Grappenhall

Recently I visited a farmhouse in Grappenhall to look at a kitchen floor that was laid with beautiful Green Limestone tiles. Grappenhall is a lovely Cheshire village which is better known as a period TV and film location.

The owner of the property had sent in a request to have the floor cleaned and sealed. This is quite normal for natural stone floors as the protective sealer will wear off with use and once this happens dirt become ingrained in the stone and grout making it difficult to clean.

Whilst at the property I ran a quick test clean with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is our go to Tile and Grout cleaner. The Limestone and Grout responded well to the cleaning and later that day I sent over a detailed quote for deep cleaning the whole floor and then sealing.

Pleased with the test clean and happy with the quote we were given the go-ahead to clean and seal the whole floor.

Cleaning a Limestone Tiled Kitchen in Grappenhall

On the agreed date work started with clearing the room of furniture and adding protective film to the Kitchen units. Fortunately, the weather was favourable so the furniture was moved outside.

A strong dilution of Pro-Clean was sprayed onto Limestone tile and Grout and then left to soak in for ten minutes. This gives the Pro-Clean time to digest the dirt and breakdown what was left of the original sealer. All the grout lines and edges were then hand scrubbed before moving onto the main floor area. For this a buffing machine fitted with a Black scrubbing pad was run over the tiles with more water applied as required to improve lubrication. This process effectively lifted the ingrained stains and dirt from the tile and grout which was then removed using a wet vacuum.

Once done the floor was inspected and the process repeated were required to ensure the floor was as clean as possible. Finally, the floor was rinsed with more water to remove any traces of cleaning solution and then dried with the wet vacuum.

Sealing a Limestone Tiled Kitchen

The floor was left to dry overnight and the following morning several moisture readings were taken with a damp meter to verify the floor had dried sufficiently for sealing. Once the readings were correct, the floor was sealed using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, an impregnating colour-enhancing sealer. Floor fans were used to help dry the floor between coats.

Impregnators work by soaking into the pores of the Limestone preventing dirt from residing there and ensuring dirt remains on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away. The colour enhancing formula of the sealer always did a nice job of bringing out the natural green colour in the stone. The floor was then buffed with a white pad to remove any excess sealer and buff up the appearance of the stone.

The cleaning and sealing process successfully restored the appearance of the Limestone floor and the Grout looked much whiter and cleaner. We do take pride in our work and I’m please to say the customer was very happy with the result.

Before leaving I took time to provide some advice on how to maintain the tiles going forward and the importance of using Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner for day-to-day cleaning.

 

Professional Restoration of a Limestone Tiled Kitchen in Cheshire