Paint and Plaster removed from Victorian Hallway in South Wales

The photographs below are of a Victorian Tiled floor taken earlier this year at a property in the small welsh town of Glynneath. The lady who lived there was selling her house house and wanted her Victorian hallway floor restored so she could achieve the best price. She mentioned it was severely dirty and was unsure if we would be able to help, however we have seen a lot worse and politely reassured her we were certain we could.

We visited the property first to survey the floor and produce an accurate quote for its renovation. The floor was indeed very dirty, there were paint splatters and plaster stains throughout from decorating. Fortunately, it was in good physical condition and no tiles needed to be replaced. We discussed with her the process we would use for cleaning and gave her a quote. She was happy to accept this, and we arranged a time to complete the work for her.

Renovating a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

We began by taping up the surrounding woodwork to protect it from splashing during the cleaning. Then using a handheld scraper, we carefully removed the paint and plaster from the floors surface to make the cleaning process that little bit easier for us. This was followed with the application of a 400-grit diamond burnishing pad fitted to a rotary machine lubricated with water. The abrasive pad cuts into the surface of the tile removing the contaminates and dirt in the process.

After vacuuming up the slurry with a wet vacuum it became clear more work would be needed under the stairs where our buffing machine struggled to reach. To tackle this handheld diamond burnishing blocks were used, again lubricated with a little water.

After doing this the floor was inspected again and I decided to repeat the whole cleaning process one more time with extra focus on the yellow border tiles, that were still heavily soiled. I found the handheld diamond blocks were ideal for spot cleaning the ingrained dirt and bring them back to life. After a final rinse and extraction of the floor I was happy the floor was as clean as it could be and was left to dry off overnight so it would be ready for sealing the next day.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

On day two the floor was tested for moisture with a damp meter to make sure it was dry and therefore ready to accept a sealer. All was well and having previously discussed sealers with the client we opted to apply Tile Doctor Colour Grow. There were two reasons for this, primarily she wanted all the colours in the floor to stand out and secondly we wanted to ensure the floor would allow any moisture to rise thorough the tile which is an important requirement for these old floors which don’t have a damp proof membrane. Tile Doctor Colour Grow is fully breathable and as its name suggests it enhances the colour so clearly is an ideal choice for the floor. Four Coats were applied and as you can see from the pictures the floor now looks amazing.

Although the floor looked fantastic the sale of the property had to go on hold due to the Covid-19 epidemic. This also impacted the work we do however since then Tile Doctor have implemented several measure to ensure we can continue to work safely in people’s homes, so if you need any work doing, do get in touch to discuss how we can safely move your project forward.

Source: Victorian Tiled Cleaning and Renovation Service in Swansea