Renovating a Victorian Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor in Hale Barns

The pictures below are of an old Quarry Tiled Floor in the Kitchen of a property in Hale Barns that date back to the Victorian era. The clients had tried to clean the tiles themselves but struggled to achieve a satisfactory result and thus decided to call Tile Doctor to have the floor professionally restored.

Close to the Trafford market town of Altrincham, Hale Barns village has a long history with many older properties with classic floors that need a lot of care and attention to keep them looking good.

I went over to survey the floor and could see that as well as the usual build-up of ingrained dirt they had also some marks from decorating and plastering which can be hard to remove.
I demonstrated the cleaning method I had planned to use on a small are of the floor which responded well to the treatment. They were happy to proceed with my quote and we booked the job in.

Deep Cleaning a Victorian Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

My process was to give the floor a good scrub with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go which is designed to remove old sealers and other coatings. This was initially scrubbed in with a stiff brush and then I followed this with the application of a coarse 200-Grit milling pad. These pads are made from industrial diamonds and being very coarse they really cut through the dirt.

The paint and plaster was a real struggle to remove, I spent a lot of time dealing with these by hand using small hand-held burnishing blocks working through the 100, 200 and 400-grit in sequence until I got the desired result. A lot of water was added to aid the process of lubrication and rinsing, all liquids were then extracted off the floor with an industrial wet vacuum. The amount of dirt removed was remarkable, but the floor looked great.

I was planning to seal the Quarry tiles the very next day so I left three floor industrial fans in situ overnight to ensure the floor would dry out. These also came in handy the next day to help speed up drying times during the sealing process.

Sealing a Victorian Quarry Tiled Kitchen Floor

It’s not a good idea to apply sealer to a damp floor, for best results it needs to be dry. With that in mind when I returned the next day, I started by taking moisture readings from the floor with a damp meter. I am pleased to say the fans had done their job and the floor was dry so I was able to press on with sealing the floor with the application of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is an impregnating colour intensifying sealer which provides durable protection as well as allowing the tile to breath which is an important consideration when working in older properties. Several coats were applied and true to its name the deep orange/red colours in the Quarry tiles really stood out.

By the time I had finished the floor looked great and my client was over the moon with their newly restored Quarry tiled floor. For aftercare cleaning I recommended they use the Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner. It is pH neutral tile cleaner that will not degrade the new sealer which is important as many supermarket cleaning products are simply too strong for use on sealed tiles. (Always check the label!)

 

Professional Restoration of a Quarry Tiled Kitchen in East Cheshire