It’s surprising how often I get asked to look at tiled floors stained with paint and other chemicals because of careless decorating work. Such was the reason that I was asked to renovate this Slate tiled floor that had been installed in the garden room of a house in Hampton, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. On this occasion the customers decorators had not covered the floor properly prior to painting which led to spots of paint and a white haze in places where they had tried and failed to rub the emulsion off the stone floor.
I went over to take a look and could see that the floor would benefit from been given a thorough clean, spot treating the decorating issues in the process and then given a fresh coat of sealer to protect the floor going forward and bring out the character of the stone. Having given the customer a quote which was accepted we agreed a date for me to return and given the floor a new lease of life.
Cleaning a Dirty Slate Tiled Kitchen Floor
The correct way to restore a floor such as this is to first strip off any existing coatings such as old sealers and take the tile back to its original condition. To do this I sprayed on a dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and left to dwell and soak into the old sealer and paint stains. Remove and Go is a stripper that as its name suggests is designed to be used on Tile, Stone and Grout. After ten minutes the product was worked into the slate tile and grout using a heavy duty rotary scrubbing machine. To help with the cleaning process, we also sprayed on Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is our go to Tile and Grout cleaning product.
The solution soon turned into a slurry as the dirt, old sealers and stains were lifted out of the pores of the slate. To remove the soil the floor was rinsed with water and then extracted from the floor using a wet vacuum.
The floor was then inspected, and stubborn stains spot treated until I was happy with the condition of the tile and grout. The floor was given a final rinse to remove any trace of cleaning products and then dried as much as possible using the wet vacuum.
Sealing a Slate Tiled Kitchen Floor
I left the floor overnight to dry completely following the cleaning and returned the next day to finish the renovation. After testing for damp to ensure the floor was dry, two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow were applied to fully seal the floor. Colour Grow is a colour enhancing sealer that penetrates int the pores of the stone to protect it from within. It worked really well on the Black Slate and restored the contrast in the tile while giving it the deep black look that the customer was expecting. The fresh sealer has the added benefit of making the floor easier to clean in the future
The floor now looks completely revived and the sealer will help keep it looking that way for some time to come.
Never use a strong cleaning product or a steam cleaner for the regular cleaning of sealed floors as this will reduce the life of the sealer. We recommend using a specialist cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner for the regular cleaning of sealed tile and stone, if you do use another product always read the label first, most supermarket tile cleaners are only suitable for use on glazed Ceramics, non-sealed Porcelain or Vinyl tiles.