This lovely Victorian tiled hallway floor in Hampton had been covered with carpet for over 30 years. Having removed the carpet, the owner was keen to restore the floor back to its original appearance. As you can see from the pictures the tiles had some lovely traditional colours which have been hidden away. During that time the tiles had absorbed a lot of soil and were stained by rubber from the underlay causing the colours to fade.
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Fortunately, the gripper rods had only been lightly glued onto the tiles and not held down with nails, sometimes with older floors the rods are hammered in place right through the tile causing them to shatter, which makes for a much larger restoration job. I gave them a price for the work which they were happy with, and we arranged a time to return.
Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor
To remove the traces of rubber backing, adhesive and years of stubborn soiling from the tiles the whole floor was soaked in a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go. After a short dwell time we then machine scrubbed with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to restore the tiles to a very clean condition.
The soiling and products were pressure rinsed and vacuumed away, leaving the Victorian tiles much cleaner. I found the best method was to work in large sections of flooring at a time which allowed for the tiles to dry whilst I worked on another section. I was then able to go back and review my work and spot clean stubborn areas until I was satisfied with the result. The wet vacuum removes a lot of the moisture but it needs to be dry before sealing so the floor was then left to dry off overnight.
Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor
The following day we returned and using the damp meter tested the tiles were dry and ready to be sealed. For this we selected to use seven coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go, these were applied leaving each coat to dry before the next one was administered. This left a nice sheen finish on the floor and does a lovely job of enhancing the colours making the tiles look vibrant again. The floor looks great and the hallway is now very inviting.
Before leaving I took time to discuss aftercare with the owner and recommend the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner. Fact is most supermarket products are for cleaning Vinyl or Ceramic tiles contain bleach and are simply too strong for use on sealed surfaces such as this floor, using them can prematurely erode the sealer and once that’s gone the floor will have no protection and begin to accumulate dirt.
When cleaning Floor tiles with a mop we recommend using two buckets, one containing a neutral pH cleaning fluid such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner or Stone Soap and the second where you rinse your mop afterwards, otherwise you will contaminate your cleaning fluid with dirt every time you rinse.