Sandstone Tile Cleaning

This customer living at a property in Deepcar near Sheffield, experienced problems keeping their twenty year old Yorkstone floor clean and I was asked to take a look and see what could be done to resolve the situation.

After inspection I could see that the sealer had worn off and now dirt had become lodged in the pores of the stone, leaving the floor looked grey and dull to the extent even the customer couldn’t remember that their stone floor had some colour once! Due to all the problems the customer had with experienced with the floor, they had reached the point where they were thinking of ripping the floor up entirely.

Luckily they had found Tile Doctor and I was more than happy to see what I could do to resolve the problem. Yorkstone is similar to Sandstone which I was very familiar with, so I assured them the floor could be rejuvenated and conducted a test clean on a patch of the floor. Seeing the result, the customer was happy to go ahead with the work.

Cleaning a Dull and Dirty Yorkstone Tiled Floor

To clean the floor and strip away old sealers, I used a strong dilution of our alkaline cleaner known as Tile Doctor Pro Clean, working it into the stone with a black scrubbing pad fitted to my rotary machine. I followed by removing the dirty and chemical-infused water from the floor with a wet vax machine.

Although this combination worked really well, I still found some light traffic areas where some of the old sealer remained. In order to restore a floor properly you have to strip the floor right back and remove all the old treatments from the floor otherwise the final result can look patchy and you may find the new sealer isn’t compatible with the existing.

To these problem areas I applied Tile Doctor’s Remove & Go, which is a dedicated
stripper and coatings remover, applied with a long dwell-time it can remove sealers, draw out ingrained stains and eliminate heavy grease build-up. I left the Remove & Go to soak into the stone for about ten to fifteen minutes before scrubbing it in with the black scrubbing pad, following again by removing the resulting slurry from the floor with a wet wax machine and rinsing the area with water. After the floor was successfully cleaned I carefully rinsed it again to get any trace of cleaning product off the floor and then dried it as much as possible with the wet vacuum.

Sealing a Yorkstone Tiled Floor

I returned to the property the next day, starting by making sure that the floor was completely dry for sealing. Unfortunately, there were some areas that were still very damp. I worked on these damp areas with my heat gun, but couldn’t get them dry enough, so after consulting with the customer, I decided to leave it to dry for another day with heating on maximum and doors/windows opened.

Upon my return these problem areas were less severe, and I managed to get them dry by applying my heat gun for an hour. When the floor was ready to be sealed I applied six coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go Sealer, which is a water based sealer (no smell) that provides durable protection and a high quality satin finish.

The customer was really happy with the work carried out and left the following feedback:

“Tony has done a fantastic job on our kitchen floor, which I was considering ripping up due to the state of it – but now it looks like new! Tony was punctual and very hard working – excellent customer service. Have already recommended him to a colleague.”

 

Professional Stone Tiled Floor Restoration in Deepcar