Victorian Quarry Tile Restoration

These Yellow and Black Quarry tiles are though to be original feature of this Victorian house in Reading and the owner was keen to get them renovated. The tiles were in basement of the house and over the years the tiles had suffered from water damage due to various small floods, they were now heavily soiled and the most challenging task would be to remove a large build up of mortar and cement. 

The first issue to tackle was to remove the dirt and ingrain soil which I did by scrubbing in a strong mix of a concentrated high alkaline cleaner, stripper and degreaser . The solution was left to soak in before ten minutes before being agitated with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine after which the now soiled cleaning solution was rinsed off using a hot water truck mounted extraction system. 

 

Now the ingrained dirt was taken care of, the most difficult task was to remove the cement/mortar built up that was covering a high percentage of the tiles., this was done using a combination of products including a concentrated phosphoric acid cleaner, a phosphoric and hydrochloric acid gel and 50,100 grit diamond pads. The gel was left to dwell overnight covered with plastic sheeting so it wouldn’t dry out. 

 

The gel worked wonders and the cleaning process was completed when the next day giving the floor another rinse with the hot water extraction system. With the quarry tiles now clear, a final spot check was made and hand held burnishing blocks and very coarse 50 grit milling pad followed by a 100 grit diamond pad were used before another rinse to finish it off. 

After leaving the floor to dry out over the weekend it was ready to be sealed. We had agreed on giving the Quarry Tiles a matt finish so I used three coats of a solvent based colour intensifying sealer which is a fully breathable colour enhancing sealer that works well on old clay tiles. 

 

I’m happy to say the floor turned out very well considering its condition, certainly my customer was very happy with the outcome and left the following feedback.