quarry tiles Archives - Shropshire Tile Doctor

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Restoration Oswestry

Restoring a Kitchen and Utility Quarry Tiled Floor in Oswestry

1 Comment / Oswestry Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Work by Category, Work by Location, Work History / Jozsef Hoffmann

This property in Oswestry was being converted from offices back into a home and I was contracted to renovate the Quarry tiles in the Kitchen. The kitchen had Red and Black Quarry tiles and an ugly piece of concrete sat where the old cooking range was. It did not look good with the new layout of the kitchen, so they wanted the concrete dugout and red and black quarry tiles laid to match the existing. The utility room had the same red and black quarry tiles and the other half had older and larger format quarry tiles which they wanted to keep as a feature.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Oswestry Before Restoration

Cleaning and Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Kitchen and Utility Floor

On day one my first step was to dig out the concrete from the area where the old range had been by breaking it up with a hammer drill fitted with a chisel attachment. The hole in the floor was then brought to the right level using a fibre reinforced levelling compound called Bal level max which sets in four hours. Once set I was able to tile with matching Quarry tiles that the client had provided together with others, I had managed to source from a reclamation yard. This process took up most of the first day and the newly laid tiles were left to set overnight.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Oswestry During Repair

The utility floor was in the worst state and needed the most work. It had previously been covered with a self-levelling compound, probably so it could be covered in Vinyl. I removed the thin compound and then deep cleaned the floor. Apart from the self-levelling compound in the utility area, the entire area had a thick layer of plaster dust and residue from the building process.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Oswestry During Cleaning

To deep clean the Quarry tiles, I gave the floor a good scrub with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and then after extracting the resultant soil with a wet vacuum I followed up with another scrub of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. These products which helped to deal with the plaster dust, the levelling compound, and the cement-based residue. For best results I leave the cleaning products on the tiles for a good ten minutes before scrubbing in with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine. Once done the tiles were rinsed down with water and then the soil was extracted again. In a few areas I needed to repeat the process to get the floor clean.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Oswestry After Cleaning

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Kitchen and Utility Floor

I left the floor to dry off overnight and returned the next day to seal the tiles. The first job was to use the damp meter to ensure the floor was dry enough. If the floor is not dry, then the seal will not cure. I had chosen to seal with Tile Doctor Colour Grow, which is a solvent based sealer which is colour intensifying, it provides durable protection to the surface of the tiles as well as allowing the surface to breath. On this floor the colour of the red and black quarry tiles was really enhanced too. The floor was transformed, and the sealer really helped the old and new tiles blend in.

Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor Oswestry After Sealing

The client was very happy with restoration and couldn’t wait to get the new kitchen completed.

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Kitchen and Utility in Shropshire

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Painted Quarry Tiled Floor Before After Restoration Bayston Hill

Painted Quarry Tiled Floor Restored in Bayston Hill

1 Comment / Quarry Tile Cleaning, Shrewsbury Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jozsef Hoffmann

The pictures shown are of a Quarry Tiled floor in the dining room of a property in Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury. Bayston Hill is a large village in central Shropshire around three miles away from the county town of Shrewsbury.

The client had recently purchased the property and decided to renovate the quarry tiled dining room floor by painting it with red tile paint. The floor had not been painted previously and due to its age did not have a damp-proof membrane installed in the sub floor. I suspect the lack of a membrane led to moisture rising through the tile only to become trapped under the layer of paint. The moisture built-up until it destabilised the bond between the tile and the paint causing to lift and peel away.

Painted Quarry Tile Floor Before Restoration Bayston Hill

I wouldn’t recommend painting a Quarry Tiled floor and clearly painting the tiles was not a viable option in this case. Looking for a solution the owner reached out to Tile Doctor to see if the Quarry tiles could be restored to their original condition. There was also an area by the kitchen door where there was a row of tiles missing in the threshold and just filled with concrete which needed restoring.

Restoring a Quarry Tiled Dining Room Floor

I started the work with the repair which involved removing the concrete, cleaning up the area and relaying replacement tiles. Luckily, they had found spare tiles in one of their sheds, so I was able to use those.

