Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing Archives

Acid Etched Limestone Tiled Floor Renovated in Coggeshall

This Limestone tiled floor covered the entire ground floor of this house in the town of Coggeshall. The owner had matching tiles installed in an extension and realised that the tiler had not managed to polish off all the grout which had left them dull.

Limestone Floor Before Renovation Coggeshall

This is a common problem known as grout haze and after researching it online he decided to try cleaning off the grout with an acidic product. This is a common solution for more robust stone or tiles; however, Limestone is acid sensitive so instead of removing the grout haze he made the problem worse by etching the stone tiles instead.

The second problem he had was the grout on the original floor had darkened overtime with dirt being washed into the grout line whereas the grout on the new floor was much cleaner. You can see from the photos how odd this looked especially when moving between the two areas.

Limestone Floor Before Renovation Coggeshall

I was asked to deep clean the original grout, remove the grout haze on the new floor and then get the two floors to match as much as possible by polishing both floors (which would also remove the etching) and applying a fresh sealer. I worked out a quote based on three days’ work along with the necessary products, given the size of the floor I asked Bruce who is the Suffolk Tile Doctor to assist.

Grout and Limestone Tile Cleaning

To remove the old sealer and clean up the grout on the original floor, a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was applied to the tiles and worked in with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary floor machine. The grout was then scrubbed by hand with more Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and the slurry rinsed off with water. There was a lot of grout lines to cover and in-total we used around five litres of Pro-Clean in the process.

Both original and new sections of floor were then burnished with diamond pads to blend the two floors together and remove the etching on the newly laid tiles in the process. This was done with a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing Pads starting with 400-grit and working up to 1500-grit, water is used for lubrication and then the floor rinsed and extracted after each pad. The floor was left for a short while to dry out.

Again, this was a large area but with two Tile Doctors on the job we managed to get through it.

Sealing a Limestone Tiled Ground Floor

To seal the Limestone the owner was happy to go with my recommendation of applying Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This product contains a colour intensifying formula which brings out the different colours and fossils in the stone. It’s also an impregnator which works by soaking into the pores of the Limestone, filling up the spaces and thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained in the stone. Put simply, the sealer will ensure any dirt remains on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away. It was a large area so we used five litres of Colour Grow to seal the floor.

Limestone Floor After Renovation Coggeshall

The work took both of us three days to complete and once done my client was amazed by the transformation and was so happy that the two floors now looked the same. For aftercare I left them with a free bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner to maintain their floor. This product is a gentle yet effective tile cleaner that won’t harm the newly applied sealer which can be an issue with stronger products.

Limestone Floor After Renovation Coggeshall

Professional Restoration of a Limestone Tiled Ground Floor in Noth Essex

Acid Etched Limestone Tiled Floor Renovated in Coggeshall Read More »

Limestone Fireplace Before After Restoration Chelmsford

Cleaning a Flood Stained Limestone Fireplace in Chelmsford

1 Comment / Chelmsford Tile Cleaning, Fireplace Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Work History / Dean Copping / Chelmsford, Essex, Essex Stone Restoration, flooding, Hearth Cleaning, Limestone Fireplace, Limestone Tile Cleaning, Limestone Tile Restoration, Limestone Tile Sealing, Stain Removal, Stone Cleaning, Stone Sealing

The UK has been experiencing an increasing amount of rain over the last few years and this has resulted in quite a few areas being flooded. One of those areas is the old city of Chelmsford in the middle of Essex which is prone to flooding due to the rivers Cam and Chelmer that run through the town.

Limestone Fireplace Showing Flood Staining Chelmsford

I was asked to visit a property in the town that had been flooded over winter and the red dye in the carpet that was lying on the floor adjacent to their lovely Limestone Fireplace had stained the hearth in several places but primarily around the edges.

Limestone Fireplace Showing Red Dye Staining Chelmsford

The fire place had never been sealed and because of this the stone had sucked up the flood water like a sponge. They had drying equipment installed and as the moisture evaporated the red staining became more and more evident. Since then several companies had been to try and remedy the problem and each one was unsuccessful. The couple contacted us, and we went to assess the problem fully equipped to carry out the work.

