How to Renovate a Quarry Tiled by Northamptonshire Tile Doctor

The following photos are of a Quarry tiled dining room floor in a period cottage located in the small village of Bozeat. My customer had removed a carpet and discovered them underneath, as you can see from the photographs however the tiles were in a poor state of repair. Undaunted the owner wanted to restore them as a lovely period feature and contacted Tile Doctor.

 

I went over to survey the Quarry tiles and could see the floor had not faired well under the carpet over the years, several tiles were cracked and 40 to 50 tiles were loose and would needed resetting to stop them moving underfoot, especially in the high traffic areas. I discussed with them that Tile Doctor could repair the floor and clean it and would be able to restore in a few days. They were happy to go ahead with my quote and we arranged a mutually convenient time to carry the work out.

Cleaning and repairing a Quarry Tiled Hallway Floor

My first course of action was to deep clean the floors using Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel which is an alkaline cleaner. Working in small areas the Gel was worked in using a stiff brush on a rotary machine using a little water. As this process was completed in each area, I rinsed off the resulting slurry away with water and then extracted using a wet vacuum. The initial clean removed most of the black staining and paint spots which had occurred over the years, but more work was needed.

The next step was to apply Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up to further clean up the tiles and tackle the cement residue and other staining. I used a repeat of the cleaning process and rinsed twice with plain water to ensure all traces of product were removed. The next step was to tackle the broken and loose tiles however it was now the end of day one, so after assessing the floor for all repairs required, I installed a portable dryer to aid drying and left for the day.

 

The next day I returned to begin repairs starting by lifting all the loose tiles, working in one square metre sections at a time. Fortunately, my customer had already managed to obtain reclaimed tiles from a reclamation yard so that saved me a job. The colours matched with the originals; however, the reclaimed tiles were slightly larger than the originals and needed to be cut into shape as required. Working methodically, I re-laid the tiles on a fresh bed of screed and grouted them in to match the original floor as best possible.

 

After the repairs were completed I allowed the floor to fully dry for four days, I needed the tiles dry and the newly laid adhesive and grout to set and bed in before the next step. Before leaving I gave my customer strict instructions not to walk over these areas whilst I was gone.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Hallway Floor

Returning later the following week, I first checked the floor was dry using a damp meter, once satisfied I was able to start the sealing process. The customer had requested a silk finish, however because of the age of the cottage and the possibility of damp in this old floor my choice of sealer was limited to those that are fully breathable.

 

On this occasion I chose to apply several coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go Extra, this product will allow the floor to breathe and provide the desired finish. It was a good decision, and as hoped it enhanced the appearance of the floor beautifully.

 

My customer was very happy with the renovation and the transformed floor and left the following feedback:

  "Friendly service, reasonably priced and a good standard of work. Has breathed new life into my old quarry tile floor."

Source: Quarry Floor Restoration in South Yorkshire

Deep Cleaning Terracotta Kitchen Tiles in Devon

Earlier this year I was called to the Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead in order to take a look at a large Terracotta tiled kitchen/dining room which the owners had ‘lived with’ for over a decade but were finding it harder and harder to keep clean. Upon arrival, I could see that any sealer that had been used previously was well beyond its best and the floor was holding in the dirt and grime because of how porous unsealed terracotta is.

 

I conducted a test on a small area of the floor which not only helped me to identify the most suitable product to clean the floor with but also to show the customer how much of an impact a professional clean and seal of a floor is likely to have. The first product I tried was Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which although cleaned the tiles very well I could tell was going to be a problem when it came to rinsing because the floor was absorbing it almost as quickly as I was able to put it down! My solution came in the form of Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel which is a very similar product to Pro-Clean and is a very powerful stripper/degreaser but has the added benefit of being in gel form, so it sits on the tiles rather than becomes absorbed into them. It is also a very good option for riven stone, uneven tiles or undulating floors because unlike a liquid it will not run off the high spots.

The clients were thrilled with the test area and couldn’t believe how much lighter the tiles were and as soon as I sent them my quote they booked me in at my next availability.

Deep Cleaning Terracotta Tiles

When I returned to the property my first task was to protect the woodwork from splashing by dressing the skirting boards and kitchen plinths in a blue plastic covering. I then set to work applying Oxy-Gel to the tiles and allowing it to dwell for about five minutes before scrubbing it in with a stiff bristled brush fitted to a rotary buffer.

