Quarry Tile Cleaning Archives - Dorset Tile Doctor

Quarry Tile Cleaning

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

Quarry tiles are a classic hard wearing tile often utilised in high traffic areas such as reception areas, toilets and outdoor patio areas and porches. Although hard wearing Quarry tiles are often neglected and end up hidden under years of grime. If the tiles are structurally sound then often it’s just a question of deep cleaning to extract the dirt and then applying a sealer to enhance their appearance and protect them going forward.

For sealing we usually recommend Tile Doctor Seal and Go which works well on clay tiles such as Quarry and is also water based so doesn’t give off a smell as it dries. When applying a sealer always make sure the floors are dry first as applying a sealer to a damp floor can lead to inconsistent results. Because of this we usually clean and seal floors of this type over two days.

Other problems we face when restoring Quarry tiles usually relate to the removal of surface such as Tile Paint and Carpet Adhesive, for this we have a number of products and methods we can apply to remove coatings and restore the tile to its original appearance.

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.

200 year old Quarry Tiled Floor Restored in Milton Abbas

This Quarry tiled floor in Milton Abbas, Dorset was over 200 years old and had suffered from various attempts at maintenance over the years. Built at a time before the invention of damp proof membranes there was evidence of efflorescence where damp had risen up through the floor and deposited salts on the tile surface leaving white staining.

Cleaning and Efflorescence removal

Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up was applied to remove the Efflorescence, it’s an Acid based product more commonly used for the removal of grout from the tile surface but also just as handy for the removal of mineral deposits, rust stains as well as efflorescence; I should warn that you can’t leave the product on the tile surface for too long as being an Acid it can damage the tile so it needs to be washed off with clean water soon afterwards.

Once we had tackled the efflorescence problem we set about cleaning and neutralising the floor using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean mixed 50/50 with NanoTech Ultra Clean which adds nano sized abrasive particles to the solution to make a more effective cleaner. We allowed this to dwell for a short while before agitating it with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad working the solution into the floor. Once we were happy with floor it was washed down with a high pressure spinning tool which is a special floor cleaning machine. Once clean the dirty solution was removed using a Vet Vacuum and then left to dry.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

When the floor was dry we applied Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a specially formulated water-based blended sealer ideal for Quarry tiles that provides both a stain resistant surface seal with a durable low-sheen finish, six coats were required to completely seal the floor.