Porcelain Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Porcelain tiles carried out in East Surrey

Cleaning and Polishing Porcelain tiles

Harder than ceramic tiles modern production methods have allowed a growth in the availability and design of Porcelain tiles which are known for their durability and water resistance making them a popular option for floors. Like Ceramic, Porcelain tiles are generally very easy to clean and need little maintenance however some are micro porous and do require sealing, you will need to ask you supplier which type you have installed as it can be very difficult to tell.

If your Porcelain tiles are of the micro porous variety then they will need to be sealed to avoid a build-up of dirt in the pores of the tile. For this we recommend Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal which works by impregnating the pores to ensure dirt can’t become ingrained there without changing the appearance of the tile itself.

Apart from sealing the biggest issues with this type of tile are usually grout related. Either the adjacent grout discolours over time or the tiler has been unable to remove excess grout from the surface of the tile, an issue known as Grout Haze or Grout Smears. Modern grouts can be particularly susceptible to the grout haze issue due to shorter working times and polymers in the grout which make it difficult to remove once dry. If this sounds familiar do contact us so we can advise you on how best to remove it.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.


Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tiles Before After Cleaning Dorking

Cleaning of a Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool in Dorking

Textured porcelain is a great choice for tiling swimming pool surrounds due to its anti-slip properties. The drawback however is that the textured surface which provides the grip also traps dirt and is very hard to keep clean without specialised equipment.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile Before Cleaning Dorking

This swimming pool in the basement of a large property in Dorking was suffering from exactly that problem causing the pool area to look dirty and unhygienic. Another issue that needed dealing with was the removal of rust staining from where old chair with metal legs had once stood.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile Before Rust Removal Dorking Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile Before Cleaning Dorking

The client had called in another cleaning firm, but they were unable to deal with all the issues, so we got the call to find a solution. We visited the site to see how involved the work would be and to give the client a quote. They were happy to accept, and a suitable time was agreed to come back and complete the work which would take one day.

Deep Cleaning Textured Porcelain Tiles

Naturally you must be very careful around swimming pools as the last thing you want is the cleaning solution or dirt to end up in the swimming pool itself. To get around this I first sprayed the tiles with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and then left it for ten minutes so it could soak in and break down the dirt. For the tiles near the pool, the solution was scrubbed in by hand using a deck brush and elsewhere with a rotary floor machine fitted with a scrubbing pad.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile During Cleaning Dorking

This process releases the trapped dirt from the textured Porcelain tile, resulting in a fine slurry. The tiles are then rinsed with water under high pressure using a high-powered spinner tool that is powered from a compressor on my vehicle. This is an impressive tool that has utilised long hoses to apply the water and extract the slurry back to a grey tank on the vehicle. It’s a very effective tool that contains and extracts the slurry without making a mess leaving the tiles clean and almost dry.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile During Cleaning Dorking

Removing Rust Stains from Textured Porcelain Tiles

To deal with the rust stains they were spotted treated with Tile Doctor Rust Away which is designed for the job. It is a ready to use, non-acid rust remover that will dissolve problematic rust stains, and worked a treat in this instance.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile After Rust Removal Dorking

Porcelain tiles won’t take a sealer so once all the pool tiles were cleaned and restored to their former glory we were done for the day. The client was very satisfied with the work we carried out, the pool area looked a lot more inviting and the area was now restored to the feature area it should have been. The also said they would recommend us to some of their friends which is always welcome.

Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile After Cleaning Dorking Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool Tile After Cleaning Dorking

 

Professional Restoration of a Textured Porcelain Tiled Swimming Pool Tiled in West Surrey

Cleaning of a Textured Porcelain Swimming Pool in Dorking Read More »

Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott Before And After

Removing Limescale from Porcelain Swimming Pool tiles in Oxshott

The owner of this swimming pool at a large residence in the suburban village of Oxshott had put the property on the market and naturally wanted the pool area to look its best. The pool was surrounded by Porcelain tiles which are very resilient and generally a good choice for a swimming pool surround, additionally the slate effect tiles in this post had a riven surface which would make them less slippery than the highly polished variety. The chemicals used in swimming pools however are quite strong and I suspect this has contributed to the build-up of Limescale on the surface of the tiles.

