We were asked to work our magic on these dirty Quarry tiles at a residence in the historic town of Hitchin. The tiles had been sealed on a number of occasions but had not been deep cleaned beforehand which effectively trapped the dirt under the sealer making it difficult to get clean.
Stripping Quarry Tiles
To get them clean the coatings on the surface of the Quarry tile had to be stripped off back to the original surface. To do this we mixed a dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go 50/50 with NanoTech UltraClean and applied it to the floor leaving it to soak in to the tile for around 20 minutes before scrubbing it in with a wire brush. Remove and Go is as its name suggests is a coatings remover which is safe to use on Tile and Stone and is designed to remove most products from, this is assisted by the addition of NanoTech UltraClean which adds tiny abrasive particles into the solution making it more effective. The floor was then scrubbed using a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad and the grout lines scrubbed by hand using a stiff brush. The floor was then rinsed with water which was removed using a wet vacuum. The process was then repeated until we were happy that the tile and grout was clean and that the old sealer had been removed, again the floor down and being the last time washed down thoroughly as traces of cleaning products can upset sealers later on.
Sealing Quarry Tiles
Once happy with the floor and it had time to dry off it was sealed with four coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go sealer adds a nice sheen to the floor as well as adding long term stain protection; needless to say the customer was very happy with the results.
Your really do need to remove all the old sealers before you can re-seal a floor, otherwise it may get a patchy finish and the new sealer may not be compatible with the existing sealer resulting in unexpected results.