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Dirty Victorian Tiled Hallway Deep Cleaned and Sealed in York

As promised below are the photographs from the second floor I cleaned recently at a house in historic city of York. If you recall the first floor was Mexican Terracotta which proved pretty tough to clean as the rotary floor scrubber I use struggled to cope with the bull nose edges. You can find the article I created for that floor via the link below:

Mexican Terracotta Tiles Deep Cleaned in York.

The second floor was a Victorian tiled hallway which like its neighbour was dull, lifeless and now overdue a deep clean to remove ingrained dirt, part worn sealer and then reseal.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before Cleaning York

Cleaning Victorian Tiles Tiles

As with the Terracotta tiles I cleaned the floor using a strong 1:3 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean with water. This is a strong dilution ratio which will not only clean the tile but also strip off what was left of the original sealer. You need to do this as the sealer will wear off first in the most commonly used part of the floor first which in this case is down the middle of the hallway. I left the solution it to soak into the tile for about ten minutes before scrubbing it in with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary floor machine. I the scrubbed along the grout lines with more pro-clean and a stiff narrow brush by hand to ensure the grout was also clean.

The floor was rinsed with water and the soiled cleaning solution was extracted using a wet vacuum. I could then see those area’s that needed more work and re-treated them with more Pro-Clean until I was satisfied all the previous sealer was gone and the tile and grout was as clean as it could be.

The tiles were given a final rinse with water and the wet vacuum used again to extract as much moisture off the floor as possible. The next step would be to seal, however the Terracotta floor tiles needed a longer drying time so I left both floors to dry out for two days before returning.

Sealing Victorian Tiles Tiles

Upon my return to the property I ran some quick damp tests, which revealed the tiles were ready to be sealed. I then applied four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which provided a beautiful satin finish that really improved the look of Victorian Tile.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor After Cleaning York

The hallway tiles now looked clean and much brigher, needless to say my customer was very happy with the transformation.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Deep Cleaned and Resealed in Yorkshire

Mexican Terracotta Floor Before and After Cleaning York

Dirty Mexican Terracotta Tile and Grout Deep Cleaned and Sealed in York

1 Comment / Grout Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History, York Tile Cleaning / Nigel Stoker

A few months back I posted a story about cleaning Catalan Terracotta tiles where I mentioned that Terracotta tiles are made all over the world. To prove the point I thought you might be interested to read about this Mexican Terracotta Tiled floor I cleaned recently at a house in York.

The customer actually had two floors they wanted me to clean, the other was a Victorian Tiled floor which is cleaned using a similar process but I’ll post about that separately. Both floors looked a bit tired but especially the Mexican Terracotta which looked dull and lifeless additionally the Grout had gone black when it should have been a Sandstone colour.

Mexican Terracotta Floor Before Cleaning York

Mexican Terracotta tiles are invariably hand made and made to the same standard as other makes such as Spanish, as a result the porosity levels between each tile can vary greatly which makes them harder to maintain.

Cleaning Mexican Terracotta Tiles

I cleaned the floor using a strong 1:3 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean with water which is an effective alkaline Tile and Grout cleaner that will clean and strip old sealers from tiles when used in a strong dilution such as on this occasion. I left it to soak into the tile for about ten minutes before scrubbing it in with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary floor machine. This process made a different but the machine couldn’t cope with the “Bull Nose” edges to I had so spend a lot of time cleaning the old fashioned way using a scrubbing brush and a lot of elbow grease. I had the same issue with the grout which being slightly recessed wasn’t cleaned sufficiently by the machine; however I have narrow scrubbing brush that works well for this purpose.

Mexican Terracotta Floor During Cleaning York

The floor was rinsed with water and the soiled cleaning solution was extracted using a wet vacuum. I could then see those area’s that needed more work and spot cleaned them with more Pro-Clean until I was satisfied all the previous sealer was gone and the tile and grout was as clean as it could be.

The tiles were given a final rinse with water and the wet vacuum used again to extract as much moisture off the floor as possible. The next step would be to seal, however the tiles would need to be dry for that to happen and given Terracotta is notoriously porous and absorbs water quickly l decided after I’d leave the floor to dry out for two days.

Sealing Mexican Terracotta Tiles

Upon my return to the property I ran some quick damp tests, which revealed the tiles were ready to be sealed. I then applied four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which provides a satin finish and really improves the look of Terracotta.

Mexican Terracotta Floor After Cleaning York

My customer was very happy with the transformation that had occurred to their floor and I think you will agree from the photographs the floor looks much healthier.

Mexican Terracotta Tile and Grout Renovated in Yorkshire

Dirty Mexican Terracotta Tile and Grout Deep Cleaned and Sealed in York Read More »