Painted Quarry Tile Floor After Repair Bayston Hill

After the repair was done, I sprayed down a generous amount of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and then left it to work for about half an hour making sure that it wasn’t drying to the surface. After the dwell time I went over the floor with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. The combination of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and the scrubbing action removed most of the paint. I then repeated the process on the stubborn areas.

There were some old cement deposits on the tiles in places which I removed using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. I then rinsed the floor several times with water using a wet vacuum to remove the soil. I then left the floor to dry off for a week.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Dining Room Floor

I returned the following week and first checked the floor was totally dry using a moisture meter. The readings were good, so we were ready to seal. I selected to use a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is a solvent based sealer that provides durable surface protection as well as allowing the surface to breath which is important on this floor as it has no damp proof membrane. It provides a colour intensifying finish which enhanced the natural colour beautifully.

Painted Quarry Tile Floor After Restoration Bayston Hill

The client was very happy with the new floor and certainly pleased to see the back of the paint that they had applied. The floor now had the natural finish that was in keeping with the age of the property.

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Dining Room in Shropshire

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Quarry Tiled Basement Floor Before After Restoration Llangollen

Quarry Tiled Basement Floor Renovated at old Bank in Llangollen

1 Comment / Oswestry Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jozsef Hoffmann

This Quarry Tiled floor was discovered in the basement of the old HSBC Bank building in Llangollen which is a small market town in Denbighshire, Wales. Close to my county of Shropshire, Llangollen is located on edge of the Berwyn mountains on the nestled on the River Dee in an area of outstanding natural beauty and so a lovely place to work.

Basement Quarry Tiled Floor Before restoration Llangollen

After HSBC moved out the property was bought by Whitewater Active who are an outdoor pursuits company that will be using the building as their local base of operations. The company offers a mix of outdoor activities and the property has been converted into accommodation, offices for the business and a cafe.

The area we were interested in was at the basement which they were planning to use as a team meeting room and the owner was keen to have it restored and looking its best for his staff. The floor was tiled with 9″ x 9″ Red and Black quarry tiles which as you can see from the photographs were in a sorry state. The room had a massive fireplace which unfortunately none of my pictures show but the tiles were damaged in front of it as someone at some point had likely used it for chopping firewood. The repair was quoted for, but as neither I nor him were able to source 9″ x 9″ black quarry tiles that were 1 1/2 ” thick, we decided to leave it as it was for now. They were happy with the quote I gave them, and we agreed a date to go ahead.

Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Basement Floor

I gave the floor an initial clean with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was diluted and then sprayed onto the tiles, it was left for ten minutes and then scrubbed in with a black pad fitted to a rotary floor buffer. The resultant slurry was then rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

With the surface dirt removed it was clear that more work was going to be required to remove the plaster dust and concrete residue that marked the tiles. To tackle that I used Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up which is an acidic product that we normally use to remove excess grout. Using the same process as for the Tile Doctor Pro-Clean I had to go over the worst areas three times before I was satisfied the floor was clear and as clean as it could be.

After rinsing and extracting one last time I dried the floor as much as possible with the wet vacuum and left it to completely dry off overnight.

Sealing a Quarry Tiled Basement Floor

The next day I returned, checked the floor was dry with the moisture meter and then sealed the floor with a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is a lovely sealer that enhances the colour, allows the floor to breathe and will also ensures that the floor is well protected. Using a breathable sealer on old floor likes these where no damp proof membrane is installed as it allows moisture from the sub floor to pass through the tile and evaporate. Without the ability to evaporate moisture can build-up and spread to the walls where it can cause rising damp.

Basement Quarry Tiled Floor After restoration Llangollen

As you can see from the after photographs the renovation went very well and the colour change was pretty dramatic. The client was very happy with the transformation and couldn’t wait to get the furniture in and hold his first team meeting.

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Basement Floor in Shropshire

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Black and Red Quarry Tiled Dining Room Before and After Sealing in Shrewsbury

Victorian and Quarry Tiled Floors Restored in Shrewsbury

1 Comment / Quarry Tile Cleaning, Shrewsbury Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jozsef Hoffmann

Details below of a red and black Quarry tiled floor at a house belonging to a customer in the Shropshire market town of Shrewsbury, which dates back to medieval times. The owner had recently moved back to the area and purchased the house with the intention of restoring all its original features including the Quarry tiles floor which had several coats of red floor paint and had been covered with carpet for several years, I guess the previous owner wasn’t sure what else to do with it.

