Stone Floor Cleaning Hertfordshire

Nothing beats the beauty of a natural stone floor, be it travertine, marble, terracotta, slate, limestone or sandstone. The elegance and durability of stone tiles make them a popular design choice for both residential and commercial properties in the Home Counties. But like all good things it takes a little work to keep stone in good condition. So, what can you do to stop the stone floor in your home or business becoming ingrained with dirt, making it unsightly or unsafe? Thankfully, with the right approach and some expert care most stone floors can be returned to their stunning best and kept that way. Here are some tips from Cornwell Services.

Stone floor cleaning – what to do

Do ensure your natural stone floor is swept and vacuumed frequently so that dirt and grit aren’t allowed to build up and damage the tiles’ surface.

Do take care that the floor is mopped with a damp mop and not a soaking wet one!

Do ensure that specialist stone cleaning products are used as this won’t leave a residue or damage the seal on your tiles.

Do make sure that any accidental spills are cleared up immediately to help to preserve the stone floor.

Do make use of a specialist stone cleaning service since trained professionals have the expertise, equipment and cleaning products to clean, seal and maintain the finish of your stone floor.

Natural stone floors – what to avoid

Don’t allow the floor to be mopped with any cleaner that’s acidic since this will damage natural stone like travertine, marble and limestone. Take care because commonly available tile and grout cleaners often contain acid in the form of lemon juice or vinegar and general cleaning staff may be unaware of this fact.

Don’t allow the use of abrasive cleaners as they can scratch and mark stone tiles.

Don’t allow the use of a vacuum cleaner which has worn or missing wheels when removing dust and dirt, since this can harm the stone’s surface.

Specialist cleaning to restore stone floors

Typically, homeowners and commercial property managers will need specialist help to rescue natural stone floors where the tiles and grout have become dirty and stained over time. Specialist stone floor cleaning technicians like Cornwell Services, know how to approach different types of stone floors and renovate them. These are three approaches a specialist might use:

• Restorative refinishing, including diamond stone polishing for smooth marble floors, and cleaning and repairing grout lines

• Aggressive cleaning with high performance chemicals or poultices to remove paint, adhesives, mould, mildew and ingrained dirt

• Deep cleaning with steam pressure to restore natural colour and condition

Once the stone tiles and grout lines are returned to their natural colours, the stone floor can be resealed by your specialist with a coating that makes it resistant to water, oil, bacteria and dirt. At Cornwell Services we select impregnating or topical sealers dependant on the type of stone and its condition.

Once thoroughly clean and resealed, a six-monthly cleaning routine, using pH neutral products, followed by a top-up seal will normally be sufficient to keep travertine, terracotta and any other stone floor in excellent condition.

Budget-friendly stone cleaning routines

With regular specialist cleaning, you’ll be able to secure better value for money. That’s because regular cleaning will ensure that stone floors can retain their cleanliness, safety and aesthetic appeal for longer. This in turn means that you need less serious intervention resulting in less disruption and a lower cost.

Cornwell Services provide domestic and commercial stone floor cleaning services in Hertfordshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and south-east England.

Contact Saul at Cornwell Services on 07738 022813 to find out more about our specialist stone floor cleaning service or to talk through your stone floor restoration requirements.

We received this job through a local builder who regularly passes work to our Company. As well as building up a steadfast reputation for our services, we also work hard to cement business relationships that offer benefits to our clients.

This client, based in Newmarket, was having a new kitchen installed and wanted the tiled floors to be restored whilst the old kitchen was out and before the new one put in. The stone restoration project also extended into their hallway.

We removed extremely precious and valuable antique furniture from the hallway; this shows evidence of our comprehensive services and the lengths to which we go to, to ensure the best-available service.

The floor tiles were incredibly dirty and covered with an inappropriate seal that not only hid from view the lovely tiles but also prevented moisture from escaping. Selecting the most appropriate stone sealer is vital to the overall success of any stone restoration project.

We spent two long days stripping everything from the floors until we were left with the bare tiles. The floor was then left for a full week to thoroughly dry out before we spent another long day applying several coats of seal to build a waxed-like appearance to the stone floor.

The beauty of using modern, advanced polymer seals, instead of traditional linseed oil and wax is that you get a very resilient finish that looks fantastic. Also the seal can be applied in one day as opposed to several days which keeps the cost to a competitive level.

Our client was so pleased with the results of our hard work; she went on to set up a maintenance programme that has us deep clean and top up the seal on her stone floors once per year so that they remain looking at their best. For more information on cleaning terracotta tiles please call us on 07738022813.

This terracotta floor tiles restoration was for an insurance company. The client had had a burst pipe whilst away on holiday which caused no end of damage, including the wax finish to their terracotta kitchen floor in Cambridge.

Unfortunately, someone without any knowledge and experience in restoring natural stone floors attempted to strip the wax finish off the entire floor using inappropriate methods resulting in not only a job half done, but some of the baked surface of the tiles as well.

It was at this stage where Cornwell Services were asked if we could salvage the  floor as neither the insurance company or the client wanted the trauma of replacing the terracotta floor.

To call this job a challenge would be an understatement, I am surprised I haven’t developed a bald patch after all the head scratching!

Terracotta tiles can be temperamental when water is introduced to it. Being highly absorbent it sucks water in like a sponge and lets it out very slowly. Sometimes, usually on dirtier floors, or where multiple layers of seal or wax that need to be removed, it is necessary to use larger quantities of water to rinse the stripping agents and dirt away which tends to saturate the terracotta. As the floor dries, usually over several days, the terracotta will, in most cases, release salts in the form of white powdery efflorescence (the white stuff you see on bricks). Fortunately it is quite easily removed.

It had taken some time to notice that the pale shiny areas that remained on most tiles were not wax residues but the remnants of the original surface of the stone resulting from the amateur restoration attempt.

Fortunately, these tiles were a flat machine made tile which allowed us to hone the surface of the tile using expensive diamond floor honing discs.

It worked! We were now left with a blank canvas. All we needed now was to allow it to dry and then apply the new finish.

If only it were that easy. Upon drying, and after removing the efflorescence, the tiles had a ‘bloom’ to them. This ‘bloom’ was simply strains of different shades that ran through the terracotta tile, but were not on view through the original baked surface.

We tried colour enhancing impregnators, topical seals, shiny finishes, matt finishes, but none changed this patchy appearance that the clients hated.

It was looking like this job was beating us and would end up having to be ripped up after all.

As a last resort, I suggested going down the old fashioned traditional route and use boiled linseed oil followed with a wax coating. It had to work because once you filled the tile with linseed oil, it’s never coming out again.

It did the trick. The linseed oil darkened the tile to a lovely warm rich colour. Allowing a day or two for each coat to cure it was ready for the final wax coating.

We applied an antiqued beeswax which further enhanced the brown of the tile. After polishing with a machine, the floor looked fabulous.

Mr & Mrs Centa were delighted with their beautiful restored terracotta kitchen floor.

Their terracotta bathroom floor looked pretty good too! Here’s the before and after photos;

Contact Saul for advice on cleaning terracotta tiles.