Saltillo Tiles in Shirley

Successful Restoration of Saltillo Tiles

We went and had a look at a floor in a house in Shirley recently to find a dull Saltillo Terracotta tiled floor that was in need of some Tile Doctor TLC. Saltillo tiles are typically made in a region of Mexico; they are very porous and can scuff and stain quite easily if not protected so it’s important to maintain a sealer.

Cleaning Saltillo Tiles

We advised the customer that we would probably not be able to get the tile in the traffic lanes back to the same colour due to the excessive wear from foot traffic but we would certainly try our best. We find it best to be honest about what we can achieve and set the customer’s expectations up front. They were happy for us to continue and accepted our very reasonable quote for the amount of work involved so we about cleaning the floor. This we did using a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean tile and grout cleaner. To clean the tougher areas that were heavily stained we mixed the Pro-Clean with a little Tile Doctor NanoTech Ultra-Clean which helps to enhance the cleaning power.

Grout Re-Colouring

We left the floor to dry for 2 days then we went back and re-coloured the customer’s grout which as you can see from the pictures made a huge difference to the look of the floor. Grout Colourant can make a old tired looking floor look totally different and when applied properly forms a barrier that protects the grout from dirt engraining into the grout.

Sealing Saltillo Tiles

Terracotta tile are extremely porous and so it came as no surprise that we needed to apply nine coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go. After the last coat we waited for fourty minutes and then buffed the floor to bring out the shine and harden the sealer, the customer was very pleased with the results and made the following comment:

Thank you very much for doing such a wonderful and professional job my wife and I are very impressed with the results.

Saltillo Tiles Restoration in Shirley

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Indian Orange Slate Floor in London

Esher Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History / Rupert Mcloud

Restoration of a client’s slate floor

We were asked to take a look at cleaning and re-sealing an Indian Orange Slate floor at a property in London, the owner had struggled to find someone who would take the job on as they were unsure what they were dealing with and so called in Tile Doctor. This isn’t surprising as we do find that many so called Tile Cleaning companies only take on straight forward cleaning jobs where they can get in and out quickly without fear of complications.

Cleaning an Indian Orange Slate Floor

The floor was in reasonable condition and had simply dulled as the sealer had worn down over time and dirt became trapped in the pores of the tile and grout.

Indian Orange Slate Floor Before Cleaning

We cleaned the floor using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean Tile and Grout cleaner in conjunction with a scrubbing machine fitted with a black pad. This removed the old sealers and was followed with a thorough deep clean using our powerful truck mount high pressure cleaning machine to remove any residue soils and sealers etc.

Sealing an Indian Orange Slate

We left the floor for a couple of hours to dry and then we sealed it with six coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is an ideal sealer for slate floors. We left the floor for thirty minutes in-between coats to allow it to dry. Once that was complete we attached a white pad to our buffing machine and polished the floor in order to harden the sealer and bring out the shine.

Indian Orange Slate Floor After Cleaning

The effects was quite dramatic and the customer who was obviously pleased with the results commented “Wow look at my beautiful floor, what a difference thank you very much for such a good professional job”.

Restoration of Orange Slate Floor in London

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Drive Cleaning Surrey

Woking Tile Cleaning, Work History / Rupert Mcloud

Drive Cleaning in Banstead, Surrey

Let’s witness how the experts did the drive cleaning in Banstead Surrey. Having cleaned a customers Stone Kitchen floor, we were asked if we could also take a look at their block paved driveway; we don’t generally get a lot of requests of this nature however we have all the tools and products to clean most surfaces so cleaning patios and brick paved driveways isn’t a problem.

Processing the drive cleaning

The process was quite straight forward and involved pre-soaking the driveway with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, it’s a versatile cleaner that equally effective of Brick as well as Tile, Grout and Stone; being an alkaline cleaner it has the added advantage that it doesn’t cause damage to the surface that acid cleaners can.

The Pro-Clean was left to dwell on the brick pavers for a good two hours before following up with a high pressure professional jet washing machine which did a great job dislodging unwanted grass and soils that had built up on the surface over time, you can see from the photographs what a difference it made. Drive cleaning in Surrey has proved that there is not much problem when it comes to tile cleaning.

