Anti Slip for Tile at the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield

Anti Slip Tile Treatment for the Main Entrance at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield

The Millennium Galleries opened in 2001, is one of four Sheffield museums which collectively have over a million visitors every year. The museum hosts a number of Events and Exhibitions including permanent collections from Victorian writer John Ruskin and Metalwork, Sheffield being world famous for its metalworking past.

The museum buildings manager was concerned about slipping on the floor tiles in the main entrance lobby covering approx 144m2, the tiles are of a high gloss porcelain variety which are by their nature slippery when wet. We gladly responded to the request and applied the Tile Doctor Anti-Slip treatment to a small area so they could see for themselves how effective the treatment is. The solution we use is not an Anti Slip coating but an invisible treatment which only becomes active when wet. The management team soon came back with a positive response and gave us the green light to complete the remainder of the floor.

Millennium Galleries main entrance showing application of Tile Doctor Anti Slip — Millennium Galleries, Sheffield and Tile Doctor Anti Slip

Before applying the Anti Slip treatment we cleaned the floor using Anti-slip Pre-cleaner diluted 1 part cleaner to 4 parts water, this was applied using a slow speed buffing machine fitted with a black buffing pad and then the floor was rinsed with water and left to dry for 30 minutes.

Once dry the Anti-slip solution was applied neat using a pump action spray, this was then worked into the tiles using a deck brush taking care to avoid splashing any exposed metalwork or glass. After 4 to 5 minutes the Lock-in solution was applied again diluted 1 part solution to 4 parts water and applied directly on top of the Anti-slip solution, this was worked into the tile using a black buffing pad. We used a low speed Victor Trojan Buffing machine to do this, the low speed reduces splashing.

Millennium Galleries Floor Treated with Anti Sip treatment

The last step was to polish the floor with a white buffing pad and wash down with clean water to neutralise any remaining anti slip solution which was then removed with a Wet and Dry Vacuum.

The building manager was very happy with results and left the following message: The anti-slip treatment provided by the Tile Doctor is proving a complete success. The floor area treated which was rapidly resembling skating area where on wet days upwards of 75 people suffered slips has been transformed to a pedestrian friendly surface

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Flagstone Floor in a Victorian House in Lancaster

Restoration of Flagstone Floor in the Kitchen

Details of an original Flagstone Floor cleaning job below from a Victorian House in the City of Lancaster, we often find flagstone floor tiles in kitchens and hallways and in this case they were in the hallway. You can see from the photographs below that the flagstone floor tiles were in a very bad state and it became clear that no amount of cleaning was really going to remove the decades of trapped dirt embedded in the pores of the Sandstone.

Cleaning the Flagstone Floor

To get over this problem it was necessary to remove the top surface of the flagstone using a milling pad together with a small amount of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. The flagstones were then washed down with water which was then removed using a wet and dry vax machine. There was no damp proof course under the tiles so I left it to dry for a week before coming back to seal.

Sealing and Restoration of Flagstone Floor

The milling process had opened up the pores in the sandstone flagstone floor tile so to seal it I used 1 coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow in order to bring out the colour in the stone and then topped this off wth a further 3 coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go.

Flagstone Floor Restoration in Lancaster

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Victorian Floor in Lancaster

Lancaster Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

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 Exposed under carpet — 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 and then sealing

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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Lancaster Grout Colouring

Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Lancaster Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

Grout Colouring a Ceramic Floor in Lancaster

Here are some details of a small 4m2 Tile Cleaning and Grout Colouring job we did in a shower room in Lancaster. The tiles were recently laid and unfortunately the 5mm wide grout had discoloured because the tiler had used the same bucket to mix the adhesive with and some of the remnants from that had got into the grout mix. If the tiler had used a separate bucket this wouldn’t have happened. The tiler didn’t know what to do to rectify the problem so Tile Doctor got the call. He had done a good job on the rest of the bathroom and the customer didn’t want to upset him over it any further so she was quite happy to pay me to sort the problem out, as long as it didn’t look false.

Ceramic Tiled Bathroom floor before Grout Colouring — Before Grout Colouring

First I cleaned the grout with the pre-treater spray that comes with the kit and washed off the excess with water. Although the directions recommend leaving the grout to dry for 2 hours I left it for 30 minutes followed by a blast from my heat gun to dry any dark wet spots, this speeds up the process immensely.

Applying the Grout Colouring

Next I applied the Grout Colourant, fortunately the tiles were ceramic and the excess grout colourant came off the tiles very easily where I had got some on by accident. The kit came with a special white abrasive cloth which is excellent at removing excess grout colourant from the tiles. I often find unglazed tiles or stone and even some porcelain tiles are slightly porous on the surface and if the grout colourant gets on to these tiles then it can be quite hard to get off. I find it’s always best to do a test first on a couple of rows, if you get any on the tiles, don’t leave it on for more than 10 to 15 minutes as it sets very hard. Porous stones should always be sealed beforehand as it will make them a lot easier to clean. Its worth noting that the Grout Colourant acts as a barrier and so will never need to be sealed, it’s also completely washable.