Cleaning a Dye Stained Limestone Fireplace Hearth

Had the Fireplace been sealed we our first task would have been to remove to ensure we would have no issues sealing the fireplace later. In this case however that wasn’t an issue, so we were able to move straight onto cleaning up the stone using a set of diamond encrusted hand-held burnishing blocks. We started with the coarsest block (50 grit) and rubbed the stone with a bit of added water as lubrication, before wet vacuuming away the excess residue. This process was then repeated with progressively finer blocks (100, 200 and 400 grit), and the hearths were given a final rinse with fresh water.

The burnishing blocks are excellent tools to remove scratches and marks from tile and stone and did a good job of removing the red dye from around the hearth. They also took care of some marks that had appeared where the owner had placed a couple of slate tiles on the flat part of the hearth.

Limestone Fireplace Showing Rust Stain Spots Chelmsford

Along with these marks were some corrosion spots where a metal ornament had been sitting on the hearth for several years. I treated these with Tile Doctor Rust Away which is a specialist product for removing rust stains from tile and stone after a few applications the stain was gone.

Sealing a Limestone Fireplace Hearth

After we had cleaned the fireplace up to the satisfaction of the client we used a smail dryer to dry everything out so that we could finish the job and seal the fireplace the same day. Once the stone moisture levels were at the correct level the Limestone Fireplace was sealed using three coats of Tile doctor Ultra-Seal leaving twenty minutes between coats.

Ultra-Seal is a no-sheen product that impregnates the pores of the stone protecting from within without changing the look of the stone thereby leaving it with a natural appearance. I’m please to say our efforts paid off and the Limestone Fireplace and Hearth is now stain free and looking like new.

Limestone Fireplace After Rust Stain Removal Chelmsford

Limestone Fireplace After Flood Stain Removal Chelmsford

Dye Stained Limestone Fireplace and Hearth Restoration in Chelmsford

Cleaning a Flood Stained Limestone Fireplace in Chelmsford Read More »

Shine and Lustre restored to a Limestone Tiled Floor Witham

1 Comment / Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Witham Tile Cleaning, Work History / Dean Copping / limestone tiles, north essex, tile cleaning, tile sealing, witham

These Limestone tiles had been laid in a modern property in Witham, an Essex town that sits between Chelmsford and Colchester. The property owners had spent many hours over the years cleaning and sealing the floor to maintain its condition, but while the tiles were in certainly in good shape, they had lost their shine and lustre. The result was quite a dull looking floor that could certainly be improved on.

When the property owners contacted me about the problem, I informed them that due to the hardness of the stone only a process known as burnishing, which involves cleaning and polishing with special gritted pads instead of a liquid product, would do the trick to restore the Limestone tiles.

Burnishing a Limestone Tiled Floor

We use burnishing to restore several types polished stone to looking their best, including Limestone, Marble, and Travertine. Tile Doctor’s burnishing system consists of four diamond encrusted twister pads with varying levels of grit. The pads are graded so that each hones the stone to a greater degree than the previous one, resulting in the build-up of a durable polish and shine on the stone.

Using a small amount of water as lubrication, I worked my way through the system, applying each pad in succession, beginning with the Coarse grit pad, before on to Medium, Fine and Very Fine pads. While polishing the tiles, the diamond encrusted pads also serves to break down any dirt. Thankfully, these tiles were already well taken care off and were not currently suffering from heavy soil build up.

After completing the burnishing process, I promptly rinsed away any cleaning slurry and left the floor to dry.

Sealing a Limestone Tiled Floor

I returned the property once the floor had dried completely to seal the tiles, with my choice of sealer being Tile Doctor Colour Grow. I applied three coats of the sealer to the tiles, before buffing them for a final time.

Colour Grow is an ideal sealer for Limestone for two main reasons. Firstly, it is an impregnating sealer, meaning it penetrates deep into the pores of the Limestone to provide robust protection against ingrained dirt. Secondly, it contains colour intensifying properties which enhance the natural colours in the Limestone.

I took a couple of photographs before and after (above) in which you can see a significant improvement in the shine and lustre of the Limestone tiles. Most of the cream and tan shades in the Limestone were practically invisible before the burnishing was carried out and a fresh seal was applied – now the tiles stand out as the most prominent feature of the room. Needless to say, the customer was very satisfied.