This Sandstone tiled floor was in the Kitchen and Sunroom of a house in Ipswich. The protective sealer had clearly worn off and now the floor was really grubby due to the owner being in a wheelchair and the tyres tracked dirt in from the garden.
It had been some time since the floor was last sealed and it was clear to me now that the sealer had failed thereby allowing years of dirt and grime to lodge in the pores of the stone leaving it looking permanently dirty. Cleaning with a mop simply won’t make any difference to a floor once it gets in this state which is where Tile Doctor comes in. Also, we often find owners of sealed stone floors don’t realise that most of the tile cleaning products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong for use on a sealed floor and will strip the sealer from the tiles thereby leaving it vulnerable to ingrained dirt.
The solution I quoted for including deep cleaning the sandstone tiles and grout and then resealing the whole floor over two days. Unhappy with the floor and keen to have it renovated I was asked to do do the work and so we scheduled a date.
Cleaning/Repairing a Sandstone Tiled Kitchen and Sunroom Floor
To get the Sandstone clean I sprayed the floor with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and allowed it to soak in for about ten minutes. The floor was then scrubbed using a 120-grit carborundum silicon carbide brush fitted to a rotary machine. This is a special pad that works really well on riven stone. The resultant slurry was rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.
I then turned my attention to the grout which often needs extra attention as the pads can struggle to reach into the recesses of the grout lines. For these I used more Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and hand scrubbed where required with a stiff brush. I also used this time to inspect the floor and spot clean any stubborn areas of dirt on the sandstone that needed more attention.
After a final rinse and extraction, the stone and grout were looking much cleaner however I needed it to be completely dry before applying the sealer so after extracting as much moisture as possible I left it to dry off overnight. The cleaning has taken the whole of the first day and had used two litres of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean.
Sealing a Sandstone Tiled Kitchen and Sunroom Floor
On day two I started by checking the floor was dry using a damp meter; the moisture readings were fine, and this confirmed the floor was ready to accept a sealer. The sealer chosen for this floor was Tile Doctor Seal & Go Extra, I applied four coats allowing each coat to dry before applying the next consuming three litres of sealer in the process.
The floor is now clean and has a nice, easy to maintain sheen. The new sealer will prevent dirt becoming lodged in the pores of the tiles allowing the floor to keep its looks for many years to come. For cleaning I recommended they use Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner which is a gentle but effective product recommended for use on sealed stone.
Source: Sandstone Floor Tile Cleaning and Sealing Service in Ipswich
Serving Suffolk including Ipswich, Bruce Copping is your local Stone, Grout and Tile maintenance expert. Additionally he is an agent of Tile Doctor, the largest professional Tile, Stone and Grout restorative cleaning network in the UK. Tile Doctor has developed products and techniques to handle a multitude of issues surrounding tile, stone and grout, interior, exterior, domestic or commercial.