Earlier this year we were contacted by a property management company regarding the restoration of a terrazzo floor in the communal entrance hallway of a block of flats they managed in Penarth. The floor had several cracks and after reviewing some similar work published on my website, they were confident we could achieve a good result.
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Happy to oblige I scheduled a time with the managing agent to survey the floor and create a quote for its restoration. Dirt was badly ingrained into the stone, and it was clear it had been some time since it was last professionally cleaned and sealed. Terrazzo needs to be sealed to prevent dirt from becoming ingrained in the floor and in this case the sealer had worn down and was no longer providing any protection. The other issue were the cracks which is not uncommon in an old floor like this that has seen some settlement.
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Later that day I worked out a quote and emailed it over to the agent who gave me the go-ahead to restore the floor.
Cleaning and Repairing a Terrazzo Tiled Communal Entrance Hallway
I had to work in sections so as not to impede access for the residents and started by addressing the cracks. After clearing out the crack it is filled with a specialist product which is coloured to match. It is then touched up carefully with paint to blend in the repair.
Once dry, work progressed onto burnishing the floor using a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing Pads. The process starts with a coarse 400-grit pad which removes any remaining old sealer and light scratch marks. The pad is run over the floor three or four times and then the soiling generated by the process is rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum. This is then repeated with a medium 800-grit pad which smooths the surface after the coarse 400-grit pad and is the first stage in polishing the floor. After another rinse and extraction, the pad was changed for a finer 1500-grit pad which further polishes the floor.
The last pad is a very fine 3500-grit which is run over the floor dry with only a little water sprayed onto the surface. This last pad adds the final polish to the floor and really brings up the surface and produces a lovely satin shine finish.
Sealing a Terrazzo Tiled Communal Entrance Hallway
The floor was left to dry overnight ready to be sealed the following day. The hallway would see a lot of foot traffic, so I chose a hard-wearing impregnator to seal the floor. The product being Tile Doctor Colour Grow which soaks into the surface adding protection from within, it also contains a colour enhancer that improves the natural colours in the Terrazzo.
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The result was a much cleaner and easier to service floor, the sealer also helped the crack repairs to blend in and overall the hallway looked much healthier.
For the regular cleaning for a sealed floor like this I recommend using a Tile Doctor’s Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a mild yet effective product that won’t impact the sealer. Using stronger bleach-based products will shorten the life of the sealer.
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Source: Professional Terrazzo Cleaning and Renovation Service near Penarth Wales
Tile Doctors have the products, equipment and experience to tackle all sorts of problems including tile refurbishment, removing scratches, grout renovation and even stain removal with products such as Tile Doctor Reduxa which can lift Red Wine stains out of natural stone.