A customer had recently moved into a property in Bournville and discovered an original Quarry tiled floor in the living room, hallway and a couple of quirky tiled areas upstairs. After searching on the internet for some inspiration, they came across my previous work and got in touch. Period floors like these are very popular and so they were keen to have the Quarry tiles restored.
I went over the property to survey the floor and made notes of all the floors and problems including the removal of self-levelling screed in the living room. This is often used to level tiled floors prior to the installation of another covering such as Vinyl or Carpet. It can be difficult to remove but it can be done. Another issue that would need to be dealt with was carpet glue and paint stains which I found in the hallway.
I worked out a detailed plan for the restoration work and was able to use this to create a quote for the work. Keen to have the floors restored my quote was accepted and a date set for the work to start.
Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Living Room Floor
The first day was spent removing an area of levelling screed from the living room along with a couple of repairs to the tiles. This literally has to be scrapped off the tiles by hand to remove the bulk of the screed. The whole floor was then cleaned with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go scrubbed in with a 120-grit carbide pad fitted to a weighted buffer machine. The resultant slurry was then extracted with a wet and dry vacuum.
The next step was to give the floor an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which is ideal for breaking down cement residues. It was let to soak into the floor for ten minutes before being scrubbed. For this the coarse 120-grit pad was switched for a finer 240-grit carbide pad. The floor was rinsed with water and extracted again to remove the slurry.
After inspecting the floor, I was pleased to see that marks imprinted onto the tiles by the previous floor covering had been removed and the tiles were looking so much cleaner. Happy with my work the tiles were left to dry off overnight with the aid of a couple of air movers.
The next day I tackled the Quarry tiled hallway which was stained with carpet glue. The started with a steamer to loosen up year’s old adhesive and bitumen along with a scraper to remove dried paint. The hallway tiles along with a couple of tiled hearths upstairs were then cleaned using the same process as the living room.
After an hour or so of drying the tiles, I applied a coat of Tile Doctor Stone Oil to all the floors and left them to dry for twenty minutes before towelling off the excess. The tiles were then left to dry off completely overnight. Stone oil is the first step in the sealing process and adds colour, texture, and generally improves the condition of the Quarry tiles after years of neglect.
Sealing a Quarry Tiled Living Room Floor
On the last day I applied a coat of Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal to all the tiles to seal them. This sealer is an impregnator that soaks into the Quarry tile, occupying its pores and thereby preventing dirt from residing there. The tiles were then buffed with a White pad fitted to the rotary machine to remove excess sealer and bring up their appearance.
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This sealer will ensure that dirt remains on the surface where is can be easily cleaned away. Another benefit of the sealer is it further improves the colour of the tiles and being fully breathable it will allow moisture still in the floor to rise through and evaporate at the surface.
Once complete all the tiled floors looked so much cleaner and colourful, additionally the new sealer gave all the Quarry tiles a consistent appearance throughout the property.
My customer was very happy with the results and before leaving I took time to discuss aftercare cleaning and left them with a complimentary bottle of Tile Doctor pH neutral Tile Cleaner. This is a mild but effective tile cleaning product that won’t impact the sealer which can be the issue with the stronger products you find in supermarkets.
Never use a steam cleaner or strong cleaning product on sealed tile or stone as this will reduce the life of the sealer. We recommend using a specialist tile cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner or Stone Soap for the regular cleaning of sealed surfaces. if you do use another product always read the label first, most supermarket tile cleaners are only suitable for use on Ceramic and Vinyl tiles.