Godstone Tile Cleaning Archives - East Surrey Tile Doctor

Brick Floor Restoration in a Godstone Scullery

These photographs were taken at an old property in Godstone that was undergoing renovations including the conversion of a scullery with a Brick floor into a children’s playroom. As part of the renovation work the builder had prised off some of the Vinyl tiles and pulled up the cement screed that used to even out the floor underneath.

The builder had advised smashing up the brick floor and laying something else, fortunately the homeowner who wants to keep any original features in the property disagreed. Having searched on the internet for someone to restore the floor they found Tile Doctor and I was asked to take a look.

Whilst at the property examining the floor I took time to do a test clean and the floor responded well to the treatment. From that I was able to quote for the full restoration of the Brick flooring which was accepted, and a date set for the work.

Removing Cement from Brick Flooring

Work started with the removal of the Vinyl tiles which came off easily with a bit of pressure, not so easy was the adhesive and cement beneath. Using a power chisel, I carefully chipped away at the cement until all that was left was a thin film. Then using a coarse 200-grit burnishing pad fitted to a weighted buffer I managed to smooth out the bricks. The floor was then rinsed with water and the slurry removed with a wet vacuum.

With all the cement removed the next step was to deep clean the bricks. For this I left a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to soak in for ten minutes. This time I scrubbed the floor with a less aggressive 400-grit burnishing pad. A few areas in the corners where the pads can struggle to reach were rubbed down with a handheld diamond block. Once done the floor was give another rinse and dried as much as possible with the wet vacuum.

The bricks had been exposed to a lot of water during the rinsing so and with bricks being very porous I left the property over the weekend so it would have time to dry out before sealing.

Sealing Brick Flooring

Returning the following Monday I took several moisture readings from the bricks in several areas using a damp meter. All was well so I processed to apply three coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go Extra. This product boosts colour and adds an appealing sheen finish that will last for years. This product is also breathable and will allow moisture to rise through the floor which is an important feature when your dealing with old floors that don’t have a damp proof membrane.

Our client was very happy with the work we carried out and delighted with their newly restored floor. For cleaning I recommended they use Tile Doctor Neutral Clean which is a pH neutral tile cleaning product for sealed floors.

Professional Restoration of a Brick Floor in Surrey

Brick Floor Restoration in a Godstone Scullery Read More »

Tumbled Travertine Tiled Kitchen Tiles Before After Cleaning Godstone

Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Tiles Rejuvenated in Godstone

1 Comment / Godstone Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History / Hugh Mcleod

Travertine is a beautiful product however like all-natural stone it needs to be protected with a sealer if you want to keep it looking its best. The trouble is sealers wear down with foot abrasion eventually allowing dirt to become ingrained in the stone at which point it becomes difficult to clean. This was pretty much the issue with this tumbled Travertine floor in the kitchen of a house in Godstone, East Surrey. The owner was fed up with the appearance of the floor and asked if we could anything to improve it.

Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Godstone

I went over to take a look and could see it was as suspected the usual problem of the sealer wearing off and needing replacing. Before we could do that though I would need to remove any remaining sealer and deep clean the tiles to extract the dirt. Fortunately, it was only a small Kitchen and summer time, so I was confident I could do the whole floor in a day.

Cleaning and Polishing Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Tiles

The first thing I needed to do was to remove the plinths from the kitchen units to prevent them from encountering the cleaning products. Next and working in sections I started applying Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a powerful tile coatings remover that would strip what was left of the old sealer from the floor. This is important, so we could get down to the base stone, otherwise we would end up with different levels of sealer which would affect the overall appearance of the floor.

Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Floor During Cleaning Godstone

I left the Remove and Go on the Travertine for about ten minutes before scrubbing it in by hand with a scrubbing brush. Normally I would use a machine for this but given the size of the floor that was not a practical approach. As well as removing the sealer this process also got the Travertine and Grout clean and after rinsing off the now soiled solution with water and extracting it with a wet vacuum the floor was looking much improved.

I inspected the tile and grout at this point and spot treated any areas that needed further attention using a repeat of the previous process. Once I was happy I setup a couple of air dryers to speed dry the floor.

Sealing Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Tiles

After speed drying the Kitchen floor for a couple of hours, we had a moisture content reading low enough to apply a coat of Tile Doctor Ultra Seal which is an impregnating natural look sealer that works by occupying the pores in the stone thus preventing dirt from becoming ingrained in there. Speed drying for a further hour then allowed the application of two coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go to produce a lovely finished look that really brightened up the kitchen.

Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Godstone

Before leaving my very happy customer to the enjoy, I left her with customer with a complimentary bottle of Tile Doctor Stone Soap, a neutral and highly reliable cleaner for natural stone floors such as Travertine. This will assist her in maintaining the appearance and condition of the tiles going forward. Another satisfied customer!

Professional Cleaning and Sealing of Tumbled Travertine Tiles in East Surrey

Tumbled Travertine Kitchen Tiles Rejuvenated in Godstone Read More »

Soot damaged Grout cleaned and re-coloured in Warlingham

Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Godstone Tile Cleaning / TileProf

This job was completed to resolve an Insurance claim for a lady who lives in Warlingham whose bathroom tiles and grout had been damaged from smoke and soot. A building company had attempted to clean the tiles however the lady was not satisfied and told the insurance company it was to be done properly. On inspection the grout was still a bit dirty but I told her it was possible to clean it up, but could not guarantee it would be a uniform finish. I suggested that she could have the grout re-coloured at the same cost and gave her a small demonstration, she was happy with this and contacted the insurance company to get the go ahead; a week later she called me to book it in.

Preparing the Tile and Grout for Re-colouring

When I started the job I went over it with the lady to make sure she was happy with the colour and if there were any other issues. She pointed out that on the border tiles had discoloured and on closer inspection I found that they were a marble tile and the builders had put a topcoat seal on them to make them shiny but because it was the wrong type of seal and it had started to peel.

As a result it was necessary to the sealer as so I put a coat of remove and go on the border tiles and left it to dwell; I also sprayed a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean onto the ceramic wall tiles and scrubbed the tiles and grout before washing then down with warm water. By this time I could then scrub the border tiles in order to remove the old topcoat sealer. I dried the border tiles using my heat gun and the applied a coat of Ultra-Seal; the marble tiles had to be sealed before I could colour the grout.

Applying Grout Colourant

Once everything had been rinsed and the grout had dried I was able to apply the grout colourant using my colour applicator (toothbrush). Its meticulous work so it took a couple of hours to apply and by then I could go round to remove any excess colourant by spraying plain water and scrubbing with a white pad. I use a white pad, because if I used a coloured pad I could transfer the dye from the coloured pad to the seal.

Once I had completed the whole room I checked to make sure everything was okay and found I needed to touch up a couple of areas. I then buffed all the tiles up and cleaned the bath, sink and floor and asked the lady to check it all before putting all my equipment and dust sheets back into the van. The lady was really happy with the result (see comment below) and has asked me to do the same work in her kitchen.

Bill worked continually throughout the day without a break. He was very polite and courteous He was full of knowledge and yes I would use again.

Kim Dehnert, Wallingham

Grout restoration in Warlingham

Soot damaged Grout cleaned and re-coloured in Warlingham Read More »

Tiled Shower Clean and Seal in Caterham

Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Godstone Tile Cleaning / TileProf

Shower problems must be the most common problem we come across at Tile Doctor where we often here of issues with discoloured shower tile and grout usually combined with a build up of mould. Discolouration problems tend to come from the dyes in bathroom products such as body washes and shampoo, where as mould is due to inadequate ventilation or extraction magnified by our cold damp climate as we keep the windows shut and increase insulation to reduce drafts and keep warm.

Removing Mould and Discolouration from Shower Grout

The photographs shown on this page come from a ceramic tiled shower cubicle in the Surrey town of Caterham which you may have heard of as it’s where they make the Caterham Sports Car. You should be able to see from the photographs areas of discoloration and mould on the grout and silicone sealant which unlike the glazed ceramic tiles are slightly porous and have allowed the dyes and mould to taken a hold.

To resolve the problems with the tile and grout a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was mixed in a spray bottle and then sprayed on; mixing the product with air allows it to stick better onto the vertical surface otherwise gravity causes it to run off. The Pro-Clean was allowed to dwell onto the surface for a few minutes before being worked in with a grout brush. The next step was to rinse the Pro-Clean down and then re-apply the process to areas which we had missed or needed further attention.

The tile was then left to dry before replacing the silicone sealant between the tile and shower tray; whilst Tile and Grout can normally be treated once mould gets a hold on the silicone the only thing you can do is to replace it. In some cases I’ve come across the grout becomes too stained to treat and in that case the only thing you can do is scrape the top layer of grout back using a screwdriver head sized to fit into the grout line.

Shower Grout Sealing

The last step was to seal the grout for which we used Tile Doctor Pro-Seal which is a penetrating sealer rather than one that sits in the surface. The sealer should prefect staining in future however given the location it will need to be re-applied more frequently than usual.