limestone tiles Archives - Warwickshire Tile Doctor

Limestone Patio Tiles Deep Cleaned in Nuneaton

This beautiful Limestone patio had been installed in the back garden of a house in Nuneaton and then covered with some form of acrylic coating to protect it. Unfortunately the coating wasn’t able to defend against the ravages of the UK weather and had become loose leaving the Limestone exposed to the elements where it soon became very grimy.

Limestone Patio Before Cleaning Nuneaton

Stripping acrylic coatings from Limestone tiles

The acrylic coating had to be removed which was done using a combination of manual scraping using a fine blade and then with a 1:4 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was mopped onto the tiles and left for ten minutes to dwell before being scrubbed with a buffing machine fitted with a black pad. This process brought out the dirt that had become ingrained into the stone, there were some stubborn areas and these were treated with Tile Doctor Remove and Gof which is a stronger product. The resultant slurry was removed using a wet vacuum and the patio left to dry overnight.

Limestone Patio During Cleaning Nuneaton

Sealing a Limestone patio

I came back the second day to seal the patio checking first that it was suitably dry. Two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow were applied which is a colour enhancing impregnating sealer that can be used internally and externally, it works really on Limestone and did well to bring out the natural colours in the stone.

Stone patio stripped, cleaned and sealed in Warwickshire

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Limestone Tiled Floor After Cleaning and Polishing

Resolving a Dull and Scratched Limestone Tiled Floor

1 Comment / Coventry Tile Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Work History / Mick Gayton

This Limestone Tiled Floor was installed in the hall and kitchen of a residence in Coventry. The floor had scratch damage in the middle of the kitchen and was dull from the previous use of the wrong cleaning products, the house had recently been sold and the new owners wanted the damage removed and Limestone sealed and polished so it looked new again.

Cleaning Limestone and Grout

The first task was to give the floor a general clean using a dilution Tile Doctor Pro-Clean with the focus on the ensuring the grout lines were given a good scrub to get them looking clean again. The dirty solution was then removed from the floor using a wet vacuum and rinsed with clean water.

Limestone like Marble and Granite is a very hard stone and needs to be cutback with burnishing pads to get it looking good again; the pads fit a rotary buffing machine and applied with a little water. Tile Doctor supplies a four pad Burnishing set for this purpose and you start off using a coarse pad to cut back the dirt from the floor and then move through the pads until you get to the last one which is very fine and polishes up the stone.

Sealing Limestone Floor Tiles

To protect the floor it was sealed with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is designed to lift the natural colours in the stone and will protect the tile from stains in future.

Limstone Tiled Floor After Cleaning and Polishing3

Limstone Tiled Floor After Cleaning and Polishing

In total the floor took eight hours to clean and re-polish, the scratch was gone and the floor now looks new again, just what the customer wanted.

Limestone Tiles Cleaned and Polished in Coventry

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Slate Hallway After Cleaning and Sealing

Removing Grout Haze from Slate Tile Flooring

Grout Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Stratford-upon-Avon Tile Cleaning, Work History / Mick Gayton

You may remember a previous Limestone floor job we did for a Mrs Schwartz from Stourbridge, well true to her word she invited us back to clean and seal the slate tile flooring in her hallway which had been left with grout smears (aka grout haze) on the surface after tiling. Grout smears can be removed however if the floor is sealed it’s necessary to remove the sealer first.

Cleaning Grout Haze off Slate Tile Flooring

To remove the sealer and clean off the grout smears we used a 50/50 mix of Tile Doctor Remove and Go combined with Nanotech Ultra-Clean for added effect, the solution was left to dwell on the surface of the slate for 15 minutes to break down the polymers in the grout. The next step was to turn on a high pressure spinner tool which is a very effective cleaning tool on its own; the water from the spinner tool also washes away any chemicals and neutralises the floor ready for sealing.

Sealing Slate Tiles

We speed dried the slate tile flooring using a number of industrial fans and applied three coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which offers a good combination of stain resistance with a low sheen finish that brings out the natural colours in the slate.

Cleaning and Sealing Slate Tile Flooring in Stourbridge

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