Porcelain Tile Cleaning Archives - North Buckinghamshire Tile Doctor

Porcelain Kitchen Grout Before and After Colouring in Leighton Buzzard

Porcelain Tiled Kitchen and Hallway Refresh in Leighton Buzzard

This Porcelain tiled floor had been laid in the hallway and kitchen of a house in Leighton Buzzard five to six years earlier. During that time the floor had become very dirty and the grout was discoloured to the point where it had turned black and no matter how hard the customer tried they were unable to get the grout clean.

On my initial visit to the property we discussed the options with the customer and decided that the best thing to do would be to thoroughly clean the grout and then seal it with grout colorant saving a messy and costly replacement of the grout.

Hallway Porcelian Tile and Grout Before Cleaning Leighton Buzzard

Cleaning Porcelain Tiles and Grout

To get the porcelain tiles clean and deal with the worst of the grout I treated the floor with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. The product was mopped onto the floor and then left to dwell for 20 minutes. It was then scrubbed into the tiles with a black pad fitted to a rotary machine running on a slow speed. I also ran a stiff grout brush along the grout lines to get the grout as clean as possible.

The floor was then rinsed with water under high pressure and the slurry extracted using a wet vacuum. As we were grout colouring later I gave the grout a further scrub using Grout Colourant Pre-Treater which ensures a better bond between the grout and the colourant, this was then rinsed off with more water and also extracted using the wet vacuum.

Kitchen Porcelain Tile and Grout After Cleaning Before Grout Colouring Leighton Buzzard

Re-Colouring Grout

Once the grout was dry I started applying the Grout Colourant in a colour that best matched the original grout and colour of the tile. The process is quite straight forward and involves using a small brush to carefully apply the colorant along each grout line. When I was finished, I made sure to clean any excess product off the tiles before it had time to dry.

Kitchen Porcelain Tile and Grout After Cleaning and Grout Colouring Leighton Buzzard

My photographs probably don’t do the floor justice but hopefully you can appreciate how the grout is now uniform in colour and with the protection of the grout colourant which forms a barrier over the grout it will stay that way for a long time to come.

Restoring the Appearance of Porcelain Tile and Grout in Buckinghamshire

Porcelain Tiled Kitchen and Hallway Refresh in Leighton Buzzard Read More »

Tile Cleaning and Grout Re-Colouring of a Porcelain Tiled Kitchen in Buckingham

1 Comment / Buckingham Tile Cleaning, Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jack Day / buckingham, grout colouring, kitchen, north buckinghamshire, porcelain tiles, tile cleaning

Grout is an incredibly important feature of tiled floors, not just from a structural perspective, but from an aesthetic perspective too. If the grout lines are dirty and stained, it ruins the overall look of the floor. It’s important to try and keep them clean, but with grout being rough in nature it does attract dirt and if left un-checked it can easily get to the point where cleaning becomes very difficult.

A good case in point was this Porcelain tiled kitchen floor at a property in the historic university town of Buckingham. The floor had been installed approximately eight years prior and while during this time the property owner had made the best efforts to keep the tiles clean, the dirt and grime had begun to build up – particularly in the grout lines.

I visited the property to see what could be done, starting with an initial test clean with a strong solution of our high alkaline cleaner, Tile Doctor Pro Clean. The tiles came up beautifully, but due to the extreme porosity of the grout, some of the dirt had been absorbed too deeply into the grout to get it completely clean.

Porcelain Floor Before Cleaning in Buckingham

The customer was worried that this would mean ripping all the grout out and re-grouting, which is a messy and time consuming process. As an alternative, I advised him that recolouring the grout would be the better option, using one of the excellent grout colorants made by Tile Doctor which are available in ten popular colours.

These products not only restore a clean and uniform appearance to the grout, they also provide a waterproof barrier which prevents any dirt and grime from penetrating the grout in the future. The recolouring process is a relatively quick, affordable, and a tidy alternative to re-grouting.

Cleaning Porcelain Tiles and Grout

Impressed by the efficiency of the Pro Clean product and the cleanliness of the test patch, the customer requested that we go ahead and deep clean the tiles and re-colour the grout.

The work took two days. On the first day, we deep cleaned all the tiles and grout using the same strong solution of Pro-Clean. The solution was applied to the floor and left to dwell for approximately ten minutes and from there I used a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad to loosen the soil from the tiles.

Once the floor had been thoroughly scrubbed, I used our wet pick up and rinsing machine to remove all the dirty water, and rinse the floor with clean water.

Porcelain Floor During Cleaning in Buckingham

Next we moved on to cleaning the grout. I started by applying Tile Doctor Pre-Treatment Cleaner and left it for approximately 15 minutes before scrubbing it in by hand using a stiff grout brush.

This process serves two purposes: firstly, it helps to remove as much dirt as possible from the grout lines prior to re-colouring and secondly, the acidity in the product etches the grout slightly, helping to make a better bond with the Grout Colourant.

Once the process was complete, I rinsed and dried the floor one more time and left it to dry off overnight.

Recolouring Grout

The next morning, I returned to colour and seal the grout with an Ivory Grout Colourant as selected by the customer. The process is quite straight forward and involves using a small brush to carefully apply the colorant along each grout line. When I was finished, I made sure to clean any excess product off the tiles before it had time to dry.

Finally, I buffed the floor with a fine white buffing pad, leaving the tiles looking clean and fresh, with the grout uniform. The customer was absolutely delighted with the service and the results.

Porcelain Floor After Cleaning in Buckingham

Restoring the Appearance of Porcelain Tile and Grout in a Buckinghamshire Kitchen

Tile Cleaning and Grout Re-Colouring of a Porcelain Tiled Kitchen in Buckingham Read More »

Cleaning Porcelain Tiles at Luton Flats

Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Work History / Jack Day / cleaning services, deep cleaning, floor maintenance, Luton flats, north buckinghamshire, porcelain floor tiles, tile cleaning, tile restoration, tiled floor

These Porcelain floor tiles had been laid in the hallway of a block of flats in Luton and had seen a fair amount of foot traffic resulting in the usual build-up of dirt and grime making it well overdue for a deep clean.

Cleaning Ceramic Floor Tiles

To clean Porcelain tiles I would normally just apply Tile Doctor Pro-Clean however given the amount of dirt in the tile we needed all the help we could get so the Pro-Clean was mixed 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra Clean which results in the creation of a powerful tile cleaner that contains Nano sized abrasive particles that can penetrate deep into the dirt. The cleaning solution was left to dwell on the surface of the tile for twenty minutes before scrubbing the floor with rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. You could see the dirt coming out of the floor at this point so once the whole floor was scrubbed I switched to a Rotovac machine which applies and removes water at high pressure to remove the soil and rinse the floor at the same time.