Sandstone Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Sandstone flooring carried out in Hampshire

Cleaning and Renovating Sandstone Floors

Sandstone is often used for Kitchen and Hallway flooring, however as with any natural stone it needs to be sealed to protect it and bring out its beauty and colouring. One of the biggest problems we find with stone flooring is with the sealer becoming stripped away prematurely by the continuous use of cleaning agents not designed for this type of surface. Without its protective sealer porous stone quickly becomes ingrained with dirt making it increasingly difficult to clean effectively.

Our method for renovating Sandstone typically involves stripping the floor of any existing sealer/coatings, deep cleaning to extract the dirt and then applying a fresh sealer for which I recommend Tile Doctor Colour Grow as it enhances the natural colours in the stone. If the floor is particularly bad, it’s best to resurface it with coarse milling pads which can remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Flagstone Kitchen Floor Restoration Fareham

Neglected Flagstone Kitchen Floor Restored in Fareham

1 Comment / Fareham Tile Cleaning, Sandstone Tile Cleaning /

This client was restoring a period property in Fareham which had an original Flagstone floor in the Kitchen. They hoped to restore the stone and then install a lovely kitchen that would really do the house justice. Always happy to help I went over to the property to discuss the floor and quote for its restoration.

I could see the flagstones were heavily stained and almost unrecognisable, however believe it or not I have worked on worse and didn’t see any reason why the floor couldn’t be restored to a reasonable condition. It was clear the floor had previously been covered at some point by what I suspect was Linoleum, this had probably been glued down as you could see an imprint of some pattern or other.

Flagstone Kitchen Floor Before Renovation Fareham

I recommended that the best course of action would be to use a set of very coarse diamond pads to resurface the stone and remove the staining and contaminates in the process. The pads would also make the rough Sandstone smoother and easier to clean.

Keen to go ahead with my recommendation I measured up and put together a quotation that included all the products and labour needed to restore the floor. With the quotation accepted we agreed a date to start the work.

Resurfacing a Flagstone Tiled Kitchen Floor in Fareham

The work started with the application of very coarse 50-grit Diamond Flexi-Pad fitted to a heavy-duty floor buffer with added weight to ensure maximum traction with the stone. Using only water for lubrication these pads do the bulk of the work and remove a fine and often contaminated layer from the surface of the stone to reveal new stone underneath.

Flagstone Kitchen Floor During Renovation Fareham

A lot of water was used in this process which mixes with the dirt and cut stone to form a slurry which is then vacuumed away. This process was then repeated with a 100-grit flexi pad, followed by 200-grit flexi pad rinsing and extracted afterwards as before.

With the contaminates removed the next step was to further refine the flagstone using a 400-grit and then finally an 800-grit burnishing pads. Less and less slurry was produced as I worked through each of the finer grit pads. Again, using water for lubrication and removing the slurry with a wet vacuum as work progressed.

The floor was then rinsed and allowed to dry thoroughly.

Sealing a Flagstone Tiled Kitchen Floor in Fareham

We came back the following day to seal the stone and started by testing different parts of the floor for moisture using a damp meter. This is important as applying a sealer to damp stone car result in a patchy appearance.

The Flagstone’s were dry so work continued to seal the floor with a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the stone preventing dirt from becoming ingrained there. This product contains a colour enhancer which brings out the colour in the stone and it certainly worked well on this floor and brought out the brown shades of the flagstone and added a nice subtle sheen.

Flagstone Kitchen Floor After Renovation Fareham

Happy with the transformation I spent some time before leaving to discuss the maintenance of the floor using a sealer friendly product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner. There was also more work to do in the kitchen by various trades so I recommended coving up the floor whilst further work was going on.

Flagstone Kitchen Floor After Renovation Fareham

 

Professional Renovation of a Flagstone Kitchen Floor in Hampshire

Neglected Flagstone Kitchen Floor Restored in Fareham Read More »

Milled Sandstone floor maintained in Warsash

Milled Sandstone floor maintained in Warsash

1 Comment / Hamble Tile Cleaning, Sandstone Tile Cleaning, Work History /

This Milled Sandstone tiled floor was installed in the kitchen of a house in the village of Warsash on the south coast. The floor was looking washed out and lost most of its colour and the owner wanted it looking its best.

Milled Sandstone 26 Begin Warsash

Cleaning a Sandstone Tiled Floor

The first job was to remove the kick boards from around base of the kitchen units a followed by the application of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean diluted with 10 parts warm water. This was left to soak into the stone and then worked in using a black scrubbing pad. This action gave the floor a good clean and the now dirty cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum, the floor was rinsed down with water and the process repeated in the areas where further attention was required until we were happy the tiles were clean. The final cleaning action was to wash down the tiles with clean water a final time to remove any cleaning product and neutralise the floor before the next step of sealing. The wet vacuum was used again to remove as much water from the floor as possible and we then left for the evening so the floor could fully dry overnight.

Milled Sandstone 26 Cleaning

Sealing a Sandstone Tiled Floor

We came back the next day and tested the floor with a damp meter in a few different locations to make sure no dampness remained in the stone. The sandstone was dry so we proceeded to seal the floor with Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the stone preventing dirt from becoming ingrained there, it also as its name suggests brings out the colour in the stone and it certainly worked well on this floor and brought out the brown colours of the Sandstone, two coats were sufficient.

Milled Sandstone 26 Finished
 

Milled Sandstone Floor Cleaned and Sealed in Hampshire

Milled Sandstone floor maintained in Warsash Read More »

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