Grout Cleaning Archives - South Cumbria Tile Doctor

Polished Black Marble Floor Polished in Furness

Polished Black Marble Foor Polished in Barrow in Furness

This client from Barrow in Furness contacted Tile Doctor about their polished black marble floor which had been installed 20 years ago. Its polished appearance had diminished with use over that time, and they had wasted money on different products sourced from DIY shops and the internet to rectify it.

Polished Black Marble Floor Before Cleaning Barrow in Furness

Many of these products were unsuitable for this type of tile and as such the top surface was quite tacky to walk on and had done nothing to improve its appearance. Happy I could resolve the problem they accepted my quote to re-polish the floor and a date was agreed to commence the work.

Cleaning a Polished Black Marble Dining Room

My first task was to protect the woodwork by applying a bead of clear waterproof mastic between the wood and the floor, this prevents water being soaked into the wood through capillary action, this can cause water staining and worst-case blow MDF skirting and doors.

Once done work started on polishing the marble floor using a 200-grit 17-inch diamond pad fitted to a rotary floor machine. This pad removes encrusted sealers, old polish and other products that were upsetting the stone finish. Applied with water for lubrication this pad does a good job of cleaning up the stone but leaves it looking dull with a matt finish.

To bring back the finish, finer grit diamond Burnishing pads are applied in sequence starting with 400 then 800 and 1500-grit. These pads clean and rebuild the polish on the Marble slowly brings the stone back to life again. The floor is rinsed off with water after each pad and the soiling extracted with a wet vacuum. The edges were then completed with a small handheld machine using smaller pads of the same grits.

After this work, I started on the grout lines which were scrubbed by hand using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an alkaline cleaner and will not upset the marble. I find it best to do this work by hand as the pads can struggle to reach into the recesses of the grout line.

Polished Black Marble Floor During Cleaning Barrow in Furness

A final rinse with clean water which was then extracted with the wet vacuum and the floor left to dry off overnight.

I called back the next day and started work by checking the stone and grout was nice and dry and ready for a final polish using a 3000-grit diamond pad. This pad brings up the polish on the floor even further and is applied using a tiny amount of water from a spray bottle which aids in the final polish.

Sealing a Polished Black Marble Dining Room

Once the whole floor was polished including all the corners and edges it was time to start applying the sealer. With this being a Black Marble floor with more than a few marks on it from the wear and tear over the last twenty years, I opted to use a sealer normally designed for outside areas called Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal. This is an oil based breathable sealer that soaks into the pores of the stone protecting it from within and ensuring any dirt remains on the surface.

Polished Black Marble Floor During Sealing Barrow in Furness

We don’t normally recommend X-Tra Seal for polished surfaces as the oil takes a lot to cloth off, however in this case I felt the extra work would be justified as the oil works well on Black stone.

Polished Black Marble Floor After Cleaning Barrow in Furness

Once done the Marble tiles were transformed by the work much to the relief of the owner who had really struggled to maintain the floor. Before leaving I made sure to spend time discussing future cleaning and recommended, they use Tile Doctor Stone Soap going forward. This is a mild but effective cleaner which helps maintain the patina on the Marble.

Professional Renovation of a Polished Black Marble Floor in South Cumbria

Polished Black Marble Foor Polished in Barrow in Furness Read More »

Stone Effect Concrete Kitchen Flooring Before After Cleaning Arnside

Stone Effect Pre-Cast Concrete Kitchen Flooring Deep Cleaned in Arnside

1 Comment / Grout Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Milnthorpe Tile Cleaning, Work History / Heidi Taylor

The stone floor in these pictures are in fact pre-cast concrete tiles created to emulate Limestone flagstones laid in a Kitchen in Arnside. You can’t beat the natural beauty of Limestone but these concrete tiles do give the Kitchen that rustic look the customer sought. The odd thing is, it’s actually less expensive to buy real Limestone these days as Pre-cast concrete is not a cheap product.

Stone Effect Concrete Kitchen Flooring Before Cleaning Arnside

Unfortunately, in this case, the concrete had been smeared with Ivory Grout during installation and the tiler had failed to remove it after grouting and this had dulled the look of the tile. The customer was led to believe by the Tiler that the off-white colour was indeed part of the stone and had put up with it for several years before we were called out.

Cleaning a Damaged Flagstone Tiled Floor

First of all we conducted a test clean to make sure our usual cleaning system would work as well on pre-cast concrete. I was aware that this type of product has a colour dye added to it which does seem to lose colour over the years and also can lose quite a bit of this dye once we start cleaning with strong chemical’s. Not wanting to risk any depreciation in the colouring I opted instead for the application of a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing pads. The pads are encrusted with industrial Diamonds and come in different grits from coarse to fine and I found that not only did the process remove a lot of the of White grout haze left by the tiler but also gave us a good start to the cleaning process without losing any more of the colour Dye.

The customer has specified they were keen for the floor to have more of a sheen finish, so we finished the cleaning with the rest of the Diamond pads finally ending on the super fine pad. We had to do some edging work where the circular pads could not reach but apart from that the pre-cast concrete responded well to this treatment as you will see on the before and after pictures.

Sealing a Flagstone Tiled Floor

The next day we called back to seal the Kitchen floor to protect it from staining, something that is more than likely in a Kitchen. For this we used a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which not only protects by soaking into the pores of the tile but also restores a lot of the colour that had previously been lost.

