Terrazzo Floor Cleaning

The pictures below come from a property in Barnes near Richmond upon Thames where a hallway floor had been laid with Terrazzo tiles. The tiles had been laid well but unfortunately the tiler had spread grout all over the tiles and not cleaned it off properly.

This is not uncommon when tiling a floor and is known in the trade as Grout Haze or Grout Smearing, the results in a haze over the tiles which detracts from their appearance. To make things even worse however, the tiler had then applied a sealer over the Terrazzo with the grout still on there. This locked in the hazy finish and left the tiles looking dull.

Since that time the sealer had worn down and the floor had collected lots of ingrained dirt, leaving it darker and discoloured and subdued.

I was called in to renovate the floor and having surveyed the tiles I recommended burnishing the tiles with a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing Pads which are made from different grades of industrial diamonds. They clean the floor, removing staining such as the grout haze and build an attractive sheen on the Terrazzo. Once done I would re-seal the floor with a natural look sealer.

I worked out a quote which was accepted, and a date set for the work to start.

Cleaning a Terrazzo Tiled Hallway

Work started with the application of the first burnishing pad which is a coarse 400-grit and this is attached to a floor buffing machine that had an extra 55kg of weight added. The pad is run over each tile several times using only water for lubrication. The water turns black with the dirt released from the floor and after completing the whole floor it is rinsed away and extracted with a wet vacuum.

This process is then repeated with the finer pads of 800 and 1500 grit which start to build a polish onto the tile. After each pad is run over the floor the slurry is rinsed off and extracted as before. The last burnishing pad is a super fine 3500-grit, and this is applied dry with just a little water sprayed onto the tile to really bring up the shine.

Sealing a Terrazzo Tiled Hallway

The floor was left to dry off overnight and the next day I returned to seal it with Tile Doctor Ultra Seal which is a natural look almost invisible sealer that doesn’t alter the appearance of the tiles. It is an impregnating sealer that soaks into the tile, occupying the pores and thereby preventing dirt from residing there, thus keeping the dirt on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away.

Regarding cleaning, I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Stone Soap, it is a gentle but effective tile cleaner made to a special formula that helps maintain the patina on the tile. It’s important to use a product like this for cleaning a sealed floor as many of the products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong and will damage the sealer.

The Terrazzo responded well to the burnishing and my client was very happy with the floor which had never looked like it should. As it turns out he is also the owner of three large independent cinemas in London with over 1000m2 Terrazzo spread across them and because of this job I’ve now been asked to go and do the same there too.

 

Professional Renovation of a Terrazzo Tiled Hallway in Southwest London