These are poured concrete tiles on a rustic kitchen floor that we are refurbishing in W6 Kensington.
These tiles have been down for 20 years and have built up a patina from the use these tiles have been subjected to over the past two decades. This patina effect adds to the look and feel of this rustic style kitchen.
We have therefore aimed to remove surface issues but to maintain the deeper patina colour and effect.
This has also brought up issues where we have had to go deeper to remove nasty marks and blemishes which has caused the patina to be lost here and there.
So we have use specialist aging waxes and sealers that can blend cleaner patches into the existing darker tiles. I have done this plenty on Terracotta and Quarry tiles but never on concrete. I have to say it looks very smart!
In the above pic I am gently blending a clean strip of tile into the existing darker patina. This patch on a few tiles in front of the cooler had nasty drip grease marks so we had to apply degreasing chemicals to take them out. This also removed the patina effect.
For the polishing refurbishment process for these concrete tiles we aimed to leave the existing colour of the tiles natural patina unchanged as much as possible but also to refurbish them by conditioning the surface.
So we used the finer grades in the polishing process that don’t cut as deeply into the material. This allowed us to remove obvious issues in the very surface of the concrete but largely allowed the character of the material to be unchanged.
Sealing the concrete floor tiles
Sealing to me is always the most important part because so many tilers do it wrong or under seal things. This is the part that preserves the refurbishment efforts and preserves the concrete material itself.
Proper sealing of concrete!
Concrete is very porous and easily subject to damage from anything acidic or staining from grease or things that can stain such as red wine or pet urine. It’s is therefore very important to use the right sealers and proper application.
Above we have the finished result with the concrete all nicely sealed and buffed to a warm slightly enhanced finish!
If you require cement or concrete polishing services in West London, North London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire or South Buckinghamshire then please get in touch.