For aftercare I explained to the customer that sealers do wear off over time and so to get maximum life out of the sealer they should clean the floor with a pH Neutral Cleaner like Tile Doctor Neutral cleaner. It’s designed for cleaning sealed tiled floors and it won’t affect the colour dye or the Sealer we have applied unlike stronger products will eat away at the sealer over time. Additionally, pre-cast concrete like Limestone is Acid Sensitive and as such products like certain types of the Cillit-Bang range cannot be used on a floor like this as it will cause surface damage.

Restoration of a Damaged Flagstone Tiled Floor in South Cumbria

Stone Effect Pre-Cast Concrete Kitchen Flooring Deep Cleaned in Arnside Read More »

Shower Cubicle Before After Restoration Kendal

Shower Room Tile and Grout Restoration in Kendal

1 Comment / Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Kendal Tile Cleaning, Work History / Heidi Taylor

One of the first issues people have with shower rooms is the Silicone needs to be replaced, even a good quality Silicone like Mapei Ultra-seal which is fully waterproof and stain and mould resistant can still succumb to persistent damp issues. In fact it can get so humid in these areas the warm atmosphere is akin to a tropical rain forest.

To avoid the build-up of mould I recommend you rinse the wall tile and silicone down with plain water from the shower head after every shower and then leave the tiles to dry. Open the window and door to let out the warm condensation and after 5 to 10 minutes partly close the window (to the security setting) and then partly close the door, this then normalizes the room temperature thus inhibiting mould spores from blooming, as mould wont start to Spore on a cold room.

The pictures were taken from a shower room at a house a few miles up the road in Kendal where mould had caused a lot of staining to the silicone sealant and to the tile and grout both inside the shower cubicle and in the bathroom itself. There were also a couple of loose tiles around the base of the shower cubicle which needed to be re-fixed.

Shower Cubicle Before Restoration Kendal

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

We started by spraying the tile and grout down with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a strong alkaline cleaner, spraying it on mixes it air which helps it to stick to Vertical surfaces allowing it to get to work on the dirt. We left it to dwell for ten minutes before scrubbing it in by hand using a stiff grout brush; this process certainly improved the grout but unfortunately it had become too badly stained to be satisfactory so we decided to recolour the grout using a white grout colourant.

Once the shower tile was dry the loose tiles were removed and the damp plaster board behind chopped out and replaced. The tiles were then cleaned up, fixed back into position, then grouted and the silicone sealant around the base of the shower cubicle was stripped out and replaced with new.

Shower Cubicle During Restoration Kendal

Colouring Grout

One to two coats of white colourant were applied to the grout throughout the shower cubicle and shower room in order to get a uniform appearance and this final touch completed the transformation.

The other advantage of these particular colourant products is that they are epoxy based and form a barrier of the grout preventing future staining and making it very easy to clean going forward.

I think you will agree bathroom now looks like it was recently installed.

Restoring the Appearance of Shower Cubicles in South Cumbria

Shower Room Tile and Grout Restoration in Kendal Read More »

Textured Porcelain Tile with Charcoal Grey Grout in Kendal

Changing the Grout Colour used on Porcelain tiles in Kendal

Grout Cleaning, Kendal Tile Cleaning, Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Work History / Heidi Taylor

A customer in Kendal requested that the colour of grout installed on 20m2 newly laid textured Porcelain tile floor was changed; the tiler had used a Sandstone coloured grout and they were not happy with the colour or the grouting in general which looked patchy. I recommended the use of an epoxy Grout Colouring product that re-colours, seals and rejuvenates existing grout joints and comes in twelve different colours and after showing the customer the different colour options they picked Charcoal Grey.

Textured Porcelain Tile with Limestone Grout in Kendal

Applying Grout Colourant

I did a test area so they could see how it might look under the lights which went well and so I started to apply the grout colouring to the whole kitchen floor completing small areas until the entire floor was covered and taking care not to get any on the Porcelain tile as the textured surface makes it difficult to remove and requires the use of an white abrasive scouring pad. Normally you have to use a Pre-Treater product on the grout before Grout Colouring however this grout was new and so this step was unnecessary.

This job took me one day and only required one tube of Grout Colourant. The owner was extremely happy with the result will now have a fairly maintenance free tiled floor as Porcelain tiles are very hard wearing and the epoxy grout colourant acts as a barrier and therefore unlikely to discolour.

To source similar Quarry tiles visit www.KendalTileandStone.co.uk

Changing the colour of grout in Kendal

Changing the Grout Colour used on Porcelain tiles in Kendal Read More »

=================================

Ambleside Tile Cleaning, Arnside Tile Cleaning, Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Crook Tile Cleaning, Encaustic Cement Tile Cleaning, Fireplace Cleaning, Flagstone Tile Cleaning, Grange-Over-Sands Tile Cleaning, Grasmere Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Kendal Tile Cleaning, Kirby Stephen Tile Cleaning, Levens Tile Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Marble Tile Cleaning, Milnthorpe Tile Cleaning, Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Sandstone Tile Cleaning, Sedbergh Tile Cleaning, Shap Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Terrazzo Floor Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Ulverston Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Vinyl Tile Cleaning, Windermere Tile Cleaning, Work by Category, Work by Location, Work History / Heidi Taylor

South Cumbria Tile Doctor

================================= Read More »