This summer we were asked to visit a luxury hotel and spa in Bournemouth where the cleaning team had used a strong acidic patio cleaner to clean encaustic floor tiles installed on a rear terrace. The acid unfortunately did more than clean the tiles, it also removed any protective sealer and etched the surface leaving the vulnerable to dirt. Realising the tiles were now in a worse state and now proving impossible to keep clean we were asked to call in and recommend a solution.
 |
 |
I visited the hotel to survey the floor and could see they were becoming heavily soiled. The rough etched surface was attracting dirt and without a sealer it was getting into the pores of the tile. The tiles would need deep cleaning to flush the dirt out of the tiles; they would then need burnishing with diamond pads to remove the etching and then finally sealing to protect them going forward.
A detailed quote was emailed over to the facilities team who were happy to proceed and a date was scheduled.
Deep Cleaning Encaustic Floor Tiles
Work started with an application of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was left to soak in. After ten minutes the floor was burnished with the first burnishing pad which is a coarse 400-grit. The pads contain industrial diamonds and are fitted to a weighted rotary buffer which is run over each tile at least three times to remove the etching. More water is applied as required to keep the surface wet and lubricated.
Rinsing and extracting with the wet vacuum after each pad I moved through the series of pads onto the 800 and 1500-grit pads again using more water as required. We stopped at the 1500-grit pad as the finish matched the shine of the rest of the patio that hadn’t been affected.
The grout was also cleaned with more Pro-Clean and a stiff brush and after a final rinse the floor was left to dry out.
Sealing an Encaustic Tiled Terrace Floor
The following day I returned to seal the tiles first checking the floor had completely dried out. To do this I take several moisture readings using a damp meter. The readings were fine so I was satisfied the tiles were ready to accept a sealer.
To seal the Encaustic tiles three coats of Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal, which rated for external use, were applied; additionally, the X-Tra seal which is oil based was mixed with Colour Grow to make it more workable. This durable combination improves colour and was ideal for high traffic hotel terrace like this. The last step was to give the tiles a final buff with a white pad to remove excess sealer and bring up the polished appearance.
 |
 |
The result was transformational and the attractive encaustic tiled terrace is now back in full-time use.