Burnishing a Deep Polish onto a Dull Marble Tiled Floor in Greater Manchester

This customer in Middleton near Manchester wanted to bring the shine up on the tiled floor in their Kitchen and Dining Room, it had been laid nearly fifteen years before and was now dull, lifeless and the grout was also in need of a clean.

I was told the tiles were Ceramic however after visiting the property and running some tests if became clear that the tiles were in fact Marble. There are some very realistic Ceramic and Porcelain tiles on the market however you usually find they have a set of repeating patterns whereas with natural stone no two tiles are the same.


The floor had lost its shine over the years which is a common problem with natural stone such as Marble which ideally needs to be polished and have the sealer topped up every year to keep it in the best condition. The cleaning test results were so good that the customer booked us in to complete the floor straight away after agreeing the quote.

Cleaning and Polishing a Marble Tiled Kitchen and Dining Room Floor

We started by giving the floor a general clean with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean paying special attention to the grout where it was scrubbed in along the grout lines using a stiff narrow brush. The soiled cleaning solution was then rinsed off and extracted using a wet vacuum.

The next step was to clean and re-polish the Marble using the 400, 800 and 1500 grit burnishing pads which re-hone the stone bringing up the polish gradually. You use water to lubricate the process and rinse with more water in-between each pad to rinse off the soil that is generated. The soil is then extracted with a wet vacuum.

After running all three pads over the floor in sequence and the floor was left to dry off overnight and I returned the next day to complete the work.

Sealing a Marble Tiled Kitchen and Dining Room Floor

On my return I started by running over the floor with the fourth burnishing pad in the set which is a very fine 3000-grit pad. It’s applied with a little water sprayed onto the floor using a technique we call a “Spray Burnish” and it really brings up the polish on the Marble tiles.

The last step was to seal the Marble tiles which will protect them from dirt becoming ingrained in the pores of the stone and make them easier to clear. For this I chose to use Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer which has the added benefit of enhancing the natural colours in the stone.


It was the perfect choice for the floor and the final result was quite a transformation. Certainly my customer was very happy with the results and left the following feedback on the Tile Doctor feedback system.

"Excellent professional service. The floor tiles are back to how to how they were 14 years ago."

Before leaving I discussed aftercare and explained that the more a polished floor gets used the more the shine and sealer wears off, so I always advise having the floor re-polished once a year using the 3000-grit pad and then adding another coat of sealer. My customer agreed and has already booked me in for a years’ time to do the work which should only take about two hours.


Source: Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing Service in Greater Manchester

Grout Cleaned and Recoloured in Manchester Office Toilets and Kitchens

We recently received a request from the Manchester headquarters of a global engineering and construction company which was founded in 1911 and now operates in over 160 countries. The company contacted us because they were keen to restore the tiled walls and floors in 20 different toilets and kitchens throughout the offices. It would be a big job, but we were more than happy to respond to the enquiry. We agreed a complimentary visit to the office for us to test clean one of the floors to show what kind of results could be achieved. The management team at the offices was very impressed with the results of the test clean and asked us to complete the whole job. There was talk of replacing some of the grout completely and I explained that it would be less expensive and time consuming to restore the discoloured grout through cleaning and recolouring and they were happy to let us proceed on that basis. Cleaning Discoloured Grout Lines As there were 20 different rooms to clean and Read more...

Limestone Tiled Floor Maintained at Manchester Country Club

This beautiful Limestone tiled floor was installed at a busy country club in Hale, Manchester around eighteen months prior and had seen significant foot traffic with around 500 people traversing it daily. The floor was taking a significant amount of punishment and although regularly cleaned the dirt had started to become ingrained into the stone and the maintenance team were struggling to keep it looking good, I also suspect that the cleaning product used on the floor may have accelerated the degradation of the sealer leading to the premature ingress of dirt. Cleaning Limestone Floor Tiles The floor was given a quick wash with Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner in order to remove any surface grit and then cleaned using a set of Burnishing pads fitted to a rotary machine. The burnishing pads come in four different types and you work your way through them starting off with a course stripper pad with a little just water and then carry on with the white pad and then the yellow pad until the Read more...

