How to Renovate Old Flagstone Flooring

I was contacted by the owner of this property in Leeds about renovating their old Flagstone floor. The couple who owned the house both worked long hours so after discussing the floor at length over the phone and after reviewing several photographs they emailed me to ask me to go ahead and start work. I normally prefer to do a site visit beforehand so I can provide an accurate quote, clearly however this wasn’t going to possible in this case.

The owner had arranged for his father in law to let me into the property so I could start work. I was aware from the phone calls we had that there was an issue with the pointing, and I was prepared for this, but it was worse than I had anticipated with most of the grout missing or loose. Interestingly the stone was quite yellow and so probably came from the Salts Mill area near Leeds. Sir Titus Salt was a 19th century industrialist and philanthropist built a large textile mill out of the stone. The mill is now a centre for art, dining and shopping and well worth a visit if your passing.

Cleaning and restoring a Flagstone Tiled Kitchen Floor

I decided to deal with the floor cleaning first and began by scrubbing the flagstones with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean using a rotary floor machine fitted with a scrubbing pad. The soil was then extracted using a wet vacuum and flagstones re-inspected. The remaining stubborn stains were spot treated using a repeat of the previous process until I was happy they were as clean as they could be. As the floor dried I took out all the loose pointing and re grouted the whole floor with a mid grey grout which matched the old flagstones quite well. The floor was now looking vastly improved. The floor was then left to dry fully overnight to ensure the seal could be applied.

Sealing a Flagstone Tiled Kitchen Floor

I returned the following morning and tested the floor with the moisture meter, I was satisfied the floor was within the accepted parameters and we could now apply the sealant. I selected to use a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next one. This product enhances the colour but leaves a matt finish. It will form a durable protective seal to the floor which will ensure the floor is easier to maintain.

I heard from the later that they were over the moon with the result and as part of the conversation we discussed the best way to maintain the floor going forward. Basically, this involves being careful with what you use to clean it as strong products can weaker the sealer. I recommend they use Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is pH neural and designed for the regular cleaning of sealed tiles.


Source: Flagstone Floor Cleaning, Sealing and Renovation Service in North Yorkshire

Stained Flagstone Floor Deep Cleaned in Gloucestershire

I recently helped a homeowner from my home town of Dursley who got in touch about her kitchen Flagstone floor. The problem revolved around an accident she had with raspberries which had stained the flagstones and the problem became compounded when a house hold clearing product was applied neat to clean up the mess. If you follow any of our Tile Doctor blogs, you will know that using strong household cleaning products can damage the sealer and, in this case, it had left white marks on the floor.


I called round to the property to survey the floor as was surprised to find out that the floor had been cleaned and sealed only four months prior by another company. I don’t like to comment on other people’s work, but I found the grout lines and flagstones were still badly ingrained with dirt, so it wasn’t a through job.


I completed by survey and demonstrated the process I would follow to resolve the issues on one of the flagstone tiles. She could not believe the difference I was able to make and booked me in straight away to restore the entire floor.

Cleaning a traditional Yorkshire Stone internal floor

My first task was to protect the wooden kitchen units from splashing that can happen when cleaning the floor. Once that was done, I set about stripping the sealer from the floor and deep cleaning the tile and grout with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. Pro-Clean is a concentrated, multi-purpose high-alkaline cleaner, stripper and degreaser which is safe to use on all types of tile, stone and grout including natural stone.

Working in sections across the Kitchen and adjacent dining room I diluted one part Pro-Clean to two parts water and mopped it onto the flagstones and grout where I left it to soak in for roughly fifteen minutes. Then using a rotary floor buffer fitted with a black scrubbing pad I scrubbed the solution into the floor into the old sealer and trapped dirt came away turning the cleaning fluid black in the process. The soil was then rinsed off with water and then extracted with a powerful 3,000 watt wet and dry vacuum. This process was repeated until I was satisfied the floor was clean and I ran a stiff grout brush along the grout lines to ensure they also received a good scrub. After I was satisfied the section was clean it was rinsed thoroughly with water to neutralise the floor and remove any trace of product and then dried with the wet and dry vacuum.

The cleaning process took up the whole day, but the flagstones would need to be dry before sealing so after giving the owner an update I left the floor for two days, so it could dry out thoroughly.

Sealing a traditional Yorkshire Stone internal floor

On my return I tested the floor was dry in multiple places with a damp meter to ensure it was ready to be sealed. The readings showed that the wet and dry vacuum had done a good job in removing the moisture, so all was well. To seal I applied several coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go allowing each coat to dry before applying the next however with such a large area to cover I was able to work in sections around the floor.

Seal and Go works really well on Flagstones and leaves a very appealing sheen finish, also being water based it doesn’t leave a smell as it dries.


The results were amazing, and the customer thanked me for making such a massive improvement on her floor. Before leaving I made sure to discuss after-care and to avoid the use of hash cleaning products.



Source: Flagstone Tile Cleaning and Sealing Service in Dursley, Gloucestershire

Flagstone floor maintained in Ambleside, Cumbria

This Flagstone floor was installed in a house near the village of Ambleside and had previously been sealed with varnish and other products which had left the floor looking dull and nowhere near its best. I did a test clean which came out well and then agreed a date and price I came back a couple of weeks later to do the job Cleaning Flagstone Tiles Due to the numerous coatings that had been applied to the floor it was necessary to completely strip off the coatings back to the bare stone. To Read more...

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Flagstone Floor in a Victorian House in Lancaster

Restoration of Flagstone Floor in the Kitchen Details of an original Flagstone Floor cleaning job below from a Victorian House in the City of Lancaster, we often find flagstone floor tiles in kitchens and hallways and in this case they were in the hallway. You can see from the photographs below that the flagstone floor tiles were in a very bad state and it became clear that no amount of cleaning was really going to remove the decades of trapped dirt embedded in the pores of the Sandstone. Read more...

Flagstone floor maintained in Ambleside, Cumbria

This Flagstone floor was installed in a house near the village of Ambleside and had previously been sealed with varnish and other products which had left the floor looking dull and nowhere near its best. I did a test clean which came out well and then agreed a date and price I came back a couple of weeks later to do the job Cleaning Flagstone Tiles Due to the numerous coatings that had been applied to the floor it was necessary to completely strip off the coatings back to the bare stone. To Read more...

To read more on this topic click here