Hallway Tile Cleaning Archives - North West Yorkshire Tile Doctor

Victorian Tiled Hallway Restoration Bingley

Original Victorian Tiled Hallway Repaired and Renovated in Bingley

This client called me over to look at the original Victorian tiled floor in the hallway of their property in Bingley. The floor was due a clean and seal and there were a few tiling issues that needed resolving.

I went over to survey the floor and could see that except for a few broken tiles the floor was in a good condition considering its age. He wanted the broken tiles replaced and then the floor cleaned and resealed. There had been no maintenance over the last ten years which is when they purchased the property so a deep clean and seal was overdue.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before Cleaning Bingley

I worked out a quote for the work which was accepted and then started looking for replacement tiles which would be needed to complete the repairs.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before Cleaning Bingley

Repairing and Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway

When I returned to the property the first job was to replace the broken tiles which on a floor like this is intricate and careful work. Each broken tile has to be slowly prised up taking care not to disturb the adjacent tile and thereby making the job larger than it needs to be. With the broken tile out of the way the base is cleaned up and prepared to accept the replacement which has to be cut to fit and match the existing geometric pattern. Once I’m happy with the replacement it is then set in place with rapid drying adhesive.

Once the repaired tiles had set, I was able to make a start on getting the floor clean. To do this a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was sprayed onto the floor and left to soak into the tiles before being worked in with a coarse 100-grit diamond pad. The resultant slurry was removed with a wet vacuum and the process was repeated with a finer 200-grit diamond pad. The pads are run over the tiles using a buffer machine with weights added to improve traction. The floor was then rinsed, and the soiling extracted as before.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor During Cleaning Bingley

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor During Restoration Bingley

Next step was to give the tiles an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which further cleans up the floor by removing old grout smears and salt deposits that can be a common problem with floors of this age. This was worked in with a black scrubbing pad and rinsed off and extracted as before.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway

A lot of water was used in the cleaning process so to speed up the drying process as much moisture as possible was removed with the wet vacuum after cleaning and a floor dryer was left in place.

I returned on day three to seal the tiles starting by testing the floor with a moisture meter to check it had dried sufficiently. All was well and I was able to confirm the floor was dry enough to seal for which Tile Doctor Seal and Go Extra was applied. This will protect the tiles from ingrained dirt and gives the floor a nice finish. This product is also fully breathable which is an important consideration when sealing older floors that don’t have a damp proof membrane.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor After Restoration Bingley

The client was very happy and gave me a cup of tea and a biscuit as well as the following excellent feedback:

” The experience from start to finish was excellent. The Tile Doctor responded to my query quickly and allocated Chris to the job. Chris arrived promptly and provided a competitive quote. Once booked in Chris arrived on time and did a fantastic job. The hallway looks brilliant. Wouldn’t hesitate to use Chris and Tile Doctor again.”

For aftercare cleaning I recommended Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a mild yet effective tile and grout cleaner. It’s important to avoid strong cleaner products which contain bleach as this will strip away the sealer.

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Restoration of a Carpet Covered Victorian Tiled Hallway in Masham

I was contacted by a homeowner who had moved into a property in the small Yorkshire market town of Masham and discovered a Victorian tiled floor under the hallway carpet. Realising this was a valuable period feature he was keen to see if it could be restored. As you can imagine he was delighted when I told him that it should be possible, and he was keen to get it uncovered and back on show.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Paint Splashes Removed in Masham

After discussing the floor on the phone, I visited the property and removed the carpet so we could take a long look at the Victorian tile’s underneath. The carpet had protected the floor well and it was in good physical order, (i.e. no cracks etc.) it was just very dirty but was also marked with paint splashes from some untidy decorating work from the past. I confirmed none of these issues should present a problem and got the go ahead for the work to start.

Cleaning/Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

There was no sealer on the floor, so I started the cleaning process using a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was worked into the tiles using a coarse 200-grit pad fitted to a rotary floor buffer. I then used a 400-grit hand-held diamond block to clean the edges which couldn’t be reached by the machine. This also removed the paint splashes which should have been on the skirting boards and not the floor!

The floor was then rinsed with water and the soil extracted with a wet vacuum. I was able to inspect the floor at this stage and spot treat areas that needed more work as they were a little stubborn. It wasn’t a large hallway and except for the paint it only needed a light clean. The result was I was able to complete the cleaning process by lunch time. I dried the floor as much as possible and left an air blower in the space for a couple of hours.

I returned later that afternoon and checked the floor for moisture using a damp meter. The floor was mostly dry, but some areas needed some more help with a heat gun. It was late summer and so still warm and so there was no need on this occasion to leave the floor overnight.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Once I was happy the floor was dry, I started sealing the tiles with the first of four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go. This is a specially formulated water-based blend of acrylic polymers that provides both a stain resistant surface seal and a durable low-sheen finish. It is perfect for a floor of this age as it allows moisture vapour to pass through, this is an important feature when considering a sealer for old floors which will not have a damp-proof membrane installed. If you were to apply a non-breathable sealer moisture can get trapped under the floor causing it to spread out to the walls resulting in rising damp.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Paint Splashes Removed in Masham

The combination of the cleaning and new sealer brought the floor back to life and it now looked in keeping with the rest of the property which had numerous other period features. My client was over the moon with the difference and very happy to see the back of the grubby carpet.

Hallway Tile Cleaning