Success of a drive cleaning in Surrey by Tile Doctor Paul Scott

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Courtyard Cleaning

Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Woking Tile Cleaning, Work History / Rupert Mcloud

Surrey Courtyard Cleaning

Please read Cleaning Terracotta Floors before you proceed on this post.

Courtyard Cleaning Method

At the request of the customer we returned to the property to clean the courtyard area, which we deep cleaned with a jet wash machine and Tile Doctor Pro-clean solution. We started by mixing the Pro-clean with water and spread it over the surface scrubbing it with a black scrubbing pad on our rotary machine. This was left to dwell for 30 minutes then we fitted our patio spinner to our jet wash and thoroughly cleaned and rinsed the complete area.


Courtyard Cleaning

Once again the customer was absolutely delighted with the result and as a result they now want me to maintain their floors on a yearly basis. They have also asked me to clean some other stone, wood and carpeted areas in their property, which will be done later this year.

The customer’s comments were:

“Thanks again Paul for another amazing job, we will be in touch soon with our next project for you to do, we now know that your standard of work is excellent and that you are honest, trustworthy and very hard working.”

Courtyard Cleaning in Surrey

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Cleaning Terracotta Floors

Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Woking Tile Cleaning, Work History / Rupert Mcloud

Cleaning Terracotta Floors in Surrey

This customer had a terracotta tiled floor in the kitchen, utility room and toilet, which hadn’t been sealed for 8 years and was was in needed of restoration. On full inspection we also found that there was loose and missing grout some of which was in different colours.

Cleaning Terracotta Floors in the Kitchen

Terracotta Floor Cleaning in the Kitchen

The tiles were also stained with olive oil from cooking spillages.

Cleaning Terracotta Floors

We started the cleaning process by giving the terracotta floor a deep clean by using Tile Doctor Pro-clean agitated with scrubbing with deck brushes to remove soil build-up and old sealer residue. We then thoroughly rinsed the floor using our truck mounted machine and spinner tool. Cleaning Terracotta Floors can be difficult and we experienced difficulty removing the oil stains from the tile as terracotta is very porous and had absorbed the oil like a sponge.

We then applied Tile Doctor Remove and Go to the stained areas then sprayed with a light spray of water to help keep it moist and stop it drying out, we left this solution on the tiles for 90 minutes. After the dwelling time we steamed the floor as we rinsed off the Remove and Go. The next step was to rinse the complete floor with our truck mount cleaning system and a tile cleaning spinner tool. This thoroughly rinses and thoroughly cleans the floor with very hot water and high pressure.

Next we had to then tackle the grout problem, so we removed all loose and old grout, where needed and re-grouted the floor. This was left to for 48 hours to completely dry.

Sealing Terracotta Floors

Terracotta is very porous and for this floor we applied 8 coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go, leaving it to dry for 40 minutes between each coat. We returned the following day and re-coloured the grout with Tile Doctor beige grout re-colourant. This was then left to dry and a further 3 coats of Seal and Go applied.

Once this had dried we buffed the floor to harden the sealer and polish it. We used a white buffing pad fitted to a rotary cleaning and polishing machine to bring out the shine on the floor as shown in the pictures below:

The customer was on holiday when we carried out the work, we had been dealing with the manager of the property, who when the customer returned was made to phone me, so the customer could thank me personally.

The customer’s comments were:

“I can’t believe how nice our floor looks and never thought it could look so good! “

They spoke to the manager of their property and have asked him to arrange with me another appointment as they wanted me to clean their courtyard area as well as they were absolutely delighted with their terracotta floors.

Cleaning Terracotta Floors in Surrey

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Tile Doctor – Showing The Results of Cleaning Slate on a Client’s Patio

Slate Tile Cleaning, Woking Tile Cleaning, Work History / Rupert Mcloud

Wonders in cleaning slate made by Tile Doctor experts

Photographs below of a Slate Patio we recently restored. The customer had another company come in to clean and seal them but they used the wrong product and it turned white and the sealer went patchy.

Process of cleaning slate and its restoration

We stripped of all old sealer using Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is a great multi-purpose product that will remove most sealers and coatings.

After a thorough rinse and wash down with water the was resealed using Colour Grow which not being water based is ideal for external applications and ideal for bringing out the natural beauty in slate. The customer was so pleased with the work he is inviting back every 6 months to maintain it.