertine Tiles with Stone Filler

Every now and again, I get a call from a client located on the small peninsula of Sandbanks, Poole. Sandbanks, sometimes referred to as 'Britain's Palm Beach', is known for its fantastic beach and high value property. My client asked me to take a look at a Travertine floor in his kitchen which Read more...

Cleaning an antiqued style Travertine tiled floor

I had a call from a lady who wanted the Travertine tiled floor in her kitchen cleaned, the Travertine tiles actually extended further into the adjacent room but in this case it was only the kitchen she was concerned with. The sealer that had been used on the floor was 'Lithofin Stain Stop' which is sold primarily to the domestic market; it's an appropriate sealer for Travertine but in a high traffic area such as this kitchen it had been worn down allowing dirt to get trapped in the Read more...

Reproduction Victorian Tiled Floor Cleaned and Sealed

This reproduction Victorian tiled floor comprised around 20sqm in the hall and dining room. It had previously been sealed using a rubber based sealer that had got dirty over time, the problem with wax and rubber based sealers especially is that dirt eventually gets ingressed in the sealer and then it just becomes un-cleanable. Cleaning the Victorian Tiled Floor The first step was to remove the old sealer with a product called Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a powerful coatings remover, Read more...

Cleaning and Sealing a Dirty Sandstone Tiled Floor in Dorset

You can see from the photographs how soiled this Sandstone tiled floor was, any sealer had pretty much been worn away and dirt had penetrated into the pores of the sandstone flagstones. Cleaning a Sandstone Tiled Floor We cleaned the floor using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with 10 parts warm water, Pro-Clean has an alkaline formula so it's safe to use on natural stone, acidic cleaning products can eat away at protective coatings and even dissolve calcareous stone over time. The cleaning Read more...

Polishing and Sealing a Marble Tiled En-Suite in Bridport

These Marble Tiles were laid in an en-suite bathroom at a house in Bridport, the main problems to be addressed WERE that the floor had dulled and lost most of its shine, there was also a coffee stain in the corner which needed to be addressed. Removing Stains from Marble Tile To remove the ingrained coffee stain we used Tile Doctor Reduxa, which is a penetrating stain remover used in conjunction with a heat gun, it can take a little time to work but its very easy to apply, I've copied the Read more...