Anti-Slip Tiled Floor Cleaned at Manchester Country Club

You may recall a Limestone job I did recently at a Manchester Hale country club, this Anti-Slip porcelain floor was installed at the same location in the passageway on route to the toilets and in the toilets themselves. Slips and falls can be a huge problem for buildings with public areas and so tiles which have been etched to make a normally smooth surface rough make perfect sense, the downside of course is that those rough surfaces trap dirt and are difficult to clean. Tile Doctor have a chemical Anti-Slip alternative that only activates when the tile get wet that doesn't require the tile to be etched but it does need to re-applied every few years. Cleaning Anti Slip Floor Tiles The floor tiled need a deep clean to bring out the ingrained dirt so we applied a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean using two parts water to one part Pro-Clean and left it to soak into the tile for twenty minutes. The solution was then scrubbed into the tile using a rotary machine fitted with a Read more...

Red and Black Quarry Tiles Restored in Manchester

This Quarry tiled floor had been discovered under a carpet at a house in Manchester and the owner was keen to have it restored as an original period feature. The carpet had been stuck to the tiled floor using adhesive so glue was evident on the surface of the Quarry tile as were small spots of paint. Cleaning the Quarry Tiled Floor I started cleaning the Quarry Tiles with a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean worked into the floor using a buffing machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. This good job cleaning the floor however there was still evidence of adhesive and paint on the floor; a stronger product was needed so I applied Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is an acid based product so you have to be very careful not to leave it on the floor for a long time. Once the floor was clean of glue and paint it was washed down three times using clean water in order to neutralise the floor and remove any remaining cleaning products before sealing. By the way to remove liquids from Read more...

Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor maintained in Manchester

This Travertine Tiled Floor was laid in an open plan Kitchen in West Didsbury, Manchester, hopefully you will be able to see from the photographs it was in need a regular clean and re-seal. Cleaning and Polishing Travertine Tile I gave the Travertine tiles a quick clean with a weak dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to remove any loose surface dirt and this was rinsed off with clean water before starting with a set of Burnishing pads. The Burnishing system we use has four different coloured pads and they fit to a rotary machine. You work your way through them together with a little water one by one until the floor is thoroughly cleaned and polished; we used the white buffing pad for this one. Sealing Travertine Tile When the Travertine tile was dry it was sealed with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour intensifying sealer that provides durable surface protection. Travertine Tiled Kitchen floor Cleaned, Polished and Sealed. Read more...

To read more on this topic click here

Travertine Tiled Floor Polished in West Didsbury

This job was a Travertine tiled Kitchen floor in West Disbury, the customer ask me to have a look at the tiles which had been down for three years and had quite a lot of cracks in, on top of that it had not been sealed very well when it had been laid which had allowed dirt to become ingrained into the tile leaving it looking dull. Maintaining Travertine Tiles The first job was to wash the floor down to remove any grit from the floor and then remove what remained of the old sealer, now with Travertine being a very hard stone it has to be removed using of a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads fitted to a rotary machine. Once this was done all the cracks in the Travertine were filled in using a flexible grout which was a blend of three different grout colours in order to get a shade that matched the colour of the travertine. The tiled area was quite confined and tricky to work in so this process including the sealer removal took two days in all. Polishing and Sealing Travertine Read more...

Anti-Slip Tiled Floor Cleaned at Manchester Country Club

You may recall a Limestone job I did recently at a Manchester Hale country club, this Anti-Slip porcelain floor was installed at the same location in the passageway on route to the toilets and in the toilets themselves. Slips and falls can be a huge problem for buildings with public areas and so tiles which have been etched to make a normally smooth surface rough make perfect sense, the downside of course is that those rough surfaces trap dirt and are difficult to clean. Tile Doctor have a chemical Anti-Slip alternative that only activates when the tile get wet that doesn't require the tile to be etched but it does need to re-applied every few years. Cleaning Anti Slip Floor Tiles The floor tiled need a deep clean to bring out the ingrained dirt so we applied a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean using two parts water to one part Pro-Clean and left it to soak into the tile for twenty minutes. The solution was then scrubbed into the tile using a rotary machine fitted with a Read more...

Red and Black Quarry Tiles Restored in Manchester

This Quarry tiled floor had been discovered under a carpet at a house in Manchester and the owner was keen to have it restored as an original period feature. The carpet had been stuck to the tiled floor using adhesive so glue was evident on the surface of the Quarry tile as were small spots of paint. Cleaning the Quarry Tiled Floor I started cleaning the Quarry Tiles with a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean worked into the floor using a buffing machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. This good job cleaning the floor however there was still evidence of adhesive and paint on the floor; a stronger product was needed so I applied Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is an acid based product so you have to be very careful not to leave it on the floor for a long time. Once the floor was clean of glue and paint it was washed down three times using clean water in order to neutralise the floor and remove any remaining cleaning products before sealing. By the way to remove liquids from Read more...

Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor maintained in Manchester

This Travertine Tiled Floor was laid in an open plan Kitchen in West Didsbury, Manchester, hopefully you will be able to see from the photographs it was in need a regular clean and re-seal. Cleaning and Polishing Travertine Tile I gave the Travertine tiles a quick clean with a weak dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to remove any loose surface dirt and this was rinsed off with clean water before starting with a set of Burnishing pads. The Burnishing system we use has four different coloured pads and they fit to a rotary machine. You work your way through them together with a little water one by one until the floor is thoroughly cleaned and polished; we used the white buffing pad for this one. Sealing Travertine Tile When the Travertine tile was dry it was sealed with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour intensifying sealer that provides durable surface protection. Travertine Tiled Kitchen floor Cleaned, Polished and Sealed. Read more...

To read more on this topic click here

Travertine Tiled Floor Polished in West Didsbury

This job was a Travertine tiled Kitchen floor in West Disbury, the customer ask me to have a look at the tiles which had been down for three years and had quite a lot of cracks in, on top of that it had not been sealed very well when it had been laid which had allowed dirt to become ingrained into the tile leaving it looking dull. Maintaining Travertine Tiles The first job was to wash the floor down to remove any grit from the floor and then remove what remained of the old sealer, now with Travertine being a very hard stone it has to be removed using of a set of diamond encrusted burnishing pads fitted to a rotary machine. Once this was done all the cracks in the Travertine were filled in using a flexible grout which was a blend of three different grout colours in order to get a shade that matched the colour of the travertine. The tiled area was quite confined and tricky to work in so this process including the sealer removal took two days in all. Polishing and Sealing Travertine Read more...

Limestone Tiled Floor Maintained at Manchester Country Club

This beautiful Limestone tiled floor was installed at a busy country club in Hale, Manchester around eighteen months prior and had seen significant foot traffic with around 500 people traversing it daily. The floor was taking a significant amount of punishment and although regularly cleaned the dirt had started to become ingrained into the stone and the maintenance team were struggling to keep it looking good, I also suspect that the cleaning product used on the floor may have accelerated Read more...

To read more on this topic click here

Anti-Slip Tiled Floor Cleaned at Manchester Country Club

You may recall a Limestone job I did recently at a Manchester Hale country club, this Anti-Slip porcelain floor was installed at the same location in the passageway on route to the toilets and in the toilets themselves. Slips and falls can be a huge problem for buildings with public areas and so tiles which have been etched to make a normally smooth surface rough make perfect sense, the downside of course is that those rough surfaces trap dirt and are difficult to clean. Tile Doctor have a Read more...

Red and Black Quarry Tiles Restored in Manchester

This Quarry tiled floor had been discovered under a carpet at a house in Manchester and the owner was keen to have it restored as an original period feature. The carpet had been stuck to the tiled floor using adhesive so glue was evident on the surface of the Quarry tile as were small spots of paint. Cleaning the Quarry Tiled Floor I started cleaning the Quarry Tiles with a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean worked into the floor using a buffing machine fitted with a black scrubbing Read more...

Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor maintained in Manchester

This Travertine Tiled Floor was laid in an open plan Kitchen in West Didsbury, Manchester, hopefully you will be able to see from the photographs it was in need a regular clean and re-seal. Cleaning and Polishing Travertine Tile I gave the Travertine tiles a quick clean with a weak dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to remove any loose surface dirt and this was rinsed off with clean water before starting with a set of Burnishing pads. The Burnishing system we use has four different coloured Read more...

Travertine Tiled Floor Polished in West Didsbury

This job was a Travertine tiled Kitchen floor in West Disbury, the customer ask me to have a look at the tiles which had been down for three years and had quite a lot of cracks in, on top of that it had not been sealed very well when it had been laid which had allowed dirt to become ingrained into the tile leaving it looking dull. Maintaining Travertine Tiles The first job was to wash the floor down to remove any grit from the floor and then remove what remained of the old sealer, now with Read more...