This Terracotta tiled floor was installed in the dining room of a house in Andoverand as you can see from the photograph below the floor had not been maintained very consistently and was now well overdue for a complete strip, clean and reseal.

 

 

Cleaning Terracotta Tile

To get the floor clean and remove previous sealers and coatings I mixed a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean with NanoTech UltraClean which basically adds tiny abrasive particles to a heavy duty alkaline cleaning agent to produce a very effective stripper/cleaner which being alkaline is ideal for cleaning natural products such as Terracotta.

This formula was scrubbed into the tile using a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine running on a slow speed which helps to reduce splashing; this activity soon brought the dirt off the floor and the soiled cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor was rinsed down with clean water. The cleaning process was repeated a couple of times until we were happy with the floor, a stiff hand brush was then used along the grout lines with more Pro-Clean to clean up the grout. There were a few stubborn paint splashes on the floor and these were removed by spotting the affected area with Remove and Go and a steamer to lift the stain out of the clay.
Once happy the floor was clean it was given a thorough rinse to neutralise it and remove any remaining chemical and left it to dry overnight.

 

 

Sealing Terracotta Tile

The next day we came back to seal the Terracotta using numerous coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is an ideal sealer for Terracotta and provides durable stain protection together with a low sheen finish. Terracotta is by its nature very porous and so it’s not unknown for it to take up to nine coats of sealer, which can take some time to apply as like paint you have to wait until it’s dry before you can apply the next coat.

 

Photographs below of a classic black and white Marble floor tile installation at premises in the city of Winchester. As you can see these Marble tiles had seen some traffic and were not in the best of condition following on from some building work that had been going on; fortunately we are quite used to dealing with these problem and have just the right products and equipment to restore them.

 

 

Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing

For best results on hard stone surfaces such as Marble we burnish the floor using a set of diamond encrusted polishing pads. You start with a coarse pad which applied with a little water to remove surface dirt and sealers etc. before moving through a set of finer polishing pads until you reach a high shine glossy finish.

Half way through the burnishing process we stopped to apply a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean along the grout lines and give them a scrub with stiff hand brushes repeating the process in stubborn areas.

 

 

After the treatment the floor was washed do to remove any soiled solution before being buffed with a white buffing pad. Any trace of its previous condition was now gone and the floor was uniform in appearance, it took much of the day to do the polishing and a set of four burnishing pads to acquire the right lustre.