Neutral Tile Cleaner Archives - East London Tile Doctor

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Restoration Wanstead

Neglected Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Restored in Wanstead

The photographs below are of an original Encaustic Tiled hallway floor at a Victorian period house in Wanstead. As you can see from the photos this floor had clearly suffered years of neglect. Originally it was covered with a carpet and more recently had vinyl tiles stuck to it. Multiple sections of the floor had damaged and loose pieces and one section next to the cupboard had a hole in it with all the tiles around it missing.

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Before Restoration Wanstead

Having surveyed the floor, I came up with a restoration plan to repair the damaged areas and then restore the appearance of the tiles including applying a protective sealer. The quotation was accepted and a date set for the work to commence.

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Before Restoration Wanstead

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway

First the sections of damaged substrate had to be rebuilt, so the original tiles had to be carefully removed so a new substrate could be installed and interlocked with the original to provide a structurally sound floor including the section with the hole.

Before this work started however, I went to great lengths to source the original salvaged encaustic tile pieces needed to make the floor whole again. It took a while to find some of the décor pieces as they are quite rare and in limited supply, but I found them. Once all the replacements had been sourced work started on the floor’s reconstruction the damaged and loose pieces were replaced and set in place with a modern adhesive.

After leaving the floor to set overnight work restarted the next day to clean the whole floor using 100 and 200-grit diamond pads which were worked into the tiles using water for lubrication. These pads do a great job of restoring the appearance of old encaustic tiles like these and will remove any patterns that have been ingrained into their surface from the previous floor coverings. The floor was rinsed after each pad had been applied and the soiling rinsed off with more water and then extracted with a wet vacuum.

After an inspection the now clean floor was given a final rinse and dried as much as possible with a wet vacuum.

Sealing a Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway

The floor was left to dry out and I returned later to apply Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal which is a protective sealer that improves the appearance of the tiles and prevents dirt from becoming ingrained in its pores. Tile Doctor X-Tra seal is an impregnating oil-based sealer that is fully breathable, an important consideration when dealing with old Victorian floors that don’t have a damp proof membrane.

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor After Restoration Wanstead

The project took some time to complete but the result was transformational and my customer was very happy with the result. This old floor which is a valuable period feature has now been brought back to life and made good for another 100 years.

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor After Restoration Wanstead

Before leaving I took time to mention the importance of using a pH neutral tile cleaner such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner for after care cleaning.

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway in East London

Neglected Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Restored in Wanstead Read More »

Renovating a Badly Stained Brick Slip Floor in a Barking Kitchen

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.

Badly Stained Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Barking

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.

Badly Stained Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Barking

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.

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