How to Deep Clean Norfolk Pamment Tiles

I was contacted by clients with a Pamment Tiled Flooring who were living in Gissing, a small village in the centre of South Norfolk which has a long history dating back to Saxon times. The Pamments were reclaimed suffering from heavy soiling and in need of considerable expert attention. All the old protective coatings had pretty much worn completely off the surface of the tiles which had then allowed many years of dirt to become ingrained in the pores of the clay, making it almost impossible to clean for the homeowner using ordinary methods.

   

 Pamment tiles were very popular in older Norfolk homes; they are made from locally sourced clay and, like terracotta, are extremely porous and therefore need to be thoroughly sealed against fluids and general soiling. When correctly cleaned and sealed, they are quite versatile and can be used for internal floors as well as external areas such as patios and pathways.

 

Cleaning a Pamment tiled floor

To remove all traces of the old sealers and clean the tiles I decided to apply Tile Doctor Remove & Go, which was diluted with water to form a medium strength solution. I applied a generous coat of this solution to the floor, leaving it to soak into the pores of the tiles for approximately ten minutes. The solution was then worked into the Pamments using a Black nylon scrubbing pad fitted to a 17" rotary machine. Remove & Go is a powerful and versatile cleaner which is safe to use on natural stone floors, kiln-fired tiles and all types of grout. I rinsed the solution off the floor with clean water once it had worked its magic and extracted the resulting dirty residue with a wet-vacuum machine. In order to tackle some particularly stubborn stains, I repeated this process until I was satisfied that the floor had been cleaned to the highest standard possible.

  

  The whole area was then given an acid wash using a dilution of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up. This further cleans the tiles to remove old grout stains and neutralises the pH level of the floor following the use of alkaline cleaning products, lastly it also ensures optimal adhesion of the new sealer.

The floor was then left to dry overnight before returning the next day to complete the seal. I left a dehumidifier running overnight to assist the drying process and ensure that the floor would be completely dry on the following day. It’s imperative that a tiled floor is completely dry before sealing as any excess moisture left in the floor can potentially adversely affect the overall performance of the sealer as it evaporates.

 

Sealing a Pamment tiled floor

To seal and protect the Pamment tiles I applied a total of five coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go, which provided a robust, durable surface seal along with an aesthetically pleasing, mid-sheen finish (as you can see from the photos). Seal & Go is the go-to sealer for internal, unsealed porous surfaces such as Terracotta, Sandstone or Slate.

 

The clients had left us to work our magic over the two days, returning at the end of the sealing day and were absolutely staggered at the results we had achieved with a floor they had thought beyond help.

 

For aftercare cleaning I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, it’s a gentle yet effective product that won’t upset the sealer which can be the problem with many of the stronger products you find in supermarkets.

Source: Pamment Tile Cleaning and Restoration Service in Norfolk

Restoring the Appearance of Victorian Hallway Tiles in Norfolk

There are thousands of Victorian tiled hallways in and around Norwich and I often get called to work on them, however this was a particularly abused and neglected example I thought you might find interesting. The surface had clearly been both painted red at some point (possibly with an old lead-based paint) and then completely covered with rubber-backed underlay and carpeted, a thick layer of double-sided carpet tape remaining firmly stuck in patches around all the edges of the floor area.

Cleaning a Victorian tiled floor

Firstly, we cleaned the whole area using a strong solution (1:3) of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, which is a high alkaline stripper and cleaner, agitated with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine. All products and slurry were then power rinsed and vacuumed away to reveal the improved floor. There were still a significant number of glue patches and paint spots around the edges of the floor, so these were tackled using Tile Doctor Remove & Go, which softened them enough to enable us to remove them with a sharp-bladed scraper. Unfortunately, the decaying rubber underlay had left a pattern on the tile surface which was most obvious at the doorway into the terracotta tiled kitchen. We almost completely removed this using Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel which being in gel form allows it work on the problem area longer. It was painted on a brush and kept moist for two hours under a layer of cling film which drew out virtually all the contaminant from the tile. The next concern was that an original Victorian floor of this age would almost certainly have no damp proof membrane and an area near the front door which showed evidence of efflorescence salts was treated with Tile Doctor Acid Gel in order to remove the white deposits and further inhibit the production of more in the future. The whole area was then lightly buffed using the rotary machine and a 1500 grit diamond pad with water in order to remove any remaining fine paint spots and restore a silky feel to the surface of the tiles before leaving the floor to dry overnight with assistance from our dehumidifier.

Sealing a Victorian tiled floor

When we returned the following morning, our damp meter showed us that the moisture content in the substrate was probably going to be too high to allow us to use an acrylic sealer to provide the sheen which the client had requested; so we decided to spray-buff the floor using a 3000 grit diamond pad on the rotary machine followed by the application of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, a colour enhancing penetrating sealer which sits just below the surface of the tile and leaves no visible finish. Finally, the whole floor was spray buffed to a low sheen with a white maintenance pad on the rotary machine and any resulting dust vacuumed away.


The Victorian tiles now look fantastic and have become a great asset to the property as original features like these are very sought after.


Source: Victorian Tile Cleaning and Restoration Service in Norfolk