cleaning victorian tiles

[kilty55]

hi all i have a customer i just finished a bathroom for who has asked me to clean her curent victorian vestibule area

its a tiny area but well tiled,i havent done much in the way of this type of work so any advice on what products would clean the tiles up in general would be great:smilewinkgrin:

 

[DHTiling]

Hi Jamie, any idea what are on them at present..?.. are they waxed.. do a wet test to see the porosity .. product selection depends on the depth of the clean needed...and the tile used..

Any pics.?

 

[kilty55]

hi dave ,i havent taken pics or done any tests on the tiles as of yet....but that is what i will do and get the info up on here cheers

 

[Richard Edwards]

Let us know and I will point you in the right direction.
Machinery and scrubbing will help, sealing afterwards and if internal polishing as well - not straightforward

 

[Dan]

What machinary do you use Richard? Do you have some I take it?

 

[Richard Edwards]

Hi Dan
I have 2 Rubi machines - a 400mm rotary that has all sorts of functions inc srubbing and buffing, diamond honing, various brushes, grouting for large areas, etc - The other is an orbital that scrubbs and hones ideal for skirting edges and steps / risers 250mm x 100mm approx. Both are single phase and the rotary pulls about 10amp. Also I have some lead weights for th rotary that are used for applying more downward pressure = ideal for cuttin back damaged floors when honing, not Victorian floors !! only for natural stone. Both have water tanks and triggers fro releasing more cutting fluids and cleaning agents.

Its a massive investment Dan but I do get some work on the back of it.

Hope this is what you meant

Best Regards

 

[swanman]

Try steam cleaning as well

It works well on victorian tiles ,as they have no DPM so your not using alot of water

 

[Dan]

Hi Dan
I have 2 Rubi machines - a 400mm rotary that has all sorts of functions inc srubbing and buffing, diamond honing, various brushes, grouting for large areas, etc - The other is an orbital that scrubbs and hones ideal for skirting edges and steps / risers 250mm x 100mm approx. Both are single phase and the rotary pulls about 10amp. Also I have some lead weights for th rotary that are used for applying more downward pressure = ideal for cuttin back damaged floors when honing, not Victorian floors !! only for natural stone. Both have water tanks and triggers fro releasing more cutting fluids and cleaning agents.

Its a massive investment Dan but I do get some work on the back of it.

Hope this is what you meant

Best Regards

Totally.

I'm launching q few floor restoration and victorian floor cleaning websites soon (about 5 all in one go) so I'm finding the right members to be listed on them, and will only be listing those members. I'm thinking you'd be a perfect candidate for them.

Do you travel? At least around the Midlands (England) as well as cover Wales?

 

[Richard Edwards]

Hi Dan

Interesting to hear about your plans to develop a Tile and Floor Restoration Website inc Victorian Floor Clean / Restore Website.

We do travel outside the principality from time to time. We rarely do any work in North Wales though as its uneconomical. Midlands is possible as is Bristol / Bath / Cheltenham areas.

The only draw back with Victorian Restoration where there are repairs involved, is that you really need to see the floor yourself to assess what needs to be done. Substrate damage is the major cause of failures and this is very difficult to establish this without seeing it in the 'flesh'. Clients pictures are a good starting point and an estimate as an approximation is usually enough to see if the job will 'fly or not'. We do like to provide fixed price quotations for work to be done, rather than estimates which are not really precise enough and also quotations offer clients an assured price and work specification.

The short answer is yes we do travel, but a qualified Yes. We have done some Limestone re-honing in Bath where we removed about 1-2mm from the surface of a Jerusualem Limestone floor [80m2] that was damaged by a painters sheet [green dye] and the diamond honing equipment on the 400m rotary came into its own then.

Maybe you could bear me in mind when you are ready to roll on this one Dan and I will do whatever is necessary to load / apply information to the site. I am definately interested Dan

I'll look out for your updates.

Best Regards

 

[Richard Edwards]

Hi to our Celtic cousins in Cornwall

Your right of course, steam is a useful tool when trying to lift general muck and can be used to soften glue and the like, but whenever I use my steam generator I tend to have a lot more water on the floor than when I use my Rubi gear as you can accurately regulate the amount of water and chemicals you apply during the process, whereas with steam, its always delivering condensed water to the floor the whole time. Hence I only use it occasionally when the application is suitable.

The other thing is speed and this is where our gear has an advantage. The options are virtually limitless and I can grout with too. For example my labourer and I grouted the whole of a ground floor of a new-build house in one day with me on the machine and washboy and the labourer [a very pretty daughter of my plasterer] on the grout mixing and dropping bucket fulls in front of the machine. This was 185 m2 of Porcelain that I layed during the previous week or so and whilst we started at 0800 we did not stop until about 1930 - both absolutely knac.....ered - thats Welsh for very tired.

Good to hear from you Sj

Best Regards