Quarry Tile Sealing

Quarry Tiled Lobby Before After Renovation Kenton Devon

Deep Cleaning and Sealing a Grubby Quarry Tiled Lobby in Kenton, Devon

This client called us out to look at their grubby Quarry tiled lobby at the front of their property in Kenton near Exeter. Being the main entrance to the property it saw a lot of foot traffic so once the sealer had worn down it wasn’t long before the dirt started penetrating the pores of the tile and became difficult to keep clean.

Quarry Tiled Lobby Kenton Before Renovation

The property was originally a school and dated back over 200 years. The Quarry tiles in the entrance lobby were probably as old as the building and as mentioned earlier were looking worse for wear having been partially covered for years. They weren’t sure how old the tiled floor was, but they were keen to see it restored. They were therefore desperate to get the floor deep cleaned and a fresh seal applied. They agreed to my quotation, and we arranged a convenient date to carry out the work.

Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Hallway Floor

I started by taping up the skirting to protect it from the cleaning products we would be using. I then applied Tile Doctor Remove & Go to the floor and covered the area with plastic sheets to stop the evaporation of the products so that I could achieve a longer dwell time. This would really get to the deep-seated dirt and loosen it so it can be lifted from the pores of the tiles.

I then worked the floor with 200-grit carbide brush fitted to a rotary machine to remove the dirt ingrained in the clay pores of the tile. Some of the grout was loose and dislodged in the process, however my client was expecting this and had already arranged for his tiler to complete a full re-grout once we had finished cleaning. The soiling released by the cleaning process was rinsed off the floor with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Lobby Floor

I wanted to seal the floor the next day so I left a couple of driers in place overnight to speed up the drying process. The next morning when I returned, I first checked the floor to make sure it was dry with a moisture meter.

The dryers had worked their magic so I was able to begin sealing the floor with Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal which is an effective interior and exterior sealer. With the lobby being a high traffic area, I applied four coats to ensure a durable seal. The benefit of this sealer is it gave the floor a nice sheen really bringing out the depth of colour in the tiles, and with the newly applied grout the floor looked great.

Quarry Tiled Lobby Kenton After Renovation

For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner. This is a pH neutral product which is gentle enough for daily use. It won’t compromise the newly applied sealer which can be a problem with the stronger bleach-based products you find in supermarket products.

The work completely transformed the Quarry tiles and my client was very happy with the completed job and told me they wished they had tackled it sooner.

 

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Lobby in Devon

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Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Before and After Cleaning South Molton

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Deep Cleaned in South Molton Georgian Townhouse

This story follows on from a previous post on the renovation of a Victorian Tiled Reception Area at a listed Georgian Townhouse in the middle of the small market town of South Moulton in North Devon. You may recall he was struggling to clean the floor in the reception area and I was called in to sort it out. Whilst I was there he also asked me to deep clean and seal the Kitchen Quarry Tiles.

Kitchens as you can imagine are one of the busiest areas in any house and as a result the floors do see a fair amount of wear; in this case the Quarry tiles were dull and lifeless and I suspect any previous sealer had long since worn off.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning South Molton

Cleaning Kitchen Quarry Tiles

The Quarry tiles were in a better state than the Victorian tiles I discussed in the previous post so a less aggressive course of action was required. In this case I applied a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and left it to soak in. Pro-Clean is an effective tile cleaner which will clean and strip off old sealers in a strong dilution. This was important as I wanted to be sure any remaining sealer would be removed, typically sealers wear off in the high use floor areas first so it was quite possible some sealer would still be present on the less used parts of the floor.

After ten minutes I agitated the solution with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary scrubbing machine to really get the floor clean and then rinsed off the soiled cleaning solution with water and a wet and dry vacuum before leaving it overnight to dry off fully.

Sealing Kitchen Quarry Tiles

The following day I returned and after rechecking the moisture levels to ensure that they had adequately dried out I started to seal the Quarry tiles in the Kitchen using Six coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which leaves a satin finish once dried and gives the tiles a freshly mopped or slightly glazed look.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor After Cleaning South Molton
The customer was thrilled and left the following feedback on the Tile Doctor feedback system:

“The work was carried out in a professional manner, with excellent results.”

For aftercare I left the customer with some guidance on care and maintenance of the floor as well as a suitable bottle of tile cleaner.

Professional Renovation of a Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor in Devon

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