Victorian tiled floors are known for their interesting and unique mosaic patterns – and this one was no different. It was installed at a house in the historic West Midlands town of Stourbridge (famous for its glass industry). Unfortunately it was now looking worse for wear and was in dire need of not just cleaning and sealing, but also some minor repairs and the owner was keen to have it restored back to its former glory.
Repairing Victorian a Tiled Floor
This particular Victorian tiled floor had been arranged in a fantastic pattern comprising tiles in shades of yellow, blue, red and white. There were, however, some missing tiles but fortunately I know a number of specialist suppliers where I can source replacements. I spent the first day making minor repairs and replacing the missing tiles, including the grouting, and then left the treated areas to set overnight.
Cleaning a Victorian tiled floor
On the second day I returned to the house to complete the cleaning process starting with a combination of Tile Doctor Remove & Go – a powerful sealer stripper – and Tile Doctor NanoTech HBU cleaner to lift out ingrained dirt and break down old layers of sealer. NanoTech HBU is particularly effective as it utilises tiny nano sized particles to penetrate deep into the stone and lift out the dirt. The resultant slurry was rinsed off the floor and removed using a wet vacuum.
The next step was to give the floor an acid wash using Tile Doctor Acid Gel, this product can remove old grout haze and other mineral deposits, additionally being in a gel form makes it easy to control and although primarily designed for use on walls it works really well on floors as well. Following this I gave the floor a thorough rinse, dried as much as possible with a wet vacuum and left it to dry overnight, ready to be sealed the next day.
Sealing a Victorian tiled floor
Upon my return to the house on the third day I set about sealing the floor, checking first that the area was completely dried by running damp tests with damp meter, all was well so I able to start applying the sealer. The sealer chosen for this floor was Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based product which is a popular choice as it gives the floor a nice sheen and doesn’t leave the smell that the solvent based sealers do; three thin coats were applied to provide a robust surface seal and to achieve a semi-shine finish, as per the client’s requested.
My client was extremely pleased with the results, with a lot achieved over the space of roughly two and a half days. They left the following feedback:
“Mick did a fantastic job. He was polite and friendly and kept us informed at every stage of the work. He is extremely professional and it is obvious that he takes a great deal of pride in his work. We are thrilled with our ‘new’ floor.”
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Tile Doctor is the largest Tile and Stone cleaning network in the UK and have a number of services available including the provision of a regular maintenance service