Cleaning and Sealing an Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor in Uppermill Saddleworth

The photographs below are from a property in a Victorian terrace in Uppermill with an original encaustic tiled hallway floor. The client had been renewing the flooring in the house and discovered the tiles under the hallway carpet. Realising the tiles were original from when the terrace was built it was decided to see if they could be restored as an original feature.

I popped over to survey the floor and was able to report that the carpet had kept the tiles in good physical condition albeit there were some holes from where the carpet gripper rod had been secured through the tile. I created a quote for repairing the damage and a low moisture clean and seal which was accepted, and a date agreed for the work to start.

Old floors like this don’t have a damp proof membrane to prevent moisture rising from the foundation so they can suffer from damp and with it the appearance of efflorescent salts. Using a lot of water during intensive cleaning can make this worse so we opt to use gel cleaning products that reduce the use of water.

Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway

In this case work started by applying Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel to the floor, leaving it to dwell and then scrubbing it in with a rotary floor machine. This was then quickly rinsed off and extracted with a wet vacuum.

During the cleaning I realised some of the carpet must have been secured with glue and to deal with this I spot cleaned along the edges and glue staining with handheld burnishing blocks and Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a stripper that’s safe to use on tile and stone. The floor was inspected again and stubborn areas re-treated using this process.

Last step in the cleaning process was to give the tiles an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Acid-Gel which is another gel cleaning product. This was pasted on as before, left to soak in and then scrubbed in using the rotary fitted with a black pad. The acidic nature of this product has several advantages; it cleans the tile of grout smears and neutralises alkaline salts lurking in the floor that could lead to efflorescence appearing later. The floor was rinsed and extracted again and then left of several days to dry out.

Before leaving for the day, I spent some time going around the floor and filling the gripper holes with a specialist colour matched filler.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway

When I returned some days later, I checked the floor for damp using a moisture meter. The readings were good, so we started with the sealing. For this I applied a couple of coats of Tile Doctor X-Tra seal which is a modern fully breathable oil-based sealer that adds texture to encaustic tiles, improves colour and generally lifts their appearance. I tend to mix in a little Tile Doctor Colour Grow into the X-Tra seal before application as this makes it more manageable.

Once done the floor was buffed with a white pad to remove excess sealer and bring up the appearance of the tiles further. X-Tra Seal is a hard-wearing impregnator that works by occupying the pores in the tile thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained there, keeping it on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away.

My client was very pleased with the result and left the following feedback:

“Kevin was a very friendly and helpful person. He made my hall tiles come up almost like new. Where I used to be ashamed of my hallway, I now want to show everyone them. They look amazing now, thanks to Kevin. I will not hesitate to recommend to my friends and family. Thanks, you so much Kevin.”For aftercare cleaning I recommended the use of Tile Doctor’s Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a mild yet effective product that won’t impact the sealer.

 

Source: Professional Victorian Hallway Tile Cleaning and Sealing Service near Uppermill Saddleworth