Cleaning Porcelain Tiles

The first job was to give the tiles a deep clean and this was done by scrubbing in Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted 1 part cleaner to four parts hot water using a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine. Once scrubbed the soiled cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the tiles given a thorough rinse. There were a lot of tiles to clean and naturally care has to be taken to avoid getting any cleaning solution in the pool.

Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott Before Cleaning Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott Before Cleaning

After rinsing the tiles were dried with the assistance of an air mover so we could get an idea of what other remedial work would be required and in this case it became clear where the areas with Limescale staining were.

Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott During Cleaning

Removing Limescale from Porcelain Tiles

To remove the Limescale each stain was spot treated using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which is a strong acid based cleaning product normally used to remove grout smears from tiles but also equally useful at dealing with mineral deposits such as Limescale. You have to be very careful with acids on tiles, especially natural stone so once it had done its job the tiles were thoroughly rinsed and the whole floor rinsed again once we have completed everything.

Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott After Cleaning Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott After Cleaning

When we had finished the client couldn’t believe the transformation we have managed to achieve.

Porcelain Pool Surround Oxshott Before And After
 

Deep cleaning Porcelain pool surround tiles in OxShott, Surrey

Removing Limescale from Porcelain Swimming Pool tiles in Oxshott Read More »

Antislip Porcelain Tile Wimbledon

Applying Anti Slip Treatment to Porcelain tiles in Wimbledon Office

We were contacted by a builder who had recently laid Porcelain Tiles in an office reception in Wimbledon. Although he has laid this type of tile in various art galleries around London without problem, in this particular lobby which is situated next to a shopping centre the tiles were extremely slippery and the facilities manager wanted the tiles changed at the expense of the builder.

Antislip Application Porcelain Tile Wimbledon
Obviously this would have been an expensive option and so the builder contacted Tile Doctor for help. Initially he had considered having a member of his team apply the treatment however he realised that as a Tile Doctor applicator we had been trained to apply the treatment properly and this gave the facilities manager confidence it would have been applied to the correct standard so we were awarded the work and asked to carry it out on a Sunday when the building would be empty.

Antislip Application Porcelain Tile Wimbledon

Applying the Anti-Slip Treatment

We arrived at the agreed time and were let in by the shopping centre security team. The area we were treating was around 25m2 so decided to work in 5m2 sections first cleaning the tile using the first stage Ant Slip product worked into the tile with a rotary floor machine fitted with a polypropylene brush head and then removing with a wet vacuum followed by rinsing with clean water.

We carried on with this process until the whole floor was done and let it dry before going onto the next stage to apply the Anti slip (stage two) and leaving for between 3 to 5 minutes before applying the stage three which locks in the Anti Slip.

Antislip Porcelain Tile Wimbledon
The Anti Slip product is invisible to the eye however it’s very easy to test it’s been applied, all you need to do is wet the tile as the product only activates when it’s wet.

Antislip Porcelain Tile Wimbledon
When we had finished the whole floor we then tested it again just to make sure that everything worked well we cleared away all the tools making sure we left the area tidy and safe and locked the building up.

The Job took us one night and the customer is now recommending us to all other sites that have had these tiles fitted.

Preventing slips and trips on Porcelain Tile in a Wimbledon Office

Applying Anti Slip Treatment to Porcelain tiles in Wimbledon Office Read More »

Applying Anti Slip to Shiny Slippery Porcelain Tiles in Ashtead

Applying Ant-Slip to a shiny Porcelain Patio

Last week we were asked to carry out a demonstration of our AntiSlip Treatment for a lady in Ashtead Surrey. She has white shiny Porcelain tiles laid on a patio area and when they get wet they are really slippery and dangerous and she was especially concerned about young children hurting themselves. We carried out a test patch for her and asked her to see if she could slip, not only did she try, but her gran and mother-in-law also tried and were extremely impressed. I left her with our quotation so she could discuss it with her husband. The next day I received a call asking me to go ahead and carry out the works.

