tile repair

Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor Restoration Lytham St Annes

Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor Rebuild in Lytham St Annes

I visited this property in Lytham St Annes to survey a small Victorian tiled lobby which was in a sorry state. The client was keen to have it restored and wanted to know if it was possible. I discussed with them what we could do, and I gave them a quote for the work. Although it was only a small lobby, I could see the job could be quite involved and would be subject to the replacement tiles which I was confident we could source.

Victorian Tiled Lobby Before Rebuild Lytham St Annes

Repairing a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

This is one of those jobs you wish you hadn’t started as there were a lot more tiles to remove than anticipated and it mushroomed into replacing half the floor. Once the area was cleaned up, I applied a self-levelling compound to bring up the height of the base.

Victorian Tiled Lobby During Rebuild Lytham St Annes

Once the levelling compound had set, I was able relay the Victorian tiles using a combination of original tiles and replacements which had to be cut to shape. Cutting tiles to fit is quite intricate and time-consuming work especially when you consider new tiles are all metric in size and a 2mm difference becomes very telling after a foot or so! My solution was to use 150 mm tiles which are the biggest the stockist offers and then cut them down on my Rubi cutter using a template made from the original tiles. This the only way I could get it to look tight, it takes longer but it makes for a thorough job and a better finish.

Victorian Tiled Lobby During Rebuild Lytham St Annes

I always use flexible floor adhesive when laying tiles, my preference is Keraquick Grey from Mapei. There are other brands off course but this one is quite easy to get hold of and as the term grouting is a relatively modern invention (in the past it was called pointing ) I find it looks right with this type of tile and similar to the screed cement the Victorians used in the past.

Deep Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

After the tiling had been completed, I left the floor to cure and fully dry and returned at a later date to give the floor an overall clean. For this I ran a coarse 200-grit diamond floor pad across the floor lubricated with water and used handheld diamond blocks for the edges where the pad can’t reach. The slurry was rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

With old floors like this, which don’t have a damp-proof membrane installed under the floor, efflorescence is always a concern and can lead to white salts appearing on the surface of the tile as moisture rises through the floor. To counter this, I finished cleaning the floor by scrubbing it with Tile Doctor Acid Gel. This was then rinsed off with water and the soil extracted using a wet vacuum.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

The client was happy to seal the floor themselves (they wanted to save some money and it wasn’t a big area) so I supplied them with a bottle of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. I recommended this sealer as it will enhance the dark colours and being fully breathable it will cope with any moisture rising through the base. I recommended they apply two coats to start leaving time to allow the first coast to dry they could also then decide to leave it at that if they were happy with the finish.

Victorian Tiled Lobby After Rebuild Lytham St Annes

 

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in Lancashire

Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor Rebuild in Lytham St Annes Read More »

Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before After Restoration Lancaster

Victorian Floor Tile Restoration Lancaster

We often get asked to restore old Victorian tiled floors which are generally over 100 to 150 years old and as I’m sure you can imagine they experience a lot of wear over that length of time.

Victorian floor tiles before restoration Lancaster

We recently visited a property with such a floor in Lancaster after the client got in touch looking to have their hallway floor tiles restored. We arrived to inspect the floor and could see straight away that it was looking a little tired and in need of care and attention. Some tiles had become loose and had broken apart, especially around the doorways. Also, this floor had suffered from subsidence in the past and this had created a crack line near the top end of the hallway which pushed up several of the tiles. We went through what could be done to restore it, the client agreed a price and we arranged a time to come back.

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

My first task was to take the loose tiles up, grind the concrete screed back so it was as level as we could make it and then we needed to refit the tiles. Once all loose tiles were fixed, we left them to dry and cure.

Victorian floor tiles during restoration Lancaster

We then came back to start the main clean of the floor, we used Tile Doctor Diamond Burnishing pads for this, which bite in deep to the clay face and remove ingrained dirt far better than conventional alkaline cleaners can. We used a series of different grades of these diamond pads to get the finish we required and then rinsed with clean water once were finished, removing the slurry created with a wet vacuum.

