This slate floor was installed in the kitchen and adjacent dining area of this house in Shepperton, Middlesex and now as with all sealed floors the sealer had worn down and the floor was becoming difficult to clean leaving it looking dull and uninviting.
To remedy the old sealer would need to be stripped off, the floor deep cleaned and a fresh seal applied. I suspect the sealer had been eroded prematurely by the use of harsh cleaning chemicals and a steam cleaner. This had destroyed the sealer in parts and made the floor look very uneven. You do need to be very careful of supermarket cleaning products as many are designed for glazed ceramic tiles and contain acids which will eat through the sealer over time.
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Stripping old Sealers off a Slate Tiled Floor
To strip the remaining sealer off the floor and give the slate and grout a really deep clean I prepared a 50:50 mixture of Remove and Go and Pro-clean diluted with water. This powerful stripper/cleaner solution was then machine scrubbed into the floor to break up the dirt and old sealer, a stiff brush was also run over the grout lines to get them clean as well. The slurry was then rinsed with water and extracted using a wet vacuum. The floor was then inspected and the process repeated where necessary until I was satisfied the slate and grout were as clean as they could be and free of any old sealer.
Sealing Slate Floor Tiles
The floor was left to dry off and we returned later to seal the floor. Sealers can be affected if the floor is damp so a damp meter comes in very handy at this point to confirm the floor is dry before sealing.
We have a number of sealer products available that all have different effects and in this case the customer required a high sheen finish and a floor that was easy to maintain. Tile Doctor Seal & Go gives exactly that result and being water based it doesn’t leave a smell as it dries, so we applied a number of coats and provided the customer with some advice on the use of pH neutral cleaning products for general cleaning going forward.
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You can see from the pictures that the process has restored the lustre to the slate and the sealer will protect the floor going forward making it easier to maintain.
Sealers protect your floor from staining and enhance the floor of the stone, however they do wear down over time depending on floor traffic and what products are used to clean the floor (don’t use anything even mildly acidic) and this is when dirt can become ingrained in the stone, so if you do want to keep your floor looking its best talk to Tile Doctor their regular maintenance service that will ensure your sealer is kept topped up.