Quarry Tile Cleaning Archives - Gloucester Tile Doctor

Quarry Tiled Floor Restoration Cheltenham

Carpet Covered Quarry Tiled Hallway Floor Restoration in Cheltenham

A client moved into this house in Cheltenham and discovered an old Quarry tiled floor under the carpet in the hallway. The carpet was wet and smelly and had to go, so you can imagine the surprise when a perfectly intact tiled floor was discovered underneath. The tiles were looking very neglected and stained with self-levelling cement and carpet glue, however, keen to understand if it could be restored, we were contacted to take a look.

Quarry Tiled Floor Before Restoration Cheltenham

I visited the client and having worked on floors in a worse state than this one I was confident in being able to restore it back to a good condition. I worked out a detailed quote for the work which was accepted and a date set for my return to do the work.

Quarry Tiled Floor Before Restoration Cheltenham

Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Hallway

On the first day work started to remove the hard adhesive and cement from tiles, to do this a very coarse 50-grit milling pad was worked into the floor using water for lubrication. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a huge success due to its thickness, so I switched tactics.

It was clear a different approach was needed so a steamer was used to soften the glue and cement and then it was scraped off by hand. It was a slow process but once most of the stubborn material was removed I was able to switch back to the 50-grit pad which was much faster. A wet vacuum was used throughout the process to remove the soiling and the floor looked much better with all the adhesive and cement removed.

Quarry Tiled Floor During Restoration Cheltenham

Next step was to clean the floor with Tile Doctor Remove and Go scrubbed in with a black pad to flush out any further dirt and soiling from the tiles. This product as its name suggests is a coatings remover so ideal for removing the final remnants of glue. The floor was then rinsed with water and dried with the wet vacuum before moving onto replacing the grout on parts of the floor where it had crumbled and become loose.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Hallway

The floor was left to dry for three days then sealed after confirming the tiles were dry using a moisture meter. The reading I got was higher than I would have liked so clearly the floor had some damp issues. Old floors don’t have the benefit of a damp proof membrane (DPM) so need to be able to allow moisture to evaporate at the surface. The damp carpet was a good indicator that this could be an issue so I decided to seal the floor with Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal which gave it a nice finish and being externally rated can cope with the excess moisture.

Quarry Tiled Floor After Restoration Cheltenham

The floor looked amazing once complete, and my client was really pleased with results.

Quarry Tiled Floor After Restoration Cheltenham

For aftercare I recommended using Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, it’s a gentle effective tile cleaner that won’t harm the sealer.

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Hallway in Gloucestershire

Carpet Covered Quarry Tiled Hallway Floor Restoration in Cheltenham Read More »

Old Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Restoration Gloucester

Original Quarry Tiled Floor Restored at a Victorian Property in Gloucester

This customer had purchased an older property in Gloucester and while fitting a new kitchen had the Ceramic tiled floor removed only to discover an original Quarry tiled floor underneath. Realising the value an original floor can add to a property as a period feature, they contacted Tile Doctor to see if it could be restored.

I made a visit to the property to survey the Quarry tiles and ascertain if it could be restored after being hidden for so long. I could see the tiles were in reasonable condition and it looked like they had tile adhesive on most of the tiles which I had experienced before. I was therefore confident that it would be possible to remove this and clean them up and they were reassured that I should be able to restore them to a good standard.

Old Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Before Restoration Gloucester

Old Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor During Restoration Gloucester

Happy with my quote and confident in my ability to get the job done I was booked in to complete the work.

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

With a date set to commence work I arrived on the agreed date to do the work and made a start on cleaning up the tiles. I soon realised at this point I had made a mistake by not completing a test clean when I came round to do the survey. As it turns out it wasn’t just tile adhesive on the quarry tiles but there was also a large section of concrete that I can only assume had been used to level the floor and fix the tiles.

I had no choice but to dig out the concrete and following that it would need replacing with self-levelling screed and replacement tiles. It took four painful days to remove the adhesive and rebuild the concreted section of flooring with replacement tiles.

