This unusual kitchen floor at a property in Barking comprised of Brick Slips laid in a herringbone pattern. As you can see, they were very badly stained and clearly contained a lot of ingrained dirt. Having spoken to the owner on the phone I went over to inspect the floor and come up with a plan to improve their appearance.
Whilst at the property I decided to run a cleaning test on a small area of the badly stained floor. I did this on an inconspicuous pre-agreed section and the results were very encouraging. From this I was able to work out a cleaning plan and presented the owner with a quote for giving the floor a deep clean and then sealing to protect it going forward.
Happy with the quote and relieved something was going to be done about the state of their kitchen floor I got the go ahead to do the whole floor and returned to the property a few days later.
Cleaning a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor
My first task was to protect the kitchen units by covering them with a plastic sheet. Then the floor was soaked in a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go. I used this product as testing had revealed a sealer was present and Remove and Go is designed for removing coatings such as these. After 20 minutes of dwell time the solution was scrubbed in, using a 240-Grit Tile Doctor Carbide brush which removed about half of the dirt with a few passes. The cleaning solution turned black with the dirt that was removed from the bricks and was extracted with a wet vacuum.
I knew the dirt would not draw out easily, so I repeated the process multiple times until I was satisfied that all the old sealer and ingrained dirt had been removed. Some of the staining was very deep and unfortunately could not be removed through cleaning however with these brick slips being so thin my options to remove it were limited. After a final rinse the floor was dried as much as possible using the wet vacuum and then left to dry out for two days.
Sealing a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor
On my return I started by testing the floor for moisture using a damp meter. The results were satisfactory so I set about applying the first of what would be two coats of Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal. This is a modern oil-based sealer that soaks into the brick, occupying the pores and thereby preventing dirt from becoming ingrained there. This keeps it on the surface where it is easily cleaned away.
Once complete the floor looked so much cleaner and was a complete transformation from when I first arrived. It wasn’t perfect but it certainly had lots of character, and the customer was very happy with the end result.
Before leaving I took time to discuss aftercare for which I recommend maintaining the floor with another Tile Doctor product called Neutral Tile Cleaner. Many of the products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong for use on a sealed floor and can strip the sealer off so are best avoided.
Never use a steam cleaner or strong cleaning product on sealed tile or stone as this will reduce the life of the sealer. We recommend using a specialist tile cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner or Stone Soap for the regular cleaning of sealed surfaces. if you do use another product always read the label first, most supermarket tile cleaners are only suitable for use on Ceramic and Vinyl tiles.