Today I am just finishing the waxing on this traditional tiled geometric hallway. The design features a half octagon brown that is now a hexagon. Usually these are full octagons. There is light blue , white , yellow, red , black and the very nice en caustic patterned tiles that serve as a feature of the core design
There were not too many repairs on this one so I decided to deep clean it first. This is quite an extensive process and takes quite a while. In fact this hallway took almost two days to clean. There is no quick fix it just has to be a real detailed hand scrub situation.
Sealing directly after cleaning!!
Once thoroughly clean the tiles need to be sealed soon. I will always seal them the very next morning after cleaning. The sealing protects the tiles for the rest of the restoration and sinks deep into them bringing out their color. I like to use an oil based sealer and the acrylic waxes are water based. So I need the impregnating sealer to be absolutely dry , cured and settled before any waxing is done.
These are the Victorian tiles for this restoration that have been thoroughly cleaned and sealed. They have an enriched mat appearance. The tiles are quite protected at this stage and could be left just like this. Waxing does add more protection and off course the waxes look great!
On nearly every geometric Victorian tiled restoration job I always end up doing at least some filling and touching up with professional tile paints. The replacement tiles sometimes look a bit off as the reproduction tile that I use in these restoration are obviously a new tile. Even if the colors of new and old tiles match there is still a slight grain and texture difference. So instead of replacing a tile with a chip for example. It is better just to fill the chip and color touch it up. This is much cheaper to!!
Waxing the geometric tiles
The waxing is the cherry on the top, the icing on the cake! It’s always nice to finish a restoration off with some type of wax.
The super shiny ones are acrylic tile waxes that come in a liquid and can be layered to achieve a buildup
Here in the pic above is an acrylic tile wax. They usually have a milky appearance and are readily available at many tile shops. They can be mat, shiny or mild sheen. They look very nice but are a complete moisture barrier and will get effected by acidic or decreasing detergents and cleaning products. The good thing is that what ever happens to the wax doesn’t affect the tiles. So they can be stripped and re applied leaving the tiles perfect.
And the finished result. This one has been waxed with a sheen than a glossy shine. I find the sheen finish or medium shine tends to last longer and they look a bit smarter. Maybe its just me but the super high gloss ones look a bit cheesy. Sometimes I arrive at customers jobs where they have over applied acrylic waxes that they have bought themselves and its usually a big shiny mess and a nightmare to get all off properly!!
If you need this work done please contact me. I work all over Chiswick , Twickenham and Ealing.