Tag Archives: restoration

Polishing and Sealing a Large Red Marble Patio in Newbury Berkshire

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I recently had a call out to an unusual property in Newbury to renovate a large Red Marble Patio. The design of the house was clearly inspired by the Mediterranean and resembled a Spanish Villa. The UK winter had not been very kind to the large Red Marble patio and now looked faded and lifeless.

Marble Tiled Patio Before Renovation Newbury

I inspected the patio and could see that it had been previously sealed with a topical product that had deteriorated in parts over time leaving the stone looking patchy and dull. After having the same stone installed throughout the interior of the property she wanted to know if the exterior stone could be renovated to match.

To get a better idea of what it would take to complete the work and produce an accurate quote I ran some cleaning tests on a spare tile. The demonstration went very well, and it gave the client a good idea of the outcome they could expect. Happy with the potential result and my quote I was booked to return and complete the renovation.

Marble Tiled Patio Before Renovation Newbury

Cleaning a Red Marble Tiled Patio in Newbury

This was a large Patio to clean so I worked in sections and starting with brushing and vacuuming to remove all the surface dirt and debris that could impact the stone burnishing process. Then using water for lubrication, I started refinishing the Marble with a very coarse 100-grit diamond pad fitted to a weighted rotary machine. This pad cut through the layers of remaining topical sealant that had built up on the surface of the stone. After a rinse with more water I followed this with a less coarse 200-grit pad. I found that in some areas, such as along the edges of the tile, a thick build-up of old sealer needed to be weakened first using Tile Doctor Remove and Go before the pads could cut through.

Marble Tiled Patio During Renovation Newbury

Once the old seal had been removed, I could focus on burnishing the stone which is a polishing process that hones the stone and brings back its polished appearance. I did this using a set of diamond burnishing pads starting with a 400-grit pad and working my way through the sequence of pads with 800 and 1500-grit. The pads are applied using a rotary floor buffer and again lubricated with water, the stone is rinsed with water afterwards and the slurry picked up with a wet vacuum. The last pad to be applied is an extra fine 3000-grit pad which leaves the stone with a good sheen, the pad is applied dry with only a little water sprayed onto the tile.

Marble Tiled Patio Before Renovation Newbury

Sealing a Red Marble Tiled Patio

I returned the following morning to check the stone had thoroughly dried and could be sealed. Fortunately, the warm weather had persisted, and I was able to finish the stone with three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This sealer is known for bringing out the natural colours in stone and it didn’t disappoint making the deep red colours in the Marble really stand out against the white veins. Colour grow is also an impregnating sealer that seeps into the pores of the stone protecting it from within and will fare much better protecting the stone in the UK elements.

Marble Tiled Patio After Renovation Newbury

This burnishing and sealing process was repeated in the numerous areas that made up the entire patio except for the stairs which had to be done using the same method but with a handheld polisher as the rotary machine was simply too large. Being external the work was weather dependant and so had to be done in stages as it rained between visits and the stone had to be left to dry out again before continuing. This slowed up the process, but we got there once the weather had improved.

Marble Tiled Patio Before Renovation Newbury Marble Tiled Patio After Renovation Newbury

Overall the client was very pleased with the work and was happy that both the newly installed interior and the rejuvenated old stone looked uniform.

For aftercare I recommended the use the Tile Doctor Stone Soap Cleaner which will clean and help maintain the patina on the stone, also it won’t prematurely erode the sealer like more aggressive cleaning products you find in supermarkets.

Marble Tiled Patio After Renovation Newbury

 

Source: Marble Patio Cleaning and Restoration Service in Berkshire

Resolving Marble Tile Installation Issues

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These photos are from a newly installed Polished Marble floor in the kitchen at a residence in Irthlingborough Northants which had been left covered in grout haze. The customer called the builder back as they were unhappy with the finish but he could not rectify the problem, so the customer contacted Tile Doctor to see if anything could be done.

This is a problem we often come up against where a builder or tiler does a good job of laying the tiles but for some reason doesn’t remove all the grout from the tile and we have even seen some jobs where the grout smears have been sealed over which makes it even more noticeable especially on a polished floor. Fortunately for the customer we are able to resolve such problems and after agreeing the process we set about solving the problem.