Once done I was able to move on and deep clean the tiles with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go scrubbed in with a black pad fitted to a rotary floor machine. The soiling was rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum and the whole process was then repeated until I was satisfied with that the quarry tiles were clean.

Old Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Gloucester

Sealing a Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

I then left the floor to dry for 3 days and then return to seal with to a low satin finish using Tile Doctor Seal and Go Extra which works well on old Quarry tiles. Additionally it’s has a breathable formula which is important feature for an old floor like this one which won’t have a damp proof membrane fitted. Being breathable allows moisture to rise through the tile and evaporate at the surface.

Old Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor After Restoration Gloucester

The customer was pleased with results despite the job taking 7 days, having only allowed 4 but the results were worth my hard work. Sometimes jobs do not go quite to plan, but as a Tile Doctor we are experienced at getting over any challenges we face.

For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a pH neutral cleaner that will keep the floor in tip top condition for the future and will ensure maintenance of this lovely feature is easy for them.

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Red Quarry Tiled Kitchen in Gloucestershire

Original Quarry Tiled Floor Restored at a Victorian Property in Gloucester Read More »

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Before and After Restoration in Cheltenham

Poorly Maintained Kitchen Quarry Tiles Rejuvenated in Cheltenham

1 Comment / Cheltenham Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Work History / Malcolm Crowther

It’s often quite surprising what condition we find some tiles in when were asked to come out and survey the floor. Case in point being this Quarry tiled kitchen floor I was asked to look at by a customer in Cheltenham, which as you may know is particularly famous for its racecourse and the top-secret GCHQ.

Upon arrival at the property, I found that the floor was not in great condition. For some reason, it had been painted over with red tile paint and then covered with a wax coating which was easily scratched. To Make the situation worse, there were around 20 tiles in the floor with holes in them that had simply been filled with concrete.

Quarry Tiled Floor Cheltenham Before Removing Paint

Clearly, the tiles had not been maintained properly in the past but fortunately the current owner of the property who was keen to have them restored had called in Tile Doctor and after a demonstration clean I was booked to come back and correct the numerous issues.

Cleaning a Damaged Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

On the first day of the restoration, I started by applying a solution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go across the entire floor and leaving the product to dwell for around 30 minutes. Remove and Go is a powerful stripper designed to loosen paint splashes, adhesive stains and many types of urethane and wax coatings so that they can be easily removed.

After leaving the product to dwell, I could use a handheld scrapper to simply remove the wax coating and layer of paint on the floor. This process took about half a day; during the second half of the day, I spent my time removing the damaged tiles and replacing them with new Quarry tiles that had been sourced to match nicely with the existing floor.

On the second day, any stubborn paint splashes remaining were re-treated and I subsequently deep cleaned the floor using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. This strong alkaline cleaning product was worked into the tiles using a 17-inch scrubbing pad fitted to a specialised rotary machine. The resultant soil was extracted off the floor using a wet vacuum and given a rinse with water to neutralise the floor. The wet vacuum was used again to remove the water and extract as much moisture from the tiles as possible to improve the drying time.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

Once the deep clean had been completed, I left the floor dry for two days to allow sufficient time for it to dry thoroughly. Upon returning to the property, I ran a damp test to see if the tiles were dry enough to be sealed. To my surprise, the floor recorded only around 4% moisture even though the property is relatively old and is unlikely to have a damp proof membrane installed.

Nonetheless, this meant I could seal the floor. I did this by using a single coat of our impregnating, colour-intensifying sealer known as Tile Doctor Colour Grow, followed by three coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go, a water based sealer which provides a high-quality satin finish.

Quarry Tiled Floor Cheltenham After Cleaning and Sealing

The deep clean, combined with the application of two different sealers, really helped to give these Quarry tiles a new lease of life. The customer was very happy indeed – in fact, had this been an exam, I’m certain I would’ve received top marks and it was certainly a major improvement on how they were before.

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor in Gloucestershire

Poorly Maintained Kitchen Quarry Tiles Rejuvenated in Cheltenham Read More »