A homeowner from Solihull contacted Tile Doctor concerning their White Limestone tiled floor, which was being marked from foot traffic and a dog with a weak bladder. Measuring approximately 150m2 the stone floor had been installed throughout the ground floor of what was a stunning award winning multi-million-pound property.
Expensive stone floors like this one do need maintenance to keep them in top condition so I reasoned that if the sealer was still doing its job, it may just need a quick polish. To be certain I went over to survey the tiles and take a closer look. Whilst there I did a sample test clean which showed the improvement the client was looking for but also revealed the stone needed to be re-sealed.
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The floor would need a deep clean, polish and seal which given its size I calculated would take six days. Later that day I sat down and worked out a detailed quote that included all the labour and products needed to complete the project and emailed it across. The quote was agreed and a date scheduled for the work to start.
Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Hallway Floor
They say the best way to eat an elephant is in small pieces so I divided the floor into six sections, this would help with doing the work and being able to move furniture around.
Repeating the process in each section work started with a light sweep of the floor to remove grit etc. The natural stone section was then burnished starting off with a coarse 400-grit diamond pad fitted to a rotary floor machine and lubricated with water. The machine had extra weights fitted to improve traction with the floor. This process grinds the dirt off the floor opening the pores in the stone so the dirt can be flushed out, the water turns into a fine slurry which is then rinsed off the floor and extracted with a wet vacuum.
The 400-grit pad was then switched to a finer 800-grit burnishing pad and the process repeated followed by the 1500 grit, again rinsing and extracting between pads. These finer pads are polishing pads that start to close the pores in the stone and bring up the shine.
The next step was to scrub the grout lines using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean worked in with a stiff brush. This was followed by burnishing the edges and corners with a handheld polisher so no area was missed. The staircase was also done this way with a set of 6″ pads.
After another rinse and extraction with the wet vacuum the polishing was finished with a very fine 3500 grit diamond pad, this pad is applied dry with only a little water sprayed onto the tile and tightens the pores to leaves the Limestone dry and gives it a natural sheen. The work took two complete sets of pads to complete.
Sealing a Limestone Tiled Hallway Floor
To seal the stone a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal were applied, before buffing off the excess with a white pad. This sealer is almost invisible leaving the floor with a natural look. It’s also a hard-wearing impregnator that works by soaking into the stone, occupying the pores and thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained and keeping it on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away.
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The customer was very happy with the results and commented that the floor looked better than when it was laid seven years before. I left them a bottle of Tile Doctor Stone Soap to maintain the floor going forward, it’s a sealer safe cleaning product that helps maintain the patina on the stone.
Before leaving I recommended our maintenance program to the owner, this is service we provide where we come over one a year to top up the sealer and further polish the floor with the very fine burnishing pad.
Source: Limestone Tiled Floor Cleaning and Polishing Service in Solihull
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