Grout Colouring a Ceramic Tiled Bathroom floor in Lancaster

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Victorian Floor restoration with Uri Geller

Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

Uri Geller calls in Tile Doctor to Restore a Victorian Floor

Tile Doctor Tile Cleaning a Victorian floor for Uri Geller

As a Designer Uri Geller invited Tile Doctor along to a House he has been asked to help out with using his own creative ideas, We gladly helped to refurbish the Old Victorian floor Tiles that are original to the house using great care and skill and replace some broken ones that have lifted over the Years.

He was so impressed with the results that he kindly provided the above Video Testimonial. While I was there he also bent my House Key, but unfortunately we couldn’t get this on camera due to his contract with Warner Bros, who am I to argue with that. I can say there was no trickery involved as I was as skeptical as anyone else out there, but he bent it using an index finger and holding the key on a flat floor and just rubbing it with his finger for about 5 seconds, very impressed, so it means quite something to me that he is impressed with my work as well.

Please note Tile Doctor don’t just cover Residential property and interior designers we also provide Tile Cleaning services to facility managers, general contractors, as well as the numerous tile contractors and cleaning companies that use our services and products everyday. Unlike other tile cleaning companies we cover a broad ranges of tiled surfaces including Ceramic, Granite, Limestone, Marble, Porcelain, Quarry, Sandstone, Slate, Terracotta And Victorian Floor Tiles.

Victorian Floor Tile Cleaning Specialists

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Jerusalem Limestone Floor After Cleaning by Tile Doctor Lancashire

Jerusalem Limestone Floor in Whalley, Lancashire

Grout Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Work History / Russell Taylor

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.

Needless to say the customer was very pleased with the results

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Oyster Quartzite Kitchen Floor Tiles Cleaned

Work History / Russell Taylor

Recently cleaned a tiled kitchen floor which had been laid with Oyster Quartzite tiles, these tiles come from a fine grained rock formed from layers of clay and shale deposits producing a textured finish which although hard wearing can over time allow dirt to get stuck into the grooves.

Oyster Quartzite Tiles before Cleaning by Tile Doctor Lancashire — Oyster Quartzite Tiles before Cleaning

To get the floor clean I used Tile Doctor Remove and Go mixed 50/50 with Tile Doctor Nano-Tech and then left it for an hour to soak. after this time had elapsed I used a Spinner rotary pressure cleaning tool followed with a Wet Vacuum to clean and remove the old sealer and dirt.

Oyster Quartzite Tiles After Cleaning by the Lancashire Tile Doctor — Oyster Quartzite Tiles After Cleaning

The effect was very pleasing to the eye but the process does require the use of a lot of water though so prior to starting I used clear silicone to secure the kitchen unit kicking boards and avoid water ingress into the wood.

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Terracotta Floor After Cleaning and Sealing

Terracotta Floor Cleaned and Sealed

Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

Terracotta Tiles cleaned With Tile Doctor Pro-clean and 2 Black Buffing pads, there were some awkward stains in corners and such so I used Remove and Go and some Nano-scrub cleaner on these, but only after they had been pre-wetted first otherwise Remove and Go is hard to get out of the clay.

Terracotta Floor Before Cleaning and Sealing

Lots of Rinsing with water, left to dry overnight and came back the next day to Seal, turned the heating up, opened a couple of small windows front and back to allow for some Airflow and then started to apply 9 coats of Seal and Go with a Paint pad, this took all day, so quite a bit of waiting around, good time to catch up on my paperwork in the van in between sealer drying times.

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Victorian Floor Restoration

Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

You can see from the pictures, the floor had been covered first old plastic vinyl which had been glued down with a strong adhesive and then later with a carpet.

Victorian Floor Covered in Carpet and Lino

The customer had tried removing the vinyl themselves to reveal the real floor but gave up after eight hours and called in Tile Doctor.

Removing the Vinyl was arduous work and care was required not to damage the floor underneath. Naturally we managed and then had to contend with the rubber matting that the vinyl was stuck to and this proved to be even harder to lift.

Removing the Lino glued to a Victorian Floor

To remove the rubber matting and adhesive the whole floor had to be covered with a special product that breaks down the glue. Once the rubber had been disposed of we got down to cleaning the floor and removed any remaining stubborn marks.

The revealed floor looked dull so we then sealed it using Tile Doctor Seal and Go which really brought out the colour.

As you can see from the comment below the customer was ecstatic with the result.

“Just got the second e-mail with the photos – they are great and really show how much hard work went into the job. As I said we did get several “Tile Experts” in to look at the job and they wouldn’t touch the lino, so well done done and many thanks again – would definately recommend you to prospective customers. Regards John.”

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Painted Slate Floor Restored

Grout Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

Recently restored a Slate floor in a kitchen which was covered in paint, grout haze and cement. The answer was to mill the slate which got rid of the paint and the roughness of the slate and 90%of the Grout haze.

Painted Slate Floor before Restoration by Tile Doctor Lancashire

We used Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up to remove the remaining grout haze, rinsed the tiles down with water and then left them to dry overnight. Once dry (the next day) we applied 5 coats of Tile Doctor seal and Go, which gave them a sheen and lifted the deep colour in the Slate, which had not been diversely afftected by the use of the Milling pads but instead help to lift the colour out of the Slate instead, this system works equally well with Sandstone.

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Lancashire Tile Doctor

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