For this job, I paid a visit to the bustling town of Windermere in South Cumbria. My client asked me to refinish a black and white Terrazzo tiled entrance and hallway floor. Terrazzo if you’re not familiar is a very interesting and beautiful stone of Italian origin, which has been used for flooring in houses for centuries.
We had previously quoted to do the work on this floor however the customer has also received a quote from another firm in Glasgow and had chosen to go with them solely because they were more expensive. However, it stands to reason that the most expensive companies are not always the best quality and Tile Doctor prides itself on the amount of customer feedback we display on our websites which we believe is a far better indicator.
On the arranged day no one from the Glasgow firm showed up and after following up with the firm a young man in his early 20s arrived five hours late and began work on the floor. According to the customer he spent three days attempting to complete the job, but ran out of time and asked the client to apply the sealer themselves. The client applied the sealer, but as she had never done it before the floor turned out blotchy in appearance and she was far from happy.
To cut a long story short, my client complained to the Glaswegian company, after all she had paid for a full service and not received it. Unable to get a satisfactory conclusion from them she decided to call in Tile Doctor to put the matter right. I must point out that although I have included before and after photos one this post it’s really difficult to appreciate the extent of the problem without seeing the floor in real life.
Re-Applying Sealer to a Terrazzo tile floor
To resolve the sealer, and to provide my client with the polished finish she had originally wanted, I burnished the floor using a set