Applying the Anti-Slip Solution

When applying this treatment it is vital that you follow all the guidelines and times for the different types of stone. It is a 3 stage application, the first is the primer which is mixed 4 : 1 which we scrubbed into small areas of about 6m2 at a time, when scrubbing we used a brush head on our rotary scrubbing machine which has the added advantage of cleaning the tiles.

Shiny Slippery Porcelain Tiles in Ashtead26
After about 5 minutes of scrubbing using a scrubbing pad we then vacuumed it all and left the tiles to dry and because we were outside in the sun it didn’t take long to dry. The next stage is to apply the Antislip treatment and for this we used a flat mop and for these type of tiles we needed to leave it to dwell for between 3 and 5 minutes, but we had to make sure that it did not dry in.

After the dwell time the 3rd stage is to scrub in another solution of the primer, but this time it locks in the Antislip. When you are scrubbing this stage you can feel the treatment working. Once we have completed this stage we vacuum it all up then rinse the area with fresh water to remove any residues.

Applying Anti Slip to Shiny Slippery Porcelain Tiles in Ashtead33
The complete area was around 50m2 and luckily the treatment package covered this area. In all the application took two of us around five hours to complete and after clearing our equipment away we then put all the garden furniture back in place.

We returned the next day because the customer also asked us to clean their driveway and the patio area was wet because of rain, but it was great to walk on and I did not slip at all.

Shiny Slippery Porcelain Tiles in Ashtead41
The customer was really happy, because if the treatment hadn’t worked her only other option would have been to rip up the tiles and replace them at a cost of thousands and to make things even better for her, this treatment will last around 4 years before she needs to have it re-applied.

Preventing slips and trips on shiny porcelain patio tiles

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Cleaning Porcelain Car Showroom Weybridge After

Porcelain tile cleaning in a Car Showroom, Weybridge

We were asked to visit a prestige car showroom near Weybridge in surrey to see what could be done to improve the appearance of the Porcelain Tiles in the showroom. As well as foot traffic the floor also had to cope with the rubber from car tyres; naturally they had been cleaning the floor regularly themselves but were not happy with the results.

Cleaning Car Showroom Weybridge Before

Cleaning Porcelain Tiles

Porcelain is quite a durable material that likes ceramics don’t usually need a sealer so we prescribed a Deep Clean was in order and set about scrubbing the floor using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a strong alkaline cleaning product specially designed for use on Tile, Stone and Grout where acidic cleaners can cause damage. The solution was scrubbed in using a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad and then thoroughly rinsed down. I should point out a wet vacuum machine comes in very handy here for removing the liquids from the floor. When it had dried I buffed it up using a white buffing pad.

It’s difficult to see the improvement from the photographs but I can tell you the owner was really pleased with the result as were some customers who came in when we were finishing up.

Cleaning Porcelain Car Showroom Weybridge After
 

Cleaning Porcelain tiles at a prestige car showroom in Weybridge

Porcelain tile cleaning in a Car Showroom, Weybridge Read More »

Black Porcelain Floor After Photo

Putting the Shine Back on Black Porcelain Floor Tiles

We were asked to clean and seal these black Porcelain floor tiles that had been laid in a bridal shop in the Lakeside shopping centre. The shop fitters and builders had been in to setup the internal layout and the floor was looking dull and not in a presentable state good enough for the shop opening.

Black Porcelain Floor Before Photo

Cleaning black Porcelain floor tiles

We set about scrubbing the floor using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean Tile and Grout cleaner followed by a thorough rinse. We then waited for it to dry before buffing the porcelain tile surface to a deep shine with a white buffing pad.

The floor was ready for sealing so we applied Tile Doctor Ultra Seal to a small test area but it didn’t take, not wishing to waste our time or the customers’ money we called it a day. Most porcelain tiles won’t take a sealer however some are micro porous and do need sealing so it’s always best to check.

Black Porcelain Floor After Photo
They were really pleased with result and they were even happier we were honest about not charging them for not sealing the floor; the deep shine on the floor really did look spectacular.

Black Porcelain Floor Photo
 

Restoring the Shine on Black Porcelain Floor Tiles

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East Surrey Tile Doctor

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