Very Dirty Riven Sandstone Floor Rescued in Rocklands
This riven Sandstone floor was laid throughout the ground floor of a modern barn conversion annex in Rocklands and included the spacious kitchen and living area. Rocklands is situated between the market towns of Watton and Attleborough and encompasses the villages of Rockland All Saints and Rockland St Peter.
The kitchen had just been replaced and this had left stripes on the slabs which had been formerly covered by the old kitchen units and were now clearly visible as clean stone. These patches were in sharp contrast to the rest of the heavily soiled Sandstone floor. Various sealers had been applied to the surface over the years and the use of assorted cleaning products had caused obvious and visually unpleasant discolouration across the whole area.
To renovate the floor, I recommended stripping the stone to remove previous coatings, then deep cleaning to extract ingrained dirt and then finally applying a fresh sealer to protect the floor going forward. Having measured up I was able to create a detailed quote that listed all the products needed and how to order them. With the quote agreed a date was set for the work to start.
Stripping and Deep Cleaning an Indian Sandstone Tiled Floor
To strip off the old sealers a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go was sprayed onto the floor and left to soak in for ten minutes. This dwell time gives the product time to break down the old coatings and other contaminates, it also gives it time to seep into the pores of the stone and digest the ingrained dirt. Then focusing on grout cleaning a stiff long handled grout brush was run along all the grout lines to get them clean.
Next a coarse carbide brush was fitted to a weighted Klindex rotary floor buffer and run over each tile using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean for further cleaning power. This machine is very heavy which ensures extra traction with the floor to improve cleaning and in this case, I added an extra 10kg for maximum effect. It generates a lot of soiling which is extracted with an industrial wet vacuum.
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When I was happy the floor was clean it was given an acid rinse using a dilution of Tile Doctor Grout Clean-Up which was scrubbed into the stone and rinsed off and then extracted as before. This process further cleans up the stone, removing old grout smears and neutralises the PH level of the floor after the use of Remove and Go which is an alkaline cleaner.
The floor was then left to dry off overnight so it would be ready for sealing the next day.
Sealing an Indian Sandstone Tiled Kitchen
The Sandstone floor was sealed using five coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go applied by hand with cotton cloths. This sealer was chosen because it provides durable stain protection and results in an attractive low sheen finish which the client had requested. This sealer is perfect for sandstone which is very porous in its nature and did well to bring out the natural features and colours in the stone.
My client was very happy with the transformation and greatly relieved that we’d managed to rescue the very large natural stone floor in their well-used guest annexe.
For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a gentle yet effective cleaner that won’t impact the sealer. Strong bleach-based cleaners need to be avoided as they will strip the sealer off the stone prematurely.
Professional Renovation of an Riven Sandstone Kitchen in Norfolk
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