Limestone Cleaning Archives - North West Yorkshire Tile Doctor

Limestone kitchen floor in Brighouse

This limestone floor in the kitchen at a property in Brighouse was laid over five years ago and since then the sealer had worn off allowing dirt to become ingrained in the stone and grout lines. It now needed to be deep cleaned with attention to the grout lines and then sealed to protect it going forward.

Limestone Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Brighouse

I visited the property to survey the floor and work out a restoration plan that would renovate the stone back to its original condition. The work required was straight forward so it didn’t take long to work out a quotation for the renovation.

Happy with the quote we agreed a date for my return.

Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Kitchen

To deep clean and renovate the Limestone I used a set of 17-inch diamond burnishing pads which included 400, 800, 1500 and 3000 grits. Before I could get to work though the wooden kitchen units had to be protected from the cleaning solutions by applying a thin line of clean silicone sealant between the floor and the base boards. Doing this ensures water doesn’t soak into the wood where it can cause them to warp.

The Kitchen was quite small and the equipment proved to be a challenge to operate in such a confined space. I was using a weighted rotary floor buffer and triple motor wet vacuum, so extra care was needed.

I began the stone floor cleaning with the application of a 400-grit pad fitted to a rotary buffer and ran over each tile four to five times using water for lubrication. The soiling generated from this action was then extracted with a wet vacuum and I turned my attention to the grout lines.

Limestone Kitchen Floor During Cleaning Brighouse

To clean the grout, I used a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was left to soak into the grout for ten minutes before being scrubbed by hand along joint lines. This was then rinsed off and extracted as before. Switching back to the limestone floor the burnishing work continued with the 800 and 1500 grit pads, applied as before with water for lubrication and rinsing and extracting afterwards.

After the end of the first day the floor looked much cleaner, and it was left overnight to dry out.

Sealing a Limestone Tiled Kitchen

The next day I continued with the stone burnishing using the last pad in the set which is a very fine 3000-grit pad that adds a nice polish to the limestone. This pad is applied dry with only a small amount of water sprayed onto the tiles. This last pad leaves the floor dry and ready to be sealed.

The floor was then sealed with Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal which was chosen to keep the floor looking as close to its natural light colour as possible. Ultra-Seal is a virtually invisible sealer that soaks into the pores of the stone protecting it from within and works well on limestone.

Limestone Kitchen Floor After Renovation Brighouse

The client was very happy with the result and the finish, and the new sealer would ensure dirt remains on the surface of the stone where it can easily be cleaned away with a product such as Tile Doctor Stone Soap. I always recommend this product for cleaning polished stone floors as its formula helps maintain the patina.

Limestone Kitchen Floor After Renovation Brighouse

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Cleaning Unique London White Limestone Flooring in Leyburn

1 Comment / Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Richmond Tile Cleaning, Work History / Nigel Stoker

This floor is London White Limestone which is a very expensive but stunning stone that costs around £60 per square metre. It’s a pale stone that has a wonderful texture and aged appearance that makes it quite unique. Unfortunately, however being a pale stone, it didn’t photograph well, especially in low light so apologies in advance for the poor photographs.

The stone was installed in a very large area across much of the ground floor of this stunning house in the North Yorkshire spa town of Leyburn. The property was in the centre of the town which is just 13 miles from the Yorkshire Dales National Park. There were four areas in total that needed attention, two of which were still quite clean, the main areas that needed attention were the high traffic areas around the entrance hall and kitchen which needed a full clean. The sealant had started to break down and with the stone being white, the floors were looking a bit dirty and drab.

London White Limestone Before Cleaning Leyburn

The two other rooms were only laid around a year ago and were still clean and unmarked however due to the state of the other floors the customer was concerned about the original sealer that had been used and so I agreed to top up the seal in these rooms with a different product to add more protection. Lithofin Stain-Stop had been used previously which from my experience isn’t up to sealing Limestone properly, so l said l could apply a more effective sealer which would penetrate the existing and provide more protection. To make matters worse the client had been using household cleaners which weren’t suitable for cleaning a sealed floor. We agreed a price for the work to be carried out, which the client was happy with, the work was scheduled in for a few weeks later.

Cleaning a London White Limestone Tiled Ground Floor

After adding protection to the skirting boards, I started cleaning the stone in the entrance and kitchen areas. I find you get the best results on Limestone by applying a series of Diamond encrusted honing pads which clean and hone the stone. They are applied in sequence starting with a coarse 400-grit pad followed by the medium 800-grit and then fine 1500-grit pad. The pads are applied with water to provide lubrication and the floor rinsed in between the application of each pad with the soil being extracted with a wet vacuum.

If you have read any of my other posts, you are would probably be expecting me to follow-up the burnishing process with a 3000-grit polishing pad however that wasn’t required in this case as we only use that on polished stone to achieve a deeper shine. The immediate result was a lightly polished floor which looked much brighter than before.

Sealing a London White Limestone tiled Ground Floor

The floor was left overnight to dry off, I double checked with the moisture meter that the previously cleaned area was dry and then all four areas were sealed the next day using a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal. This is a premium, no-sheen, natural-look, solvent-based penetrating sealer which is created to provide maximum stain protection without changing the appearance of the beautiful stone floor.

London White Limestone After Cleaning Leyburn

For after care I recommended to my customer the use of Tile Doctor Stone Soap which will clean the floor without prematurely eroding the sealer. The client was very happy with the finish and thankful for the maintenance advice that will help them maintain their beautiful stone floor in good condition.

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