The scrubbing action released the dirt form the Terracotta and I was then able to extract it from the floor using a wet vacuum. I worked methodically in small areas at a time and when the whole floor was done it was given a thorough rinse to remove any trace of cleaning products from the floor. I also checked the floor carefully and spot treated any stubborn staining and used the wet vacuum to get the floor as dry as possible before leaving for the day.

Sealing Terracotta Tiles

After I was satisfied that the tiles were all clean I then needed to wait for the floor to dry before I could seal. As I mentioned these tiles were very porous and so took longer than usual to dry out but once the moisture levels were at an acceptable level I returned to finish the job.

Once terracotta has been stripped it can reveal historic damage such as acid stains or from inappropriate cleaning products which look like lighter patches on the tiles. Upon my return I spent a while improving any areas like this by using diamond encrusted burnishing pads to resurface the tiles. In general, it is not recommended on terracotta because you lose the natural texture of the tiles and create a smooth finish but in this instance the customer decided that this was preferable to the stains remaining visible.

After both the customer and I were happy with the condition of the tiles I began to seal the floor with Tile Doctor Seal and Go, an acrylic based sealer which would give the tiles a slightly glazed or freshly mopped appearance. Because of the porosity of this particular batch of terracotta tile it took eleven coats before the floor was fully sealed!

The customer was very happy, and the tiles lit the room up, transforming it.




Source: Terracotta Tile Cleaning and Renovation Service in Devon

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

Stripping Back Terracotta Tile

This Terracotta tiled floor was installed in the dining room of a house in Andover and as you can see from the photograph below the floor had not been maintained very consistently and was now well overdue for a complete strip, clean and reseal. Cleaning Terracotta Tile To get the floor clean Read more...

New Flagstone Floor with Grout and Adhesive Staining Restored in Moggerhanger

Property renovation can be a busy and chaotic process, especially when some of the work falls short of your expectations. This customer, who lives in the tiny Bedfordshire village of Moggerhanger (pronounced locally as 'Morhanger'), called me in as he was not happy with the appearance of a newly laid Flagstone tiled floor in the kitchen, dining room and downstairs WC. There was extensive renovation work taking place at the property and the customer had been let down by his tiler, as a result Read more...

To read more on this topic click here

Finishing off a Flagstone Floor Installation

Property renovation can be a busy and chaotic process, especially when some of the work falls short of your expectations. This customer, who lives in the tiny Bedfordshire village of Moggerhanger (pronounced locally as 'Morhanger'), called me in as he was not happy with the appearance of a newly laid Flagstone tiled floor in the kitchen, dining room and downstairs WC. There was extensive renovation work taking place at the property and the customer had been let down by his tiler, as a result Read more...

To read more on this topic click here

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...

Dull Slate Tiled Kitchen Dinning Room brought back to life in Pontypool

This Slate tiled floor at this house in the Pontypool was laid over ten years ago in the kitchen/dining room. The floor had ground in dirt into the tiles and grout which the client wanted brought back to life. Repairing and Cleaning Dirty Slate Tiles I could see the tiles would need to be deep cleaned so I started the cleaning process with a strong combination of Tile Doctor Remove and Go to strip away the old sealer and Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to get the tiles as clean as possible. The Read more...

Deep Cleaning Porcelain Tiles

Our customer in Beaconsfield had been having great difficulty cleaning a textured Porcelain tiled floor that was installed in the kitchen and adjacent dining room; despite numerous attempts whatever she tried never have the desired effect. During the home survey we demonstrated on a single tile how using our cleaning agents we could remove the soiling and restore the original colour of the tile which hadn't been seen for a number of years. Scrubbing Micro-Porous Textured Porcelain Tiles Read more...

Getting the Best Our of Black Brazilian Slate Tiles

Tenuous link I know but I worked on this semi riven Black Brazilian Slate Tiles in the kitchen and dining room of a house in the seaside town of Thornton-Cleveleys around the time of the Rio Olympics. I love working on Slate as although it's appearance can degrade without proper maintenance due Read more...

Fantastic Black Brazilian Slate Tiles Rejuvenated in Thornton-Cleveleys

Tenuous link I know but I worked on this semi riven Black Brazilian Slate Tiles in the kitchen and dining room of a house in the seaside town of Thornton-Cleveleys around the time of the Rio Olympics. I love working on Slate as although it's appearance can degrade without proper maintenance due to a build-up of dirt I knew they would look fantastic by the time I had finished. The tile itself had lost its rich black colour and the grout lines had become stained, leaving the floor as a whole Read more...