Black and Red Quarry Tiled Dining Room Before Cleaning in Shrewsbury

I was also asked to refurbish the Victorian Tiled hallway and porch which was in an equally neglected state.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Cleaning in Shrewsbury

Naturally this is exactly the sort of thing we do so I was confident the floor could be significantly improved with our assistance and after popping round to take I look provided a quote although due to other priorities it was a whole year later before I was asked to come and do the job.

Cleaning a Quarry Tiled Floor

There was cement based building residue, plaster and efflorescence on the floor so I decided to treat the floor with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go which was left to soak into the tiles for a while before being scrubbed in using a rotary machine fitted with a black pad; the resultant slurry was washed away using more water and a wet vacuum.

The whole process was repeated until I was satisfied that any stubborn areas had been dealt with and then the floor given an acid wash with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up to remove the efflorescence.

Once I was happy with the condition it was given a final rinse to remove any trace of cleaning products and then left to dry for four days.

Sealing a Quarry Floor Sealing

The tiles have to be dry before sealing and after testing the floor with a damp meter I confirmed that four days has been sufficient and the floor was indeed dry. The next step was to apply three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the tile and enhances the natural colour of the tiles in the process.

Black and Red Quarry Tiled Dining Room After Sealing in Shrewsbury

I was able to use the same cleaning and sealing process on both floors and I think you will agree it made quite a difference and both floors have been transformed.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Cleaning in Shrewsbury

Quarry and Victorian Floor Tile restoration in Shropshire

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Modern Quarry Tiled Floor in Nesscliffe Before and After Cleaning

Modern Quarry Tiles Uncovered and Restored in Nesscliffe

1 Comment / Oswestry Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jozsef Hoffmann

This customer had just bought a house in the small Shropshire village of Nesscliffe. Like many new property owners, she was keen to make some changes to the interior decoration, deciding to pull up the carpet they she didn’t like that covered almost the entire ground floor of the house. Upon doing so she and her partner discovered a large area of original Quarry tiles.

Modern quarry tiled floor in Nesscliffe before cleaning

They decided that instead of replacing the carpet with a new one, they would keep the original floor and attempt to restore its condition. However, their efforts to restore the tiles by themselves proved ineffective – many of the cheaper, supermarket cleaning products were not suited for the job of removing years’ worth of dirt and stains.

At that point they decided to call me. I visited the property and ran a test clean to see what could be achieved. The customer was more than happy with the initial results and booked me in to undertake the full restoration.

Cleaning Dirty and Stained Quarry Tiles

The most noticeable problem with the tiles was a series of paint splashes and plaster deposits covering almost the entirety of the floor, the result of previous decoration work and the installation of carpet.

I removed these by applying a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean and working it into the tiles using a scrubbing brush fitted to a rotary machine, with the alkaline cleaner reliably breaking down the stubborn paint splashes.

I then worked the product into the grout lines too using a grout brush. To tackle the plaster and cement-based residue I used Tile Doctor Grout Clean Up, a phosphoric acid cleaner which removes heavy stains.

Following the cleaning, I left the floor to dry for a week to allow for any excess moisture to evaporate.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

On my return to the property I immediately checked whether the floor was dry enough to be sealed. We always do this as excess moisture can very easily effect the performance of the sealer.

Thankfully the floor was completely dry and I was able to seal the tiles using five coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go. Seal & Go is a topical sealer, meaning it builds up a layer of protection again dirt and stains on the surface of the stone. We recommend it for tiles such as Quarry, Victorian and Slate. While offering surface protection it also provides a pleasing low-sheen finish.

Modern quarry tiled floor in Nesscliffe after cleaning

The customer was really pleased with the result. Within a week the newly discovered Quarry tiled floor had been transformed from an apparent lost cause to a real asset to the home of the new property owners.

Professional Quarry Tiled Floor Restoration in Shropshire

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