grout restoration

Before and After Slate floor restoration with new grout

St Albans Slate Floor Renovation

The Slate floor in the kitchen and conservatory of a house in St. Albans was laid around five to six years old and now required deep cleaning and re-sealing. Previously a grout repair had been carried out but unfortunately after the initial clean the grout applied was the wrong colour and needed to be replaced.

Slate floor before restoration

Cleaning the Slate Floor

The Slate floor was pre-cleaned using a diluted solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean mixed with Nanotech Ultra-Clean scrubbed with a buffing machines fitted with a polypropylene brush running at a slow speed. The dirty solution was removed using a wet vacuum, floor rinsed with clean water and left to dry.

It’s not a good idea to apply new sealer on top of a different product so it was necessary to ensure all the old sealer had been completely removed. Sealers are by nature stubborn to remove so it was necessary to apply Remove & Go (a product designed for the removal of sealers) which we left to dwell on the surface for an hour. Often a strong solution of Pro-Clean is sufficient but not in this case.

The dirty solution was removed with the wet vacuum and rinsed with water to remove any residues and neutralise the floor.

Removing Grout

To remove the grout we used a specialist “Oscillating Grout Tool”, if there was a large area to do we would normally recommend the user of an epoxy Grout Colourant however there wasn’t a great deal to remove so it was quicker to cut out the offending Grey grout and replace with a matching sandstone.

Grout removal and repair Cutting out with an Oscillating grout tool

Sealing the Slate Floor

We sealed the floor with a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which really helps bring out the deep colour from the slate. To finish and build up the lustre and richness of the colour we then applied seven coats of Seal & Go.

Finished Slate floor with new grout
All of the job took two full days and was ready for soft foot traffic after two hours of completion and fully dry in 24 hours. For maintenance we recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner, diluted 1:30 with water and applied with a microfibre flat mop, rinse with water and then remove with a clean microfibre flat mop.

The customer was very pleased with the results and left the following comment:

We are delighted with the results achieved by the Tile Doctor on our slate floor. It looks like we have laid a completely new floor in our kitchen and conservatory! Rob was a true professional and we would thoroughly recommend the Tile Doctor to anyone considering using their services

Ms. S. Hiller, St Albans, Hertfordshire

 

Slate Floor Renovation in St. Albans

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Limestone Floor in London Hotel After Honing and Polishing

Limestone Floor Cleaning at a Hotel in London

Details below of a Limestone floor installed in the reception of a Victorian hotel in London’s West end. The Limestone Floor had been cleaned incorrectly leaving very noticeable staining marks to the grout lines. We were asked to return the floor to its natural appearance and improve the finish from Matt to Polished.

Badly Stained Limestone Floor Hotel Reception

Cleaning the Limestone Floor

Working at night to minimise disruption for the hotel guests our first step was to clean the floor and grout with a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. Pro-Clean is ideal for this purpose due to its alkaline formula, acidic products even those with mild acidity will damage the floor over time and can lead to small holes forming where the calcareous stone has been dissolved.

Limestone Floor London Hotel Reception before restoration
The next step was to burnish the floor using four stage diamond encrusted twister pad system. This is a labour intensive process where you scrub the floor using a buffing machines fitted with different pads; each pad is designed for a different purpose and will remove sealers, grind off ingrained dirt, smooth the surface as well as polish.

Polishing and Sealing the Limestone Floor

To obtain the requested highly polished finish the floor was then polished using Tile Doctor Shine crystallising powder which as well as providing a high shine also leaves a tough durable finish, ideal for high traffic areas such as this. We finished off the floor with a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow impregnating sealer which was then buffed to a high shine finish.

Limestone Floor in London Hotel After Honing and Polishing
For regular cleaning we have advised the hotels maintenance team to use a 1-30 dilution of Neutral Cleaner applied with a microfibre flat mop, water rinsed and the dried with second clean microfibre mop.

Limestone Floor Cleaning at a Hotel in London

Limestone Floor Cleaning at a Hotel in London Read More »

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