Ceramic Tile Cleaning Archives - Northamptonshire Tile Doctor

Ceramic Tiled Floor Before After Tile Grout Cleaning Burton Latimer

Ceramic Tile and Grout Deep Cleaned in a Burton Latimer Kitchen

This customer from Burton Latimer near Kettering was having a new kitchen fitted which would have a different layout to the original. The Ceramic tiled floor was wall to wall and they wanted to see if the tiles could be renovated rather than having to replace them.

Ceramic Tile and Grout During Cleaning in Burton Latimer Kitchen Floor

I attended the customers property to inspect the floor and carry out a test clean on one of the dirtiest ceramic tiles and adjacent grout. The tiles were in a fairly grubby condition and the grout was black with dirt which happens a lot with Ceramic tiled floors. This is due to the ceramic tile being impervious and so the dirt from the tile becomes washed into the grout lines during cleaning.

I carried out the test clean which went well and my customer was impressed; keen to proceed and happy with my quotation the work was booked in. The renovation was scheduled for the day after the old kitchen was removed and before the new kitchen was installed the following week.

Deep Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

To deep clean the tile and grout a strong 1:3 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and warm water was applied to the floor with a pump-up sprayer. The solution was allowed to dwell for several minutes before being worked into the grout using a stiff brush. This was followed up by agitating the solution into the rest of the floor with a rotary floor scrubbing machine fitted with a stiff brush attachment.

Working in sections and removing slurry with a wet pick-up machine. The next process was to apply Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up to all grout lines for a second clean to remove as much stubborn staining as possible. Again, this was worked into the grout with stiff grout brushes. Following this I went over the floor again with a black scrubbing pad attached to the rotary machine. The machines solution tank was filled with water to help lubricate the process and neutralise the floor.

Finally, all the excess water was removed with a wet pick-up machine and the floor was left to dry off overnight.

Sealing Grout on a Ceramic Tiled Floor

I returned the following day to seal the grout, Ceramic tiles won’t take a sealer and as mentioned earlier its best to seal the grout so the dirt remains on the surface and doesn’t get trapped in the rough grout.

After confirmed the floor was dry, I carefully applied Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal to the grout lines using a pipette and then wiping off any excess afterwards.

Ceramic Tile and Grout After Cleaning in Burton Latimer Kitchen Floor

Once done the floor looked new and my client was happy with result, it was a good decision and even more so when you consider the money saved in comparison to replacing the floor.

Deep Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout in Northamptonshire

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Ceramic Tile and Grout Deep Cleaned is a Rushden Sun Room

A customer from Rushden which is a large town in the east side of Northamptonshire, and my home town asked me to take a look at the Ceramic tile and grout in his Sun room. He has a large dog that sleeps on the sofa in this room and over the years the dog has walked in mud which has slowly degraded the grout lines and I suspect had probably never been sealed correctly or sealed at all.

The glazing on Ceramic tile is very resilient so we usually find it’s the grout discolouring that becomes most noticeable first due to the cementitious top layer which can trap dirt. In this case the Ceramic tiles had dulled over the years and as you might expect the white grout lines had become soiled and were almost black in places.

Ceramic Tile and Grout Before Cleaning Rushden Sun Room

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout Before Cleaning Rushden Sun Room

Deep Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

To get the tile and grout clean the floor was first soaked in a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and this was left to dwell for ten minutes. A rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad was then used to scrub the cleaning solution into the tile and release the dirt. The pad can struggle to reach the recessed grout so to ensure this was also clean it was given a good scrub with a narrow stiff brush.

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout During Cleaning Rushden Sun Room

We then used a spinning tool which forces hot water under high pressure onto the floor whilst simultaneously extracting the dirty water with a powerful vacuum. The objective of this action is to power wash the floor whilst rinsing and extracting the dirty cleaning solution at the same time.

We inspected the grout lines and stubborn stains were treated with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up which was scrubbed in with hand brushes, this was then rinsed a second time until we were happy with the results. Grout Clean-Up is an acidic product that is particularly good at removing grout smears which can form a haze over a tile reducing its brilliance.

We then polished the floor with a white buffing pad and allowed the floor to dry overnight before returning the following day to apply Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal to all grout lines.

The furniture was too large and heavy for the customer to move out of the room, which was on a lower level than the rest of the ground floor. As a result, it was necessary to clean the floor in sections moving the furniture around the room on pads as needed.

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout After Cleaning Rushden Sun Room

The Sun room floor look great afterwards, the grout especially looked clean and the sealer should ensure it stays that way for some time to come.