Marble Tiled Floor In Irthlingborough before cleaning

Burnishing Polished Marble Tiles

To protect the kitchen units from any splashing etc. all the kick boards were removed and plastic sheeting fitted to protect new doors and panels before any work was undertaken.

Polished Marble is a very hard surface that has to be burnished with diamond encrusted pads to restore the finish so we set about this task using a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing Pads. The pads come in a set of four, you start with the coarse pad together with a little water and this cut’s through and removes surface grime, surface seal and in this case grout haze as well. You then progress through the other finer pads one by one until you get to the final polishing pad which provides a high polish. The pads did the trick and had the surface polished to a high shine which was the look the customer was hoping they would have had in the first place.

The floor was looking great but I was concerned about the grout, most people don’t realise but the top layer of grout is actually slightly porous and will attract dirt and discolour over time, this is especially the case in a bathroom or kitchen. After discussing this with the customer we sealed the grout with Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal which provides a natural look whilst preventing contaminates reaching the grout.

All in the job took two days and the customer was extremely happy with the final result.

Marble Tiled Floor In Irthlingborough after cleaning

 
 
Source: Professional Marble Cleaning and Polishing Service in Northamptonshire

Removing Limescale from Tumbled Marble

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This Tumbled Marble mosaic wet room floor was installed in a house in London, SE1 four years before prior and was now looking a little tired. This was mostly caused by a build-up of Limescale which had then become grimy.

Tumbled-Marble-London-Before

Stripping a Tumbled Marble Floor

To treat the Limescale I used Tile Doctor Grout Clean Up which managed to remove most of the scale and to remove the remainder I steamed the tiles using an Earlex Steamer and carefully scraped any remaining Limescale residue away with a Stanley window scraper. To restore the marble itself I used Tile Doctor burnishing pads to re-polish the tiles using 17″ pads on the main area and 8″ pads on a hand-held Clarke polishing machine in the corners. These diamond encrusted pads come in a number of different colours and are applied one after another with each pad being a finer grade than the last. After thoroughly rinsing the stone again and removing the waste water with a wet vacuum. As the marble was naturally fast drying I used an Earlex heat gun to speed dry the floor and repeated this after lunch to ensure the floor was entirely dry before sealing.

Sealing Tumbled-Marble Tiles

Once the Marble tiles were dry I started to seal them using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer which is a great choice for natural stone as it enhances the natural colours in the tile as well as providing stain protection.

Tumbled-Marble-London-After

As the photographs show the results were very good and the customer was highly delighted.

Tumbled-Marble-London-After

 
 
Source: Marble Tile Maintenance in London

Marble Tile Polishing in Buckinghamshire

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A customer recently purchased a property the village of Chesham and hoped we could improve the appearance of her textured marble tiled floors which had over a number of years become dull and lost the polished marble look one would expect from a floor of this quality.

Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing

For polished stone like Marble and Limestone the only way to restore the finish is to burnish the floor and this floor was no different. The burnishing pads are diamond encrusted and come in a setup of four seventeen inch pads for use with a heavy rotary machine, each pad having a different purpose.

So we started with the Red pad which is designed to remove sealers together with a little water, we then took the opportunity to clean up the grout by applying a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and scrubbing it into the grout lines to get them clean. Next step was to remove the soiled cleaning solution and wash the floor down with water before moving onto the white burnishing pad which will grind off ingrained dirt and is the first step in polishing the floor. We then completed the floor polishing using the Yellow then Green polishing pads which smooth down the surface and produce a shiny finish.

Textured Marble floor in Chesham Before

Sealing Textured Marble Tiles

Once the floor was polished we applied Tile Doctor Shine Crystallising Powder to the marble tile using a rotary machine fitted with a white polishing pad. This last step gives a very deep high shine as well as a tough durable finish.

Textured Marble floor in Chesham After

When the customer returned she asked was it safe to walk on as the floor as at first glance it looked wet; we assured her this is the Tile Doctor high shine appearance and is perfectly ok.
 
 
Source: Professional Marble Polishing in Buckinghamshire