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.
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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.
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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.