Grout Haze Removal Archives - South West London Tile Doctor

Grout-Stained Terrazzo Hallway Floor Renovated in Barnes

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.

Terrazzo Floor Grout Haze Before Cleaning Barnes

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.

Terrazzo Floor Grout Haze During Burnishing Barnes

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.

Terrazzo Floor Grout Haze After Renovation Barnes

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

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Restoration Twickenham

Mould-stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Restoration in Twickenham

1 Comment / Grout Cleaning, Marble Tile Cleaning, Twickenham Tile Cleaning / London Tile Doctor

As you can see from the photographs below this Marble tiled bathroom at a property in Twickenham had a very bad case severe case of mould staining. The client was trying to decide if the tiles were too far gone for restoration after letting a property for the past 4 years, the tenants unfortunately didn’t let him know the state of things.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Before Cleaning Twickenham

Keen to have the problem resolved quickly I managed to move some things around called into the property the following day. I was confident that the mould could be removed however you do need to be careful with Marble as its acid sensitive, also I could see the tiles had a factory seal so proceeded with caution and was able to demonstrate that the problems could be rectified.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Before Cleaning Twickenham

Happy with the proposed solution and keen to get the property back on the rental market I was immediately booked to return the following week.

Cleaning Mould from Marble Bathroom Tiles

Day one for this job was to remove all mould from the tiles. To do this I lightly rubbed Tile Doctor Acid-Gel into small sections of the tiles until I could see the clean surface and then immediately washed off with clean water, making sure I got every part of the tiles to avoid any runoff.

Work proceeded in this manner until all the tiles free of mould and dirt. With the mould staining removed I noticed some of the tiles were effected by grout haze which happens when the tiler fails to polish off all the grout during installation. It wasn’t part of the initial quote however I felt obliged to deal with it so more Acid Gel and elbow grease was applied until that was removed allowing the details of the Marble tiling to come through.

Next step was to treat the grout lines using a similar process with Acid Gel but for this I used a wire brush to remove surface staining leaving the grout clean and returning the grout lines to their original colour.

To bring up the appearance of the Marble tiling a six-inch 1500-grit burnishing pad fitted to a handheld machine was run over each tile several times using only water for lubrication. This was then followed with a very fine 3500-grit pad to bring up the polish.

Once I was happy that the finish on the Marble tiles was as good as it could get, I then re-inspected the grout and decided to replace some areas of grouting that had suffered deep staining. I used a coloured grout to match what was originally there.

Last step before leaving for the day was to strip out all the silicone sealant from the wall verticals and along the bath and allowed the joints to dry overnight.

Applying a Grout Colourant to Marble Bathroom Tiles

The next day I returned the next day to finish the project off starting with an inspection to ensure nothing had been missed. At this point I felt the grout could still be improve so all grout lines were coloured with a Tile Doctor Grout Colourant to ensure a consistent appearance. I was hoping to avoid this but I felt it was the best solution to bring the bathroom to an “as new” appearance. The colourant also acts as a barrier over the grout making it much easier to keep clean.

Last step was to apply new mould resistant silicone sealant to the verticals and along the bath which finished off the project nicely. They still had some work to do including painting the ceiling but from my point of view I was very happy with the way the Marble tile and grout had responded to the treatment.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom After Cleaning Twickenham

My work was done so I called the client who was keen to come over and look. To say they were shocked is an understatement, they were considering ripping all the tiles out and replacing but luckily, we saved them a small fortune. For aftercare I advised increasing the ventilation and using a mild cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Aqua Pro.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom After Cleaning Twickenham

Professional Restoration of a Marble Tiled Bathroom in Southwest London

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