Kitchen Floor Cleaning Archives - North Cumbria Tile Doctor

Multi-Coloured Slate Kitchen Floor Cleaning Dalston Cumbria

A homeowner from Dalston near Carlisle got in touch earlier this year for help with a Chinese Multi-Coloured Slate tiled floor in their kitchen/diner. The sealer had long since worn down and now dirt was getting into the pores of the stone leaving it dull and difficult to clean.

Slate is naturally porous and uneven due to its riven surface leaving it vulnerable when unsealed. Additionally, sealers wear down on the busiest parts of the floor first resulting in an uneven and unattractive appearance over time.

Multi-Coloured Chinese Slate Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Dalston Cumbria

I conducted an initial inspection to survey the floor, discuss its renovation and work out an outline plan for its renovation. Basically, the floor needed a deep clean to strip off what remained of the old sealer, flush out the ingrained dirt from the tile and grout and then apply a fresh sealer to protect it going forward.

Later that day I emailed over a detailed quote that included all the products needed to do the work. This was accepted and a date agreed for the work to start which would take two days.

Deep Cleaning a Multi-Coloured Slate Tiled Kitchen Floor

To get the floor clean and free of any remaining sealer a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go was spread onto the floor and left to soak in for ten minutes. This gives the product time to work its way into the pores of the stone to digest the soiling and breakdown old sealers. The floor was then scrubbed using a rotary machine fitted with a coarse 200-grit pad that opens the pores in the stone allowing for dirt and embedded grime to be flushed out.

The soiling was rinsed away and extracted with a wet vacuum before moving on to the next step which was to scrub the grout using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. As before this was left to soak in first before being scrubbed in with a stiff brush.

Multi-Coloured Chinese Slate Kitchen Floor During Cleaning Dalston Cumbria

Before finishing for day one the floor was then given an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Acid Gel which further cleans the stone and neutralises the ph level of the floor after the use of the other products where are alkaline. Being acidic this product will also remove any old grout smears and other mineral deposits such as salts leaving the slate in a completely uncontaminated state. Once done the floor was given a thorough rinse and wet extraction to remove all cleaning residues.

Sealing a Multi-Coloured Slate Tiled Kitchen Floor

After leaving the floors to dry out fully overnight I returned the next day to apply a sealer which would add colour and an appealing finish to the slate. We had discussed the desired finish when I popped over to survey the floor and from this, I recommend using Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal which is a hard-wearing impregnating sealer that is rated for external use so ideal for kitchen floors. Being oil based it’s quite thick so to make it more workable and to enhance the colours further I mix it 50:50 with Colour Grow which is another impregnating sealer in the Tile Doctor range.

The first coat was worked into the Slate to enhance the natural tones and then additional coats were applied as required for full coverage. The excess sealer was then buffed off with a white pad to avoid surface residue.

Multi-Coloured Chinese Slate Kitchen Floor During Sealing Dalston Cumbria

Once done the colours in the stone really popped making the floor came alive again and the customer very happy. The new sealer will keep dirt on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away for which I recommended using a sealer safe cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner applied with a two-chamber mop.

Professional Renovation of a Multi-Coloured Slate Tiled Kitchen in North Cumbria

Mexican Terracotta Tiled Floor Before After Clean Seal Penrith

Cleaning of a Mexican Terracotta floor in Penrith

1 Comment / Penrith Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History / Chris Jones / Acid Rinse, acrylic based sealers, Clean and Seal, Gout Cleaning, Kitchen Floor Cleaning, Mexican Terracotta, North Cumbria, Penrith, Terracotta Cleaning, Terracotta Sealing

I have lost count of how many Terracotta tiled floors we have cleaned and sealed over the years and the one thing it has taught me is to wary of Mexican Terracotta. This type of Terracotta is extremely hard to work with, its porous and made of soft clay which has usually been badly fired. Even if you do have all the equipment, experience and the right products it can be a challenge.

Mexican Terracotta Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Penrith

If you look at these pictures of this Mexican Terracotta floor, we recently worked on in Penrith you will see the tiles looked very dull before we cleaned them. Testing indicated there was still a sealer present however we didn’t know what type it was. Knowing what your dealing with really helps narrow down the best cleaning products to use which for Terracotta tiles tends to fall into one of three different categories.

To remove wax-based sealers, we use Tile Doctor Wax Away
To remove acrylic based sealers, we use either Tile Doctor Pro Clean for light sealer coatings or Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel for heavier coatings.
To remove solvent based matt sealers we use Tile Doctor Remove and Go for light coatings or Tile Doctor Nanotech HBU for thicker coatings.

If you have the misfortune of having had Varnish laid on top of these tiles, then the job becomes significantly harder. Because of this we have to be flexible when pricing for the work, naturally if we give a quote and we use the wrong system then not only will we be out of product but also the extra labour time to get the job right for the customer.

Cleaning a Mexican Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor

On this occasion the sealer at this property in Penrith was of the more common acrylic type, so we used a combination of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and some Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel for the stubborn areas. The products are applied to the floor and then scrubbed in using a black pad fitted to a rotary buffing machine. This releases the old sealer and dirt from the tile resulting in a slurry that is then extracted off the floor using a wet vacuum. The floor is then rinsed with water and extracted again to make sure all the soil has been removed.

Last step the cleaning is to treat the tiles to an Acid Rinse to further clean the tiles and equalise the floors pH level after the use of alkaline cleaners. We used Tile Doctor Acid Gel for this which was first scrubbed in, then rinsed with water and finally extracted as before. The floor is then rinsed down again with water to remove any trace of product and the wet vacuum used to extract as much moisture from the floor as possible so it can have a better chance of drying out overnight.

Sealing a Mexican Terracotta Tiled Kitchen Floor

We called back the next day to seal the Terracotta first checking in several areas with a damp meter that the floor was nice and dry. All was well so several coats of a Tile Doctor Seal and Go were applied to the floor for a nice mid satin finish.

Mexican Terracotta Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Penrith

The finished floor looked fantastic and was doubly improved by the grout cleaning which had responded well to the Pro-Clean. The customer was over the moon with the transformation in their floor which now looked clean and bright.

Before leaving we left the customer with a bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral cleaner for aftercare. To get the best from their Terracotta tiles it’s important that customers use the correct product for regular maintenance cleaning from the start.

Professional Clean and Seal of a Mexican Terracotta Tiled Kitchen in Cumbria

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