This property in Telford had been purchased six months earlier with a view to refurbishing it and had recently started to get it back in shape. The history of the Travertine tiled floor was unknown but there was evidence of the wrong kind of maintenance as the legs of the kitchen cabinet was blown by excess moisture. The new owner did mention that the previous owner had three teenage children and I suspect keeping the floor maintained properly was probably not a priority.
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Cleaning Travertine Tiles
The first step was to give the floor a general wash to remove any grit and the grout clean so we started by applying a mild dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was spread over the floor with particular attention paid to getting the solution into the grout lines. The solution was left to dwell for 10 minutes in order for it to soak in and eat through any dirt and existing sealer; we then used a stiff grout brush to scrub each and every grout line. Next we removed any trace of product by using a wet vacuum and rinsing thoroughly with clean water.
The next step was to use our diamond encrusted burnishing pads which attach to a rotary machine and burnish the floor with four different grits from coarse to super fine. First using course pad number 1 we put some clean water on the floor and using our rotary machine slowly burnished the area making sure that we passed over each tile 4 times, this coarse pad cuts into the surface grime of the floor and also removes sealers. The resultant soiled water is rinsed away with clean water which in turn is removed using a wet vacuum. This process is then repeated with the remaining pads, rinsing between each pad until a nice polish is built up on the tile. The floor is then given a final rinse and once we were satisfied that all the slurry had been removed we left the floor to dry overnight.
Cleaning Travertine and Limestone Tiles
When I returned the floor was tested using a damp meter to make sure the Travertine had dried sufficiently for sealing. It had so I started to seal it using a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that will occupy the pores in the stone to prevent other contaminates getting in there, Colour Grow also brings out the colours in the stone.
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It’s tricky to capture all of this with photographs although you should be able to see the shine now the polish has been restored, the main thing is the customer was very happy with the results and was kind enough to leave the following message.
“We moved into a house with very unloved travertine tiles in the kitchen, bathroom and WC. We were really impressed with Jozsef. He was friendly, knowledgeable and conscientious. He was up front with us about what could be achieved with the tiles and we are very pleased with the results. He worked efficiently, was tidy, prompt and mindful of our very young children. We would definitely recommend Jozsef.”
To create a deeper hard wearing shine on hard stone floors such as Travertine and Marble you can apply Tile Doctor Crystallising Shine Powder.