Travertine Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Travertine tiles carried out in East Sussex

Cleaning and Polishing Travertine tiles

Travertine is a natural material that has unique features and colouring that no other stone can offer. The distinctive look of Travertine creates some of the most distinguished floor tiles and has proved very popular with commercial and residential use. It can be used for floor tile, kitchen flooring, bathroom walls and floors, and it is often used externally. There are many varieties such as Tumbled and Polished and like all natural stone it needs to be sealed to prevent dirt becoming trapped in the pores. Unlike other stones however Travertine does suffer from pitting however these holes can be filled.

One of the main issues with polished Travertine is the polish starts to wear down with use and eventually becomes dull. Another issue we see is acid etching where strong unsuitable cleaning products used on the stone etch the surface and ruin its appearance. To resolve both these problems the stone needs to be re-polished with diamond encrusted burnishing pads of different grits to hone the stone and bring back that deep shine. If this sounds familiar you should talk to us about our annual maintenance program where we visit you once a year to clean, polish and seal your floor thus keeping it in top condition.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Travertine floor during after honing and polishing polegate

Newly Installed Travertine Tiled Floor Polished and Sealed in Polegate

1 Comment / Polegate Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Travertine is known on the international market for being very distinctive in character and very durable, making it a very popular choice for tiled flooring in properties worldwide. However, the stone does require regular professional maintenance and polishing to keep it looking it top shape.

I recently visited a nice property in Polegate, a town not too far away from the seaside resort of Eastbourne, in which a large Travertine tiled floor had been recently installed in the lounge and kitchen, but not finished to the standard that the customer had wanted. The customer had visited our website and, upon seeing some of our other work, asked us to finish to a high standard the job the other company had started.

Travertine floor before honing and polishing Polegate Travertine floor before honing and polishing Polegate

Cleaning a Travertine Tiled Floor

The first part of the job involved giving the floor a thorough clean to remove and debris and dirt that had built up since the initial installation. Before beginning we removed the kickboards under the kitchen units and covered the skirting boards and walls with a plastic sheet to protect them during the cleaning process.

The product we used to clean the tiles and grout is known as Tile Doctor Pro Clean, a high alkaline solution that always provides reliable and consistent results when tackling soiled floors. The solution was applied liberally across the floor and left to dwell for a short period before being worked in with a scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine – as well as a specialised grout brush for the grout. We then thoroughly rinsed off the floor using a state of the art truck-mounted pressure washer, resulting a spotless floor.

Next, we addressed the many small porous holes that commonly occur in Travertine due to a natural corrosion process called ‘pitting’. These pitted holes not only spoil the appearance of the tiles, they also act as natural habits for ingrained dirt! It’s important therefore that we filled them with a resin to smoothen the appearance of the floor and protect it against ingrained dirt.

Burnishing and Sealing a Travertine Tiled Floor

Following this, we moved on to a process we know as burnishing, which involves the application of diamond encrusted pads to remove old sealers, smoothen the rough surface of the floor, and hone the stone to provide it with a polished appearance.

Travertine floor during honing and polishing Polegate
We started with a Coarse 400 grit pad to strip away any old sealers and level off the rough surface, before refining this with the Medium 800 grit pad for an initial polish, Fine 1500 grit pad for the second polish, and Very Fine 3000 grit pad for the final polish. Each pad is used with a small amount of water as lubricant.

Finally, we applied Tile Doctor Shine Powder, which is a crystallising powder sealer that ensures a very high shine and a tough, durable finish. This powder is applied directly to the tiles in combination with at least ½ a litre of water and a soft white buffing pad.

Travertine floor after honing and polishing Polegate Travertine floor after honing and polishing Polegate

The customer was ecstatic with the results, being particularly pleased that she got the floor looking the way she originally wanted without significant expense, not to mention stress.

Professional Cleaning and Polishing of a Newly Installed Travertine Tiled Floor in East Sussex

Newly Installed Travertine Tiled Floor Polished and Sealed in Polegate Read More »

Travertine Tiled Floor East Grinsted After

Travertine Floor Maintenance in East Grinstead

1 Comment / East Grinstead Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History /

Pictures below of a Travertine tiled floor in East Grinstead which had been laid some years earlier and over time had become dull as it lost its polished appearance with wear. The customer had tried cleaning but could not get the floor looking the way they it used to.

Travertine Tiled Floor East Grinsted Before

Cleaning Travertine Tile

To restore appearance on polished hard stone floors such a Travertine and Limestone they have to be cut back and polished with floor burnishing pads, it’s a similar process that you use on wood where you start with coarse sandpaper first and moving on to a finer grade towards the end.

At Tile Doctor we have access to a diamond encrusted burnishing pad system which starts with a coarse red pad applied together with a little water, the coarse pad cleans the tiles and removes any topical sealers or ingrained dirt that may have been present. Next comes the white then yellow pads which are a finer grade again applied using nothing but a little water.
Before applying the final green polishing pad the grout lines need to be cleaned for which we use a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean worked in along the grout line by hand with a stiff brush. Last step of the cleaning process was to rinse the floor of any dirt picked up by the pads and then when the floor is dry the last green polishing pad is applied to add a shine to the floor.

Sealing Travertine Tile

To protect the travertine it was sealed using a single coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that helps to bring out the natural colours in the grain of the stone. Once it was all dry again I buffed it up again but used a soft white buffing pad. The photograph below was taken after we had finished and you can see the shine in the Travertine and how much cleaner the grout lines are.

Travertine Tiled Floor East Grinsted After
 

Travertine Tiled floor maintained in East Grinstead

Travertine Floor Maintenance in East Grinstead Read More »

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