Any areas we couldn’t reach with our weighted buffing machines we had to get on our hands and knees and use small handheld Diamond Blocks, using a bit of clean water and elbow grease, this is especially good on intricate edges and around doors and corners.

Victorian floor tiles during restoration Lancaster

The floor was given a quick rinse with water to remove any remaining clay resin and soil generated by the burnishing process. A wet vacuum is then used to extract the soil and remove as much moisture from the floor before being left to dry off fully overnight.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Before we seal the Victorian Tiles, they looked very dull and washed out however this all changes once we apply the sealer. We checked the moisture levels in the floor which were fine. Our favourite sealer for this type of tile is called Tile Doctor Colour Grow, this is a fully breathable sealer which restores the colour lost in the cleaning process and allows for the floor to breathe, which is an absolutely necesity on an old floor without a Damp Proof Membrane where Efflorescence can be an problem.

Tile Doctor Colour Grow is an impregnating sealer that works by occupying the pores in the tile, so dirt cannot become ingrained there. It leaves a matt finish and enhances the colours in the tile bringing them to life, as you will see on the photos.

Victorian floor tiles after restoration Lancaster

For aftercare we always advise our customers to use Tile Doctor pH Neutral tile cleaner as it’s specially designed for cleaning sealed surfaces without damaging the sealer like cheap supermarket cleaners that contain anionic surfactants.

The client was very pleased with the restoration of her floor which is now in good physical condition and looks much brighter.

 

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in Lancashire

Victorian Floor Tile Restoration Lancaster Read More »

Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet

Victorian Floor in Lancaster

Victorian Floor Restoration in Lancaster

Details below of a Victorian Floor in the hallway of a house in Lancaster which the owner wanted restoring after it was discovered in poor condition under a carpet.

Removing the Carpet from the Victorian Floor

We removed the old carpet and applied a 50/50 mix of Remove and Go and Nanotech Ultra-clean which we left to soak for a couple of hours. We then cleaned the floor with a Steamer to remove all the dirt and muck and get any old sealer and waxes etc. to rise to the surface ready for a final rinse down.

Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet Victorian Floor Exposed under carpet
Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after Carpet Removal

Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet

A number of Victorian Tiles where either broken or missing so some tiling work was in order before work could continue.

Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after cleaning Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after Sealing

Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after cleaning and then sealing

Sealing the Victorian Floor

The floor was cleaned again for a final time and left to dry thoroughly before applying the sealer. For Victorian Floors we always recommend Seal and Go which is a water based sealer and gives a nice low sheen, provides definition and lifts the colours to the surface.

Victorian Floor Restoration in Lancaster

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Jerusalem Limestone Floor After Cleaning by Tile Doctor Lancashire

Jerusalem Limestone Floor in Whalley, Lancashire

Few pictures below of a Jerusalem Limestone Floor refresh that we did in Whalley, Lancashire; hopefully you can see the improvement in the photographs.

The first photograph below shows a crack in one of the Limestone floor tiles.

Jerusalem Limestone before and after repair by Tile Doctor Lancashire
Jerusalem Limestone Before and after Repair

To repair the crack we applied Mapei Ultra-Color thinly grained Grout using the Jasmine 130 colour and spread on the Tiles, polished off with a sponge and then allowed to dry.

Jerusalem Limestone Floor Before Cleaning by Tile Doctor Lancashire
Jerusalem Limestone Floor Before Cleaning

To polish the floor we used a Green Burnishing Pad and then sealed using Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour intensifying sealer that provides durable surface protection as well as allowing the surface to breath.

Jerusalem Limestone Floor After Cleaning by Tile Doctor Lancashire
Jerusalem Limestone Floor After Cleaning

Needless to say the customer was very pleased with the results

Jerusalem Limestone Floor in Whalley, Lancashire Read More »

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