kitchen cleaning Archives - Glasgow Tile Doctor

Slate tiled floor Huston after cleaning and sealing

Slate tiled kitchen floor cleaned and re-sealed in Houston

This particular Slate tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in Huston, that’s Houston near Glasgow not the city in Texas. This is another example of a natural stone floor was overdue a deep clean and re-seal, any remaining sealer on the slate has worn off and the tiles have become dull and stained.

Slate tiled floor Huston before cleaning

Cleaning Slate Floor Tile and Grout

First we stripped any remaining sealer from the slate tiles by applying a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was left to soak in before being worked into the stone using a black pad on a rotary bonnet machine; the resultant soiled cleaning solution was then extracted using a wet vacuum. This process was repeated three times to make sure all the sealer and dirt was completely removed and extracted.

After this we focused on cleaning the grout using more Pro-Clean this time worked in using a stiff grout brush by hand. Once done the floor was given a thorough rinse using clean water again using the wet vacuum to remove the water and get the floor as dry as possible.

Changing the Colour of Grout

We then left for the evening to allow the floor to dry off overnight and returned the second day and coloured the grout to dark grey using a grout colouring kit to achieve an even grout appearance. This is rather painstaking work but the effect is well worth the effort, then once that had dried we gave the floor a quick clean using Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner.

Sealing Slate Floor Tiles

After allowing to dry overnight again, we came back the third day to seal the slate tiles for which we used six coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based sealer (no smell) which added a nice sheen to the tile and gave the desired finish.

Cleaning and Sealing a Slate tiled floors in Huston, Renfrewshire

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Porcelain Tiles Glasgow After Deep Cleaning

Deep Cleaning Porcelain Kitchen Tiles in Glasgow

1 Comment / Glasgow Tile Cleaning, Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Work History / Steven Thomson

Porcelain tiles are very hard wearing and a great choice for kitchens where they are likely to see a large amount of foot traffic, you do need to be careful however if they are the micro porous porcelain which as the name suggests are slightly porous and can trap dirt and become difficult to clean. The other problem you are likely to have with any tiled floor is the grout which has a porous top layer that can become stained.

This was the case with the kitchen floor tiles at this house in Glasgow where you can see from the photograph below the improvement in the centre of the floor where we had test cleaned the tiles; the grout used was dark in colour which hides the dirt so unfortunately you cannot tell from the photograph the improvement in the grout.

Porcelain Tiles Glasgow Before Deep Cleaning

Deep Cleaning Porcelain Tile and Grout

To get the tile and grout really clean a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was applied and left to soak in to the surface for around ten minutes before scrubbing it into the tile with a bonnet machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad and also a stiff hand brush along the grout lines. This was then rinsed away with warm water all of which was removed by a wet Vacuum. This whole process was repeated three times until we were satisfied that the tile and the grout was looking new again after which the floor was given a final wash with Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner and then dried as much as possible using the wet vacuum.

Deep Cleaning Porcelain Kitchen Tiles in Glasgow

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Slate Tiles in Glasgow Kitchen After Cleaning and sealing

Slate Tiles Cleaned and Sealed in a Glasgow Kitchen

1 Comment / Glasgow Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History / Steven Thomson

These Slate tiles were installed in the kitchen of a house in Glasgow and as you can see from the photograph below they were looking dull and tired and there was evidence of grout haze over a lot of the tiles. The Tile Doctor diagnosis was that a face lift was in order for which a deep clean and re-seal was prescribed.

Slate Tiles in Glasgow Kitchen Before Cleaning

Cleaning a Slate Floor

The first step was to sweep up all the loose debris from the floor; we scrub the floor quite hard during our work so it’s important to remove any grit that could scratch the surface of the tile. We then mixed a dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go 50/50 with Nanotech Ultra Clean and began to work the solution into the floor allowing it to dwell for around an hour first (This process helps to soften and break down the remains of the sealer on the stone). We used a hard deck scrubber to agitate the chemicals and loosen the dirt and old sealer from the floor which is then extracted from the surface using a wet vacuum and rinsed down with clean water several times to make sure all chemicals are removed.

The next step was to apply a dilution of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which was then scrubbed the floor once again with hard deck scrubber. This broke down and removed all of the cement/ grout haze that the installer had left over the surface of the tile, again the floor was then rinsed with water and extracted to remove any chemical residue.

The floor was scrubbed again this time using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to make sure all old sealer, cement, grout haze and dirt had been completely removed. We then give the floor a thorough and final rinse and mopped the tiles with Neutral Tile Cleaner to neutralise any remaining trace of chemicals and removed the solution using the wet vacuum before leaving the floor to dry overnight.

Sealing a Slate Floor Sealing

Once the floor was dry it was then sealed using five coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which was chosen to provide the desired finish that the customer wanted.

Slate Tiled Kitchen floor cleaned and sealed in Glasgow

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Slate Kitchen Floor Tiles Glasgow after cleaning

Slate tiled floor cleaned and re-sealed in Glasgow

1 Comment / Glasgow Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History / Steven Thomson

The photographs below are from the Kitchen of a house in Glasgow with a Slate tiled floor fitted. The sealer on the slate has started to go and if you look closely at the photographs you can see how tired and dull the tiles are looking; this is a common problem with natural stone floors where you will find the sealer wears down and dirt starts to penetrate into the tile making it difficult to clean effectively.

Slate Kitchen Floor Tiles Glasgow before cleaning

Cleaning a Slate Floor

The first job with any clean and seal work of this nature is to protect the kitchen units by removing the kick boards and then to remove any sealers and coating from the tile so when you re-seal you’re not trapping in dirt or layering on top of another potentially incompatible sealer.

The original sealer had almost worn off so a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean mixed 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra Clean was applied and left to soak into the floor for about 20 minutes. Pro-Clean is a multi-purpose cleaning product that will strip a sealer off the floor if weakly diluted whereas the NanoTech Ultra Clean adds tiny abrasive particles into the mixture increasing the cleaning power of the solution. This was worked into the slate and grout using a buffing machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad until I was satisfied the floor had been stripped and cleaned of all surface coatings and dirt. All the dirty water was extracted with a wet vacuum and the floor neutralised with more water to ensure no chemicals remained on the floor prior to sealing.

Sealing a Slate Floor Sealing

The floor was left to dry and we came back two days later to re-seal the tile for which we used five coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a great sealer for Slate tiled floors as it leaves a low sheen finish whilst providing excellent stain protection. I should mention that Seal and Go is also a water based sealer so it doesn’t leave a smell whilst it’s drying.

Overall I was quite pleased with the floor although there were some stubborn grout stains that proved to be tough to shift.

Cleaning and Sealing Slate tiled floors in Glasgow

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