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.
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.
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.
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.
Completing over 2,000 renovations every year, Tile Doctor is the largest and most respected restorative Tile, Stone and Grout cleaning network in the UK. They have perfected numerous related services so whatever or wherever your problem, call us on 0345 512 01222 for help and advice.