This project was undertaken in Kings Langley near Watford Hertfordshire. This page describes the refurbishment process for travertine. These natural stone floor tiles in a kitchen and living area where looking very dirty and dull and the lady was thinking about having them replaced
Chemical strip and steam clean travertine natural stone tiles
The first step for me is always an alkaline chemical strip to remove old tile sealing products and also deeply ingrained grimy dirt. Its always a good idea to get everything out of the stone first so we have a level playing field to refurbish it and introduce new clean products.
I use allot of steam in my cleaning process as it reaches very deeply into the stone and really freshens things up. At this point all grout lines are hand scrubbed and steamed which makes them look new again. See how the dirt forms a black sludge and easily lifts out of the porous stone!
Filling holes in travertine and stone
Most filled travertine stone tiles will have some holes here and there. Sometimes the resin applied in the factory pops out a bit and we just find the odd hole and on other tiled floors there can be hundreds of holes everywhere. We therefore resin full all these holes aiming to find a colour that matches the stone and client requirements. In this case we went for a lighter filled resin to help freshen the look up. Its very important to undertake resin filling of stone before polishing and honing. This allows the resin to be polished off and blend in with the surface of the stone created by the polishing process.
Sealing of travertine stone floor tiles ( full saturation)
Sealing is a very important part of the stone polishing refurbishment process. It preserves the stone and stops it from getting dirty and staining so quickly going forward. Its very easy to cut corners during the sealing stage as it is invisible work. So I would always recommend the home owner to be involved in the sealing part of the job. One flimsy coat wont be enough , you need several coats. In the tiling industry we aim for full saturation. That is when the sealer fully saturates the pours and starts to rest on the surface of the stone for a good while. When the tile sealer is not just quickly being absorbed in and actually just sits ontop then you are achieving saturation of the stone. At this point it must be properly buffed to remove and work excess sealer into the stone.
You can see now that the tiles have been polished they look much fresher and smarter. I always recommend a nice natural shine for stone at about 3500 grt. This gives a lovely look and also closes the pours in the stone which makes it easier to clean.
It’s also quite easy to bring this shine up again with a light maintenance buff and polish a while after the job.
I live in Watford and cover all of Hertfordshire. I am close Kings Langley, Abbots Langley , Hemel Hempstead , Radlett, St Albans , Harpenden and Berkhamstead. Please get in touch if you need professional stone polishing, cleaning and restoration