Deep Cleaning Mosaic Swimming Pool Tiles

Here's a quick account of a Mosaic tiled pool cleaning I completed in the grounds of a grand house situated in the New Forest which is a national park on the west side of Hampshire. Mosaic tiles have been in use for thousands of years and are a popular choice for swimming pools, the tiles used Read more...

Slate tile maintenance

This was a straightforward black slate tile clean and seal in a large kitchen of a house in Portsmouth, the tile and grout were in good physical condition and just needed of a deep clean. Cleaning Slate Tiled Floor The first step was to give the tiles a really good clean using a dilution of Read more...

Restoring a Slate Kitchen Floor

This beautiful slate floor installed in the Kitchen of a house in Southampton had tons of character but unfortunately years of use had left it looking rather washed out and was overdue for a deep clean and re-seal. Cleaning Slate Tiled Floors I set about scrubbing the floor using a hot water Read more...

Restoration of Terracotta Floor in a Kitchen Area

This Terracotta tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in Fareham. The floor was in need of a deep clean especially in the high traffic areas where the sealer had worn down and on the tiles near the kitchen units there were some stubborn stains from spillages. Cleaning Terracotta Read more...

Cleaning and Sealing Slate Tiled Floors

These slate tiles were installed in the back kitchen of a house in the seaside resort town of Bognor Regis, they were in good physical condition but unfortunately any sealer had worn off some time ago causing them to lose their appearance and look faded. Cleaning Slate Tiled Floors Dirt had Read more...

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...

Travertine Floor Tile Polishing in Hampshire

I do like a beautiful Travertine Tiled floor however they do need regular maintenance to keep them looking good. This travertine floor installed in the kitchen of a house in Fareham was no different as the tiles were looking dull and the grout was tarnishing. Cleaning Travertine Kitchen Tiles Read more...

Travertine Tile Polishing in Hampshire

Travertine floor tiles look amazing when they have just been installed but after a few years the polish wears down, dirt starts to become ingrained in the stone and they start to lose their appearance. They do need regular maintenance and potentially re-polishing and these tiles installed in Read more...

Burnishing Polished Travertine Tile

The photographs below are from a house in Lymington where the Travertine Tiled floor had become dull and were now in need of a re-polish. It's a fact that depending on the amount of foot traffic they receive all polished stone floors will lose their shine over time and require a re-polish. Read more...

Dull Milled Sandstone Tiled Floor Cleaned and Sealed

This Milled Sandstone tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in the village of Warsash on the south coast. The floor was looking washed out and lost most of its colour and the owner wanted it looking its best. Cleaning a Sandstone Tiled Floor The first job was to remove the kick boards from around base of the kitchen units a followed by the application of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with 10 parts warm water. This was left to soak into the stone and then worked in using a black Read more...

Commerical Marble Tiled Floor Restoration

Photographs below of a classic black and white Marble floor tile installation at premises in the city of Winchester. As you can see these Marble tiles had seen some traffic and were not in the best of condition following on from some building work that had been going on; fortunately we are quite used to dealing with these problem and have just the right products and equipment to restore them. Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing For best results on hard stone surfaces such as Marble we burnish the floor using a set of diamond encrusted polishing pads. You start with a coarse pad which applied with a little water to remove surface dirt and sealers etc. before moving through a set of finer polishing pads until you reach a high shine glossy finish. Half way through the burnishing process we stopped to apply a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean along the grout lines and give them a scrub with stiff hand brushes repeating the process in stubborn areas. After the treatment the floor was washed do to remove any soiled solution before being buffed with a white buffing pad. Any trace of its previous condition was now gone and the floor was uniform in appearance, it took much of the day to do the polishing and a set of four burnishing pads to acquire the right lustre. Source: Mabrle Read more...

Marble Tiled Floor Cleaned and Sealed

This polished Marble tiled floor was installed in a house in the old market town of Petersfield. The tile and grout was in good condition but like all polished stone floors they will go dull after a period of time and require burnishing and polishing to restore shine. Cleaning Marble Floor Tiles We gave the floor a quick sweep and wash down with a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean partly to ensure any surface grit etc. was removed but also so we could get a stiff grout brush in along the grout lines and give them a clean. Once done the floor was rinsed down with water which was removed with a wet vacuum, once done we moved straight onto burnishing the floor to restore the polish. Burnishing requires the application of a little water so there was no need to wait for it to dry. Burnishing requires the application of four different diamond encrusted graded pads in sequence working from coarse which removed old sealers and dirt through to medium, fine and super fine pads which build up the polish on the floor. The floor requires a rinse in-between each pad to remove any slurry and water is extracted from the floor using the wet vacuum, after the super fine pad we removed as much water from the floor as possible and left it to dry overnight ready for sealing the next day. Read more...

Maintaining a Travertine Floor

Travertine is a beautiful natural material which due to its hardness makes a fantastic flooring material. To get the best out of it though it does need to be polished as it does dull over time depending of the amount of wear it receives. I also recommend sealing it as well as this will protect Read more...

Treating a Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor for Efflorescence

Here's an interesting job I completed recently in the town of Lymington which is a lovely costal town within the New Forest and on the west side of the Solent. This Terracotta tiled floor was installed in the kitchen and was suffering from an efflorescence issue due to an ongoing leak which Read more...

Removing Limescale From Ceramic Tiles

The photographs below are taken from a house in the old market town of Basingstoke which is now the largest town in Hampshire. I was asked to address a very severe case of Limescale build-up in a shower cubicle. The wall tiles were Ceramic and a shocking amount of Limescale had deposited itself Read more...

Cleaning and Polishing a Dull Limestone Kitchen Floor Tiles in the New Forest

Limestone is a beautiful flooring material however it's a porous sedimentary rock with is not as tough as its cousins, Marble and Travertine, and therefore will need more Maintenance over time. This Limestone tiled kitchen floor in Lyndhurst is a great example of how this material can lose its Read more...

Polishing a Pitted Travertine Tiled Floor in Hampshire

To restore high quality, polished stone such as Travertine, Marble, and Limestone, we find that the most effective method is to use a process known as burnishing. It involves the application of specialist diamond encrusted pads of different grits in sequence. The pads with coarser grits grind Read more...

Maintaining the Appearance of Micro Porous Porcelain Tiles

Porcelain tiles are very tough and a great choice for kitchens where they are likely to see a large amount of foot traffic, you do need to be careful however if they are the micro porous porcelain which as the name suggests are slightly porous and if not sealed will trap dirt. The other problem you are likely to have with any tiled floor is the grout which has a porous top layer that can become stained. This kitchen floor at a house in Warsash had both these issues and needed to be cleaned Read more...

Restoring the Appearance of a Polished Travertine Tiles

To restore high quality, polished stone such as Travertine, Marble, and Limestone, we find that the most effective method is to use a process known as burnishing. It involves the application of specialist diamond encrusted pads of different grits in sequence. The pads with coarser grits grind down out soil buildup, while the subsequent application of finer grit pads gradually hones an aesthetic polish on the surface of the tiles. Tile Doctor's system consists of four burnishing pads: Coarse, Medium, Fine and Very Fine. We use burnishing in these types of floor because we find that liquid cleaning products alone do not always achieve the best results. In fact, some household cleaning products can be damaging it not used correctly. One customer of ours, who lives in Andover which is west of Basingstoke, was having a particularly difficult time keeping her pitted Travertine tiled floor clean, leaving them looking exceptionally dirty and dull and we were asked to restore their appearance.

Burnishing a Dirty Pitted Travertine Tiled Floor

As mentioned, to restore travertine we find the best method to be burnishing which has the added advantage of tightening up the pores in the stone, creating a natural sheen before any sealer is even applied. To undertake the burnishing, I used our four pad system, polishing the Travertine with each pad in sequence - starting with the Coarse pad and ending with the Very Fine pad. This achieved a nice, even satin finish, which was ideal because the customer did not want a high shine gloss. With the stone tiles cleaned and polished, I turned my attention to the grout, which was similarly dirty. To clean this, I opted for a liquid product in the form of Tile Doctor's high alkaline cleaner, Pro Clean. I applied and scrubbed the product into the grout to eliminate ingrained dirt and stains, before rinsing the whole floor, using a wet-vac machine to remove the dirty cleaning residue, and leaving it to dry.

Sealing a Pitted Travertine Tiles Floor

Once the Travertine tiles were dry, I gave them a final polish in preparation for sealing. My choice of sealer was Tile Doctor Colour Grow - our impregnating, colour enhancing sealer for Travertine, Marble and Limestone. As you can see from the photo below, the sealer really lifted the natural shades in the stone. Both myself and the customer were really pleased with the overall result.


A bottle of Tile Doctor Stone Soap was left with my very happy customer along with instructions for aftercare. We recommend Stone Soap for the regular cleaning of polished Travertine as it enhances the natural patina in polished stone.


Source: Travertine Tile Polishing and Cleaning Service in Hampshire

Removing Limescale From Ceramic Tiles

The photographs below are taken from a house in the old market town of Basingstoke which is now the largest town in Hampshire. I was asked to address a very severe case of Limescale build-up in a shower cubicle. The wall tiles were Ceramic and a shocking amount of Limescale had deposited itself Read more...