Dull and Tired Slate Floor Tile Renovation

This Slate tiled floor at this house in the Pontypool was laid over ten years ago in the kitchen/dining room. The floor had ground in dirt into the tiles and grout which the client wanted brought back to life. Repairing and Cleaning Dirty Slate Tiles I could see the tiles would need to be deep Read more...

Slate Floor Tiles Refurbished in Cambridgeshire

This wonderful Slate tiled floor at a property near the old village of Duxford had been installed throughout the ground floor kitchen, utility room, dining room, and downstairs toilet, making it a very large area. As such, the property owner had struggled to keep the tile and grout looking it's Read more...

Dirty and Stained Slate Tiles Refreshed Near Duxford

This wonderful Slate tiled floor at a property near the old village of Duxford had been installed throughout the ground floor kitchen, utility room, dining room, and downstairs toilet, making it a very large area. As such, the property owner had struggled to keep the tile and grout looking it's best and had tried many off the shelf supermarket-quality products without much success and you can see from the photographs the slate was now looking tired and the grout was quite stained and so we Read more...

Neglected Quarry Tiles Restored in Shrewsbury

Details below of a red and black Quarry tiled floor at a house belonging to a customer in the Shropshire market town of Shrewsbury, which dates back to medieval times. The owner had recently moved back to the area and purchased the house with the intention of restoring all its original features Read more...

Extremely Dirty and Damp Quarry Tiled Floor Restored in Higham Ferrers

This red Quarry tiled floor was in the dining room of a house in the East Northamptonshire market town of Higham Ferrers. Despite being an original feature of the property, the floor had never been taken care of and looked to be completely beyond salvation and what must be the worst condition I have seen in a long time. When I first inspected the floor it became very quickly clear that it was suffering from severe damp problems, covering roughly two thirds of the entire surface area. I took Read more...

Victorian and Quarry Tiled Floors Restored in Shrewsbury

Details below of a red and black Quarry tiled floor at a house belonging to a customer in the Shropshire market town of Shrewsbury, which dates back to medieval times. The owner had recently moved back to the area and purchased the house with the intention of restoring all its original features including the Quarry tiles floor which had several coats of red floor paint and had been covered with carpet for several years, I guess the previous owner wasn't sure what else to do with it. I was Read more...

Renovating Dull and Tired Slate Floor Tiles

This Slate tiled floor at this house in the Pontypool was laid over ten years ago in the kitchen/dining room. The floor had ground in dirt into the tiles and grout which the client wanted brought back to life.

Repairing and Cleaning Dirty Slate Tiles

I could see the tiles would need to be deep cleaned so I started the cleaning process with a strong combination of Tile Doctor Remove and Go to strip away the old sealer and Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to get the tiles as clean as possible. The solution was scrubbed into the tile and grout using a rotary machine fitted with a black 17” scrubbing pad. The floor was then rinsed with water and the soiled residue was extracted with a wet vacuum. This process was repeated until I was satisfied all the sealer and dirt had been removed from the tile and then I concentrated my attention on the grout lines using more Pro-Clean and a stiff wire brush to get them as clean as possible. With the tile and grout as clean as it was possible to get it, I gave the whole floor a final rinse to neutralise the cleaning products and then extracted as much moisture as possible from the floor with a wet vacuum and left the floor to dry overnight.

Sealing Slate Tiles

When I returned to the property I made sure the floor had dried by checking for any dampness with a damp meter. If you neglect to remove all excess moisture from the surface of the tiles before sealing it will impact the effectiveness of the sealer. Once satisfied that the floor was completely dry, I proceeded to seal the tiles using Tile Doctor Seal and Go which will protect the floor from staining in the future and adds a nice sheen to the surface. The Slate was quite porous so I found eight coats of sealer were needed to fully seal the floor.


I think you will agree the floor now looks amazing!


Source: Slate Tile Cleaning and Renovation Service in Monmouthshire

Extremely Dirty and Damp Quarry Tiled Floor Restored in Higham Ferrers

This red Quarry tiled floor was in the dining room of a house in the East Northamptonshire market town of Higham Ferrers. Despite being an original feature of the property, the floor had never been taken care of and looked to be completely beyond salvation and what must be the worst condition I have seen in a long time. When I first inspected the floor it became very quickly clear that it was suffering from severe damp problems, covering roughly two thirds of the entire surface area. I took Read more...

Restoring a neglected Quarry Tiled Floor in Northamptonshire

This red Quarry tiled floor was in the dining room of a house in the East Northamptonshire market town of Higham Ferrers. Despite being an original feature of the property, the floor had never been taken care of and looked to be completely beyond salvation and what must be the worst condition I Read more...