Tag Archives: tile maintenance

Cleaning Bathroom Tile and Grout

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This was a straight forward request to rejuvenate the ceramic tile and grout around the bath at a house in the town Kettering. The glazed ceramic tiles where in good condition but the grout and seal around the bath had become quite grubby and stained with dyes from shampoos, soaps and had gone dark in some areas where mould had started to get a foothold.

Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Before Cleaning Kettering Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Before Cleaning Kettering

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

We started by spraying the tiles with Tile Doctor Oxy-Pro which is a strong high-alkaline cleaner especially formulated and packaged for cleaning showers. The spray delivery is important as mixing the cleaning product with air makes it lighter and helps it cling to the tile and grout. The Oxy-Pro was left to soak in for around 15 minutes before being scrubbed into the tile and grout using a stiff grout brush. This action cleaned up the grout and tile nicely removing stains from shampoos and soaps etc.

Removing Mould from Grout

The grout was looking much improved but there was however some evidence of mould remaining which needed dealing with. To tackle this we used Tile Doctor Mould Away which is designed to remove mould off Silicone and Grout. It’s very easy to use, you simply spray the Silicone or Grout to be treated with Mould Away then leave to soak in for twenty minutes and then scrub with a brush and rinse with water repeating the process until the mould has disappeared, in extreme cases you can leave it for a few hours but we didn’t need to do that.

Ceramic Bathroom Tiles After Cleaning Kettering Ceramic Bathroom Tiles After Cleaning Kettering

I was unable to use any tools on this job so it took a fair amount of manual effort but the results were well worth it as you can see.

Source: Residential and Commercial Tile and Stone Cleaning in Northamptonshire

Maintaing Versatile Ceramic Tiles

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This Ceramic Tiled Floor was in Penarth near Cardiff, the tile were 150 mm x 150 mm red dust pressed composition, known as versatile as it can be laid on both sides sometimes found around swimming pool areas due to their non-slip raised definition. The floor was looking a bit tired, so the customer asked if they could be revived. I did an inspection of the floor and noticed the grout was loose at the lounge doorway and this had to be re-grouted after my wet vacuum sucked it out part way through the cleaning process.

Versatile Tile Cleaning Penarth Before Cleaning

Cleaning Ceramic Tiles

First of all I tested for moisture which read very low, which was good news as it meant I was not going to have any issues with moisture in the tiles. I then applied masking tape to the skirting and carpet riser at the bottom of the staircase; I always protect these areas as once I removed a little paint on another customers skirting with Tile Doctor Remove and Go and so I deducted £50 .00 off the bill by way of compensation.

Versatile Tile Cleaning Penarth Masking
I then covered the floor with Tile Doctor Remove and Go let it soak in for half an hour, the floor was then rinsed twice and then to clean the grout I applied with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was then scrubbed into the grout joints; it was at this point some lose grout came away. The floor was rinsed twice again and I re-grouted the areas which needed it. The floor was dried with a wet vacuum and then it was left to dry for two days.

Versatile Tile Cleaning Penarth Grouting Versatile Tile Cleaning Penarth During Cleaning

Sealing Ceramic Versatile Tiled Floor

On my return I checked the damp levels again before starting to seal the floor with three coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which also adds a nice shine to the tile. Caution should be applied to this type of tile as streak marks can be prominent when applying the sealer, in my experience I find as soon as the sealer is applied to the tile with a paint pad a cloth or any other method it marks the tile. It’s possible I’m just a being a perfectionist as the customer was thrilled with the finish.

Versatile Tile Cleaning Penarth After Cleaning

Source: Residential and Commercial Tile and Stone Maintenance in South Wales

Cleaning Ceramic Pool Surround Mosaics

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As well as bathrooms and kitchens we also cover swimming pools which usually have a tiled pool surround and this was certainly the case with the photograph below which was taken at a property near the small market town of Sandy in Bedfordshire where the tile and grout around the pool had discoloured over time.

Cleaning Mosaic Pool Tiles

To clean the tiles we used a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which left to soak into the tile and grout in sections before being scrubbed in using a stiff brush. You have to be careful with machinery around swimming poos as you don’t want any cleaning products draining into the swimming pool water.

Mosaic Pool Tiles Cleaned near Sandy Bedford
The pro-clean and scrubbing action loosened the dirt and we were then able to use a Rotovac machine to finish the floor off and get the results you see above. The Rotovac which is also known as a Spinner tool is a really useful piece of equipment for a Tile Cleaner as it directs a jet of high pressure hot water onto the tile whilst simultaneously removing the water through a separate suction feature. The tool needs a lot of power so it runs from a high-pressure cleaning and extractor unit fitted into our van which can delivery water pressure between 500 and 3000 PSI. Another feature of the tool is the side skirts around the spinner head which along with the high suction prevent water from being splashed around making it ideal for this job.

Source: Residential and Commercial Tile, Stone and Grout Cleaning in Bedfordshire

Maintaining Textured Ceramic Tiles

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These grubby looking Textured Ceramic Tiles were in a bathroom of a house in the old village of Narborough near Leicester. As you can see from the picture below they were overdue for a deep clean and the customer has been struggling to do that. On inspection it was clear that the textured surface which was designed to prevent slipping has become ingrained with dirt making them difficult to clean and therefore lose appearance. This can be a problem with a rough surface and so to prevent dirt building up the surface is sealed, however sealers do wear off after a few years depending on use and I suspect this is what happened here.

Narborough Cleaning Textured Ceramic Tiles Before

Cleaning and Preparing Porcelain Tile and Grout

To remove any remaining sealer from the less worn areas and clean the tile and grout a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was applied and left to soak in to the surface for around ten minutes before scrubbing it into the tile with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad and also a stiff hand brush along the grout lines. The floor was then rinsed down with fresh water which was removed with a wet Vacuum. This stripping and cleaning process was repeated until the tile and the grout was looking new again after which the floor was given a thorough rinse in order to remove any trace of product and then dried as much as possible using the wet vacuum.

Sealing Micro Porous Porcelain

We left the floor to dry and then came back two days later to seal the floor, testing it first with a damp meter to ensure it was dry. The two days was enough time to dry it out so we moved on to seal the floor using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that occupies the pores in the tile providing strong stain protection as well as lifting the colour.

Narborough Cleaning Textured Ceramic Tiles After
I think you will agree the floor tile and grout look much cleaner and the new sealer will make it much easier to clean going forward.

Source: Residential and Commercial Tile, Stone and Grout Cleaning in Leicestershire

Cleaning Ceramic Shower Tiles

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This shower cubicle was installed in the main bathroom of a house in Bishopton where the grout had become quite grubby and the Ceramic tiles were looking quite dull. The owner was thinking about re-tiling the bathroom and thought they would give us a call first to see if we could refresh the look without the expense.

Gruby Ceramic Tiled Shower in Bishopton Before Gruby Ceramic Tiled Shower in Bishopton Before

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

We started by spraying the tiles with Tile Doctor Oxy-Pro which is a strong high-alkaline cleaner especially formulated and packaged for cleaning showers. The spray delivery is important as mixing the cleaning product with air makes it lighter and helps it cling to the tile and grout. The Oxy-Pro was left to soak into the tiles for around 15 minutes before being scrubbed into the tile and grout using a stiff grout brush. This action cleaned up the grout and tile nicely removing stains from shampoos and soaps etc.

Removing Mould from Grout

The grout was looking much improved but there was however some evidence of mould remaining which needed dealing with. To tackle this we used Tile Doctor Mould Away which is designed to remove mould off Silicone and Grout. It’s very easy to use, you simply spray the Silicone or Grout to be treated with Mould Away then leave to soak in for five minutes and then scrub with a brush and rinse with water repeating the process until the mould has disappeared.

Gruby Ceramic Tiled Shower in Bishopton After Gruby Ceramic Tiled Shower in Bishopton After

It took a fair amount of manual effort but the results were well worth it as you can see.

Source: Residential and Commercial Tile Cleaning in Renfrewshire

Cleaning a Mouldy Shower Cubicle

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A customer contacted us regarding a Ceramic Tiled Shower Cubicle problem they had with their house in Glasgow. The grout and mastic sealant had started to discolour and there was staining on both from mould which is quite a common problem in modern houses and our busy lifestyles and insulated homes with insufficient ventilation.

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

We started by giving the tiles a good scrub with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean then focusing on the grout we thoroughly scrubbed it with more Pro-Clean and a stiff grout brush, this process did well to clean up the tile and grout but unfortunately the grout had become too badly stained to be satisfactory. It’s a fact that the top layer of grout is actually porous and this is where the staining from the dyes in shampoos etc. will occur. The next step was to cut out all the old and mouldy mastic and seal around the shower using a sharp knife taking care not to scratch the shower tray.

Glasgow Ceramic Shower Refresh Before Cleaning Glasgow Ceramic Shower Refresh After Cleaning

Recolouring Grout

To overcome the stained grout issue we gave the whole of the grout two coats of white Grout Colourant which is a very effective treatment that forms an epoxy barrier over the gout protecting it from future staining. Normally when you do this we recommend using a pre-treater product that provides a chemical key that allows the colourant to latch on to, in this case however I was happy that the scrubbing we gave the grout with Pro-Clean would have the same effect. The tiles were then wiped down using Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner to remove any excess colourant from the tiles and give them a finishing shine. The last step was to Shower was finished off by applying new silicone sealant to the areas that were removed. The final result was a shower cubicle that looked recently installed.     Source: Residential and Commercial Tile Cleaning in Glasgow

Tiled Bathroom Refresh

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This Ceramic tiled bathroom with shower was installed at house Wilmslow and was overdue a refresh. You can see from the photographs below that the bathroom was looking tired and the tile and grout was discoloured with mould and acid build-up from washing products.

Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Wilmslow Before Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Wilmslow Before

Cleaning Ceramic Tile and Grout

The Ceramic tiles and grout were treated using a strong 2:1 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a strong alkaline Tile and Grout cleaning product. The solution was decanted into a bottle with a trigger spray attachment which when sprayed onto the wall allows the cleaner to mix with air making it lighter and allowing it to stick better. The solution was then worked in using a stiff scrubbing brush by hand before being rinsed off with water; this process was repeated a number of times until we had managed to clean all the areas and then left to dry.

Grout Colouring

The grout looked better but I was unable to shift some of the staining so we decided to apply a white Grout Colourant, it’s a time consuming process but I think you will agree it made a big difference. Additionally the grout colourant product we use also forms a barrier over the surface making the grout much easier to clean going forward.

The last step was to remove the silicone sealant from along the top of bath and replace with new.

Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Wilmslow After Ceramic Bathroom Tiles Wilmslow After

 
 
Source: Bathroom Tile Cleaning North-Cheshire

Cleaning Textured Ceramic Floor Tiles

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We were asked to clean these textured ceramic floor tiles in Wendover Bucks which had become heavily soiled and ingrained with dirt leaving the tiles with a black appearance, the grout lines had also become stained and discoloured. Our customer had tried all types of cleaning agents but could never get the desired effect.

Ceramic Tile Wendover Washing Ceramic Tile Wendover Washing

Cleaning a Textured Ceramic Tiled Floor

A dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean alkaline tile cleaner was applied throughout the tiled floor and worked in with the aid of a scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine, a stiff hand brush was also used along the grout lines and this managed to lift most of the soiling from the floor.

Next step was to use our powerful truck mounted heated turbo system which jet washed the remaining particles out of the crevasses of the stone. This system uses high pressure heated water though a spinner tool, it’s an amazing tool that returns the dirty water directly back to a recovery tank leaving the floor chemical free and neutralised.

Before leaving I recommended to the customer that regular use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile cleaner would help to keep their tile and grout in better condition.

Ceramic Tile Wendover After Ceramic Tile Wendover After

 
 
Source: Cleaning Textured Ceramic floor tiles in Buckinghampshire

Cleaning Ceramic Tiles

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These ceramic tiles situated in a large flat in Bravington Road W9 which is near Kensal Town in the City of Westminster, London. The tiles had been in place when the client moved into the flat some years ago and were badly in need of deep cleaning, attempts to remove the dirt using a steam cleaner had been successful but very slow. In the end the owner, realising that cleaning more than 75 square metres of tile herself in this way was going to take too long, decided to call in professional help from Tile Doctor.

Ceramic Tile Cleaning Before

Cleaning Ceramic Tiles

Using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a heavy duty alkaline cleaning product and a medium brush on a Numatic buffing machine I lifted most of the ground-in dirt from the tiles before rinsing and scrubbing the floor again with a black buffing pad and scrubbing the grout clean by hand using a stiff grout brush.

Ceramic Tile Cleaning During

I then thoroughly washed the floor with a mop and fresh water which was then removed with an aqua vacuum, this process was repeated until I was satisfied the floor was clean. When the floor was dry it revealed an nearly as-new ceramic tiled floor with a pleasing sandstone imitation design.

The photos show the floor before cleaning with a mark around where a piece of furniture had been removed and then the uniformly clean floor after the cleaning process was complete. The customer was delighted with the restored condition of her floor and amazed that it could have been made so clean.

Ceramic Tile Cleaning After

 
 
Source: Ceramic Tiles Deep Cleaned in London W9