Tile Sealing

Edwardian Tiled Hallway Floor Restoration Bearwood

Laminate Covered Edwardian Hallway Floor Restoration in Bearwood

The customer from Bearwood, near Smethwick had recently moved in and during renovations discovered an original 100-year-old Edwardian tiled floor in the hallway which had covered under laminate. They were planning some structural changes to the hallway involving a new stud wall but decided to investigate having the tiled floor restored first and were keen to know if anything could be done to improve its condition.

Edwardian Tiled Floor Before Restoration Bearwood Edwardian Tiled Floor Before Restoration Bearwood

I visited the property to Survey the floor and could see given its age the floor was in good physical condition although there was a small amount of cracked tiles. Fortunately, laminate flooring is laid as a floating floor so there were no glue or screw holes to deal with. The Vestibule area however was in a worse state and had been covered in all sorts of cement screed, adhesive, grout, and God knows what.

Confident I could resolve the problems I worked out a quote which was accepted and a date was set for the work to begin.

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway

The first day was used to make repairs to the floor, in one of the corners the floor was sloping away and had some sort of silicon filler installed where tiles had once been. After resolving the sub floor problems, I managed to level it out and used matching replacement tiles to complete this and a couple of other repairs.

Edwardian Tiled Floor During Restoration Bearwood

This left the vestibule part of the floor which as mentioned earlier was in a quite a state. To remove the mess, it took a day of scraping using several Tile Doctor products including Grout Clean-up, Acid Gel, a steamer and a lot of effort.

Edwardian Tiled Floor During Restoration Bearwood

Once complete I moved onto the cleaning by spraying Tile Doctor Remove and Go onto the tiles and then scrubbing it in with a Silicon Carbide pad fitted to a weighted rotary floor machine. The floor was then rinsed with water and the soil extracted using a wet vacuum.

Old floors like this example were laid before the invention of damp proof membranes and so you can get a lot of moisture rising through the tiles. This can lead to efflorescence as the moisture evaporates at the surface. To counter this problem the whole floor was treated to an acid rinse using more Acid Gel scrubbed in with a 400-grit burnishing pad.

The floor was then rinsed, towel dried off and air movers put in place for an hour to help dry it out. Then before finishing for the day, I applied a coat of Tile Doctor Stone Oil to help bring the colour through in the tiles. I also left the air movers to run for a few hours to help dry the floor out.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

I returned the next day to seal the floor however when I tested to moisture reading beforehand, I found the reading to be higher than expected and after cleaning and drying the floor there were still traces of moisture. Because of this I recommended that we seal the floor using a fully breathable sealer that could cope with any excess moisture.

Happy to go with my advice the floor was sealed using two coats of Tile Doctor X-Tra seal allowing each coat to dry for thirty minutes before applying the next. X-Tra can be used internally and externally and provides excellent protection so was well suited. After drying I polished the floor with a very fine 3000-grit burnishing pad to add a natural sheen to the tiles.

Edwardian Tiled Floor After Restoration Bearwood Edwardian Tiled Floor After Restoration Bearwood

I think you will agree the pictures show the transformation the floor and as you can imagine my client was very happy with the result. Before leaving I left the customer with a bottle of pH neutral cleaner to maintain the floor, we recommend using a mild cleaning product for after cleaning as it helps preserve the life of the sealer. You need to be very careful with supermarket floor cleaning products, most are bleached based and simply too strong for use on a sealed floor.

Edwardian Tiled Floor After Restoration Bearwood

 

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Victorian Tiled Hallway Before and After Restoration Darlaston

100+ Year Old Victorian Tiled Hallway Restored in Darlaston

The photographs below are from a house in Darlaston near Walsall which had recently changed hands. The new owner was quite taken by the existing Victorian tiled hallway floor which unfortunately had not been maintained very well by the previous owner, undeterred by its appearance he contacted Tile Doctor to see if it could be restored.

Darlaston grew rapidly in the 19th century around the nut, bolt and gun lock manufacturing and coal mining industries with many houses being built so it’s very possible that this floor was laid when the house was built over a hundred years ago

When I visited to quote for the work it was apparent that the floor which was suffering from many broken tiles and a high percentage of loose tiles. With the customer happy for me to do the work I set about sourcing replacement tiles that were a good match for the broken ones which would need replacing.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Darlaston Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Darlaston

Victorian tiles are still popular, so I was confident I could find new replacements or originals from one of the many salvage companies.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Darlaston

Repairing an Original Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Replacement tiles were sourced, and I went about removing the broken tiles and setting the replacements. Whilst working on these I also inspected the floor thoroughly for loose tiles and re-laid them.

Victorian Tiled Hallway During Repair Darlaston
There was also a doorway which had cement laid down where tiles may once have been, and the customer requested that tiles were laid to match the other existing doorways. To break up the concrete I used an SDS drill with chisel attachment and then rebuilt the base with cement to bring it level with the rest of the floor.

Victorian Tiled Hallway During Repair Darlaston
The tiles were cut to match the pattern in the other doorways and set in place.

Victorian Tiled Hallway During Repair Darlaston Victorian Tiled Hallway During Repair Darlaston

After the tiles had set I grouted them in along with other areas that needed re-grouting. Repairs took two days in total.

Deep Cleaning an Original Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

The next step was to give the whole tiled floor a deep clean; normally I would opt for a chemical cleaning process at this stage however with the floor being so old it was unlikely to have a damp proof membrane and I was concerned about using too much water which would take a long time to dry out. I therefore opted for scrubbing the floor with a 200-grit diamond burnishing pad fitted to a weighted rotary buffing machine and lubricated with a little water.

Victorian Tiled Hallway During Cleaning Darlaston Victorian Tiled Hallway During Cleaning Darlaston

The water soon turned to a slurry as the ingrained dirt and old sealers were removed from the tiles. It’s tricky to get into the edges and corners with circular pads so once that was done the edges were finished with handheld diamond blocks. The floor was then rinsed off and the soil extracted with a wet vacuum before being covered over and allowed to dry for a couple of days.

Sealing Original Victorian Tiles

When I returned to the property the dust sheets were removed and the floor vacuumed to remove surface dust and dirt. Once that was done I started the process of sealing the tiles with Tile Doctor Seal and Go which adds a subtle sheen to the Victorian tiles that really brings the floor alive. Six coats were required to fully seal and protect the floor.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Darlaston Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Darlaston

The customer was delighted with the results and I left them with a bottle of Neutral Tile Cleaner for use in cleaning the floor going forward. They also booked me in for 12 months’ time for a maintenance visit, so I can reapply a couple of coats of seal to keep the floor topped up and looking it’s best.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Darlaston
 

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