Indian Sandstone Archives - Tile Doctor Lancashire

Indian Sandstone Kitchen Floor Renovation Garstang

Rough Indian Sandstone Floor Milled and Restored in Garstang

Due to the textured nature of the Indian Sandstone tiles installed their kitchen, this client from Garstang was having trouble keeping their stone floor clean. Having decided enough was enough they contacted Tile Doctor to see what could be done to rectify the problem.

I went over to survey the floor and could see dirt was being trapped in the riven surface of the Sandstone and any sealer put there to protect the stone had long since worn off. I find the best solution for rough stone floors like these is to mill the stone with coarse diamond pads thereby removing the grubby surface layer and revealing a new surface underneath. This action also flattens the stone to remove the roughness and makes it easier to maintain.

Indian Sandstone Kitchen Floor Before Cleaning Garstang

I provided a price for milling the stone, cleaning up the grout lines and then applying a new sealer to protect it going forward. Happy with the price, the client arranged to purchase the required products, and we booked in a date for the work to commence. It was only a small 5 m2 area so I was happy that it could be done by one Tile Doctor over a couple of days.

Cleaning and Restoring an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen Floor

To mill the Sandstone, we use a couple of very coarse milling pads of different grades which are applied to the stone with water for lubrication. The pads are fitted to a rotary floor machine to which extra weight is added to ensure a good contact with the stone. The floor was rinsed with water as I progressed, and the soiling generated was extracted with a wet vacuum.

Indian Sandstone Kitchen Floor During Cleaning Garstang

Circular pads do struggle to maintain contact with the edges and especially corners so this is done manually using a set of hand-held diamond blocks. I also scrubbed the grout lines with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to get the lines as clean as possible.

It’s worth noting that Indian Sandstone is full of iron and a lot harder to mill compared to English Sandstone, Flagstone, and Slate etc. As a result, it took most of the first day to complete this stage.

Sealing an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen Floor

Once milled and cleaned I left the sandstone to dry off overnight and then called back the next day to apply the sealer. For this floor we went with Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal which is a breathable oil-based sealer that contains a colour enhancing formula to improve the general appearance of the stone.

Indian Sandstone Kitchen Floor After Cleaning Garstang

What might not be noticeable from the pictures is the smoothness of the stone after it’s been milled, this makes it a lot easier to clean and makes it a lot less absorbent to dirt and muck etc.

The fresh sealer will maintain its appearance for many many years to come and maybe in another 100 years it will need to be milled again.

It always helps to use the right product when cleaning stone after it’s been sealed, so we dropped off a bottle of pH Neutral Cleaner for the client which we call Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner. This will ensure easy maintenance without damaging the sealer.

Professional Restoration of an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen in Lancashire

Rough Indian Sandstone Floor Milled and Restored in Garstang Read More »

Sandstone Patio Floor Before After Renovation in Bolton Le Sands

Black Spot Removed from an Indian Sandstone Patio in Bolton-Le-Sands

1 Comment / Lancaster Tile Cleaning, Sandstone Tile Cleaning, Work by Category, Work by Location, Work History / Russell Taylor

This Indian Sandstone Patio in Bolton-Le-Sands near Lancaster had not been cleaned successfully for several years. Although the owner had power washed it on occasion, that won’t rid you of Black Spot, Mould, Lichen etc and this will build-up over the years. It does clean the stone up to a certain standard but at some point, it will need further treatment.

My client had now reached this point and decided to give Tile Doctor a call to have it renovated. We discussed the Patio which ran around the house and calculated that it measured approximately 60m2. With the measurements and a summary of the issues I was able to work out a quote which they were happy to accept.

Indian Sandstone Patio Before Cleaning in Bolton-Le-Sands

Removing Black Spot from an Indian Sandstone Patio

To improve the appearance of the stone I started by giving it a power wash to remove the general grime and dirt. I used a top of the range Karcher Pressure Washer for this which can apply up to 20 bars of pressure. The machine also comes with a spinner attachment results in a much more even clean than simply using the spray head.

The patio was left to dry for thirty minutes before applying neat Tile Doctor Patio & Brick Driveway Cleaner. Please note this is a very powerful product meant for professional use so if you’re using it always wear gloves and protective glasses. You leave it on the stone for ten minutes or longer before working it in. The directions on the back of the bottle say recommend leaving it for two to four hours, but its general advice. Personally, I find it is best to test the timing on a small inconspicuous area first, leave it on for say ten minutes then add a bit of water, scrub the surface and if the Black Spot disappears then that is all the time you need. If the stain is stubborn, increase the time. The two to four hour recommendation is really for difficult Black Spots that have become ingrained into the stone and then the product needs longer to digest the stain before it can work.

Once that was done, I used the power washer on low pressure to wash the products off the stone and into the sewerage drain, a wet vacuum comes in handy for this. Don’t dispose of it into the grass or planting areas as the strong chemicals in the product could upset them. Many properties have a soak away to capture rainwater from gutters, so you need to make sure it’s the sewage drain you are using.

Indian Sandstone Patio After Cleaning in Bolton-Le-Sands

As you can see on the pictures, this product really does work and got rid of the Black Spot completely. To maintain the patio a regular jet wash was recommended, the household versions are ideal for keeping it clean and tidy.

Due to the size of the Sandstone patio the whole process took around six hours to complete. Once done though the patio looked transformed and was all ready for a barbeque and some guests. Hopefully, it will stop raining long enough for this to happen.

Professional Restoration of an Indian Sandstone Patio in Lancashire

Black Spot Removed from an Indian Sandstone Patio in Bolton-Le-Sands Read More »

Textured Indian Sandstone Before After Grinding Smooth Barnoldswick

Rough Textured Indian Sandstone Grinded Smooth in Barnoldswick

1 Comment / Sandstone Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

The pictures below show a Rough Textured Indian Sandstone floor installed in the Kitchen and Hallway at a property in Bernoldswick which is a small town just outside the Yorkshire Dales national park. The client called us out to have a look at their floor which was very dirty. They were undecided as to what to do with it and were even considering ripping it up and putting a more practical floor down. This Sandstone has a rough texture which traps dirt and can shred mops making it very difficult to maintain so it’s not surprising that the client was close to giving up on it.

Textured Indian Sandstone Before Cleaning Barnoldswick

Initially we were asked just to deep clean and seal the Stone, but I realised that wouldn’t resolve the problem completely, so I offered a service we call Milling. This is a process involves applying coarse diamond pads with special machinery to remove a good chunk of the rough texture (about 80 to 85% ). It would leave the stone with a much smoother finish which is easier to keep clean, easier to seal and a lot easier to maintain in the future.

After a demonstration was done and a price given for either a clean and seal or to Mill first followed by a clean and seal the customer opted for the latter. This would also prove significantly cheaper than ripping up the floor, hiring a skip to take away the stone, then self-levelling the concrete to get it ready for the new floor, not to mention the cost of the new floor covering.

Cleaning and Milling an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen and Hallway Floor

Milling the stone involves the use of a set of thee milling pads of different grades (50, 100 and 200 grit) which are applied in sequence. You start with the coarse and abrasive 50 grit milling pad and follow this by smoothing this surface with the finer 100 and 200 diamond grit milling pads. Water is used to lubricate and capture the dust which is created during the process resulting in a slurry which needs to be rinsed away and extracted with a wet vacuum between each pad. The process requires the use of a solid weighted rotary machine and a fair bit of muscle power to guide it.

As you can see from the pictures the difference is immense but what you can’t tell from these photos is how smooth the stone feels to the touch as its the rough texture of Sandstone that catches all the dirt and makes it hard to clean, even after it has been cleaned and sealed professionally.

To refine the surface of the Sandstone even further the Milling process is followed by the application of finer grade Burnishing pads, again applied with water and the soil rinsed off between each pad. This process uses no chemical cleaning products only water, Diamond pads and machinery.

Sealing an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen and Hallway Floor

After allowing the stone to fully dry out overnight we finished the job with several coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is a colour enhancing impregnating sealer that protects the stone from within. It gave the stone a nice low-key matt colour enhanced finish that really showed off the character in the stone.

Textured Indian Sandstone After Cleaning Barnoldswick

The client was over the moon with the result and were so pleased they had not ripped up the floor!

Professional Restoration of Indian Sandstone Floor in Lancashire

Rough Textured Indian Sandstone Grinded Smooth in Barnoldswick Read More »