How to clean and restore historic quarry tile floors

Property owners near Hitchin, Hertfordshire recently called on Cornwell Services for specialist help to clean and restore the quarry tile floor in the dining room of their Georgian property. This stone floor cleaning project was carried out as part of the client’s programme of restoration to preserve the period features of their new home as well as to satisfy the planning requirements for renovations to this historic listed property. Whilst every stone floor cleaning project is different, this case study provides a good guide as to how to restore quarry tile floors in period properties.

The challenge – quarry tile floors

The dining room floor had been laid with traditional red quarry tiles. These tiles would have been made by extrusion or press-forming, with clay tiles fired at high temperatures. The resulting tile is robust with high slip-resistance. But purely due to the age of the quarry tiles – estimated at 200 years or more – they needed specialist treatment to once again look and perform at their best.

The extreme age of the quarry tiles and continued wear and tear over the years had led to them becoming porous. This meant that they had become prone to absorbing dirt, spoiling their appearance. Attempts by previous owners to prevent further tile damage meant that the dirt became sealed in, under waxes and seals.  Unfortunately, since different seals are not compatible with each other, including different brands of the same type of seal, these well-intentioned actions had simply made matters worse.

The client’s requirement – restoring a period stone floor

• To strip the historic stone floor back to the bare quarry tiles.
• To carefully deep clean the floor to remove centuries of dirt and restore the natural colour and appearance of the tiles.
• To apply a new protective seal that would be fit for purpose and extend the lifetime of the quarry tiles.

Cornwell’s approach – stone floor cleaning

To tackle the sealed in grime, we used a high alkaline stripping agent. This worked by dissolving layers of old seals and waxes and lifting out the embedded dirt. Once the ingrained dirt had been removed, the quarry tiles were then thoroughly scrubbed. We did this using diamond impregnated brushes on a heavy-duty rotary floor-cleaning machine to remove surface dirt and debris.

The resulting dirty slurry was rinsed and removed into the waste tank of our van-mounted machine. This ensured that any dirt, wax or minerals can’t be redeposited on the floor surface. With the grit and grime extracted, the stone floor was cleaned again, but this time using an acid-based solution. This was effective in neutralising the alkaline, removing any grout haze or cement residue, and preventing the formation of efflorescence – a milky mineral surface residue that’s common with older quarry tile floors. This approach meant the quarry tiles were in near pristine condition as befits their age.

Drying time after cleaning quarry tiles

Depending upon the porosity of the tile and drying conditions a newly cleaned quarry tile floor can take just a single day to dry out, or it can take two weeks or more to become dry enough to allow the seal to be applied.

Fortunately, the dining room of this Georgian home enjoyed a south facing position. With the natural warmth of the sun together with our air movers and plenty of ventilation, the floor dried out quickly. We were able to apply an even coating of sealant the very next day completing the restoration of the quarry tiles and making the dining room floor an attractive historic feature once more.

Need help with restoring stone floors?

Contact Saul at Cornwell Services on 07738 022813 to ask about how we can restore the stone floor in your historic home or period investment property.

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