Suzannah

[SandyFloor]

It's really worth taking your time and experimenting to get it right as it's quite a floor.

 

[Ajax123]

I suspect you have taken off some sort of sealant. If it is old it could well be boot polish. My brother in laws flag stone floor was sealed and polish with black boot polish. That was a biatch to remove but with a bit of hard work it came up beautifully. That was a washing up liquid, sctoch pads and hot water job.

If you put a small amount of the cleaner on the middle of the tile does it "fizz"?

 

[Suzannah]

Thanks everyone, I will scrub hard and take more photos tomorrow night

 

[Suzannah]

yes it does

 

[Suzannah]

yes it does fizz

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome

 

[Ajax123]

yes it does

that means it is "dissolving" the slate. Don't panic it is natural. What it sys is that the tiles are most likely not sealed and you are taking the top sheen off the tiles. Make sure that when you scrub them you wash it off really well.....bucket of water rather than damp cloth sort of thing. You will need to work carefully and evenly over the whole surface of the tile. You will probably end up with a floor that looks very much like the edges but all over. That is what natural slate looks like out of the quarry.

As it is an old floor I am not sure if you will be able to use a modern sealer on them as the tiles are likley to be damp due to no DPM under the floor - ie they are likley to be on sand or lime/sand. On my quarry tiles when I did this I sealed them using linseed oil.

Perhaps the pro tilers might have more info on this bit.

Best of luck and I look forward to seeing more pics of a nice even grey floor.

 

[enduro]

A water based sealer like Aqua Mix Enrich & seal will be fine to use once you have sorted the slate out, as it lets the stone breath.

 

[mikethetile]

:welcome:suzanna

it must be like winning the lottery unearthing a floor like that

 

[Suzannah]

yeh i just wish i hadn't messed it up

 

[mikethetile]

yeh i just wish i hadn't messed it up

its not messed up, it will look a treat when its cleaned and sealed

 

[Suzannah]

I hope so

 

[Ajax123]

yeh i just wish i hadn't messed it up

deffo not messed up. Just needs a bit of work and I am certain it will come up a treat.

 

[user123]

I think you may now be hooked on Tilers Forums.. :lol: a good crowd on here, :welcome: again! With a floor like that you must have a lovely cottage to go with it... enjoy.... I did up three cottages myself and know how rewarding - and hard work they can be... and the harder you work on it the more you put your stamp on it, it really does become 'yours', with the approval I am sure of all who have lived in it before... :daisy:

 

[doug boardley]

Are these definitely slate? the reason i ask is i had a granite floor that had water damage and they were very old and they were grouted with lime mortar and as soon as they got wet they went exactly the same as your tiles. So you cleaning the edges could have caused this problem.

I ws thinking along the same lines Andrew, I'm thinking that maybe it's limestone and etching has occured:yikes: