Cleaning, Polishing and Sealing a Large Travertine Tiled Floor

The entrance and foyer area of this listed building had had travertine tiles with small slate inserts installed during a refurbishment in 2003 . Once an impressive floor it had deteriorated over the past eighteen years and had never been professionally cleaned since installation. Not only had the floor collected years’ worth of dirt in the pores of the stone the natural holes that were filled in during manufacture had started to pop out leaving an unsightly appearance. 

The travertine floor was surveyed and a test clean was carried out on a small inconspicuous area to demonstrate what would be involved and to verify which method and products would be the most efficient choice. From this an accurate quote was provided, which was accepted, and a date was soon booked to carry out the work. 

 

Due to the size of the area, 7 working days was agreed to complete the floor, working in sections at a time. This allowed a safe working environment to be maintained without impacting the residents too much. 

 

The cleaning process started with the an application of a strong dilution of an alkaline based tile cleaner that breaks down heavy soils and old sealers. It was important to ensure as much dirt was removed from the pores, pockets, and holes in the travertine as possible. It was left to soak in and get to work breaking down the dirt for roughly ten minutes before scrubbing it in with a rotary floor scrubbing machine. The soil released during this process was then rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum. The section of flooring was then inspected, and the process repeated if needed, stubborn stains were be dealt with by spot treating. Once cleaned air driers where left in place to help speed up the drying process. 

The holes in the Travertine were then filled using an epoxy resin filler specifically designed to fill in stone, a combination of straw and light straw colours to compliment the different tones in the tiles. Once applied it was allowed to dry completely before progressing onto the next stage of the refurbishment process. 

Filling the holes leaves a residue on the tile which required smoothing back the surface first with coarse 50, 100 and then 200-grit soft milling pads. This process generates a bit of soil which needs to be rinsed and extracted between each pad. 

 

The burnishing process using a further set of finer pads starting with 400-grit. The pads were applied to the floor as before with a heavy floor buffing machine using water to lubricate the process. The pad was run over each tile around three times and the fine slurry this process generates is rinsed off afterwards with water and then extracted with a wet vacuum before moving onto the 800-grit and then 1500-grit slowly building back the appearance of the stone. 

A full day was allowed for each section of travertine tiles prior to sealing which then had one coat of a solvent based colour intensifying sealer that provides durable surface protection as well as allowing the surface to breath and enhance colour.