Weston Favell

Travertine floor tiles are very appealing and very hardwearing, but without the protection of a sealer to stop dirt becoming ingrained in the pores of the stone their appearance will degrade. Fortunately, this can be remedied as demonstrated in these pictures of a Travertine floor I recently polished at a house in Weston Favell, Northampton.

This owner of the property had called me out as their kitchen floor was looking very sorry for itself and he was concerned that a lot of holes were appearing which was making cleaning the floor difficult as dirt was getting trapped in the holes. I went over and carried out a test clean on two separate tiles in the kitchen and the customer was amazed at how clean they came up and especially the grout.

The kitchen was stunning, but unfortunately the state of the Travertine tiled floor was bringing down its overall appearance. Impressed with the test clean they were keen to get the whole floor renovated so we agreed a price and I scheduled the work in for the following month.

Cleaning and Restoring Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor

I returned on the agreed data and made a start by protecting the kitchen units by removing the plinths and covering base units and the appliances with a protective film. We then commenced the cleaning process to remove surface dirt by cleaning with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean paying special attention to the grout lines. The holes in the Travertine were filled with a stone resin, mixing it to closely match the colours of the stone.

The resin was allowed to dry before starting to re-polish the Travertine using a set of Tile Doctor Diamond encrusted burnishing pads. These pads are applied individually to each tile in sequence starting with a coarse 400-grit pad before moving onto the 800-grit and finishing with the fine 1500 grit pad. A little water is used to lubricate the process along the way and the floor is rinsed in between each pad with the resulting residue extracted from the floor using a wet vacuum. The process takes some time, but it really brings up the polished appearance of the stone and the results are well worth the effort. After a final rinse the floor was inspected and then left to dry off fully overnight.

Sealing a Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor

When we returned the next day, the floor had dried, and we were able to give the floor a final polish with a very fine 3000-grit burnishing pad applied with a little water sprayed onto the tile. Finally, the floor was then sealed with two coats of Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal which provides excellent protection without changing the colour of the stone to provide a natural look.

The client was over the moon with the outcome and surprised at the improvement. They were left with a floor that would be easy to clean and maintain.

 

Professional Restoration of a Travertine Tiled Kitchen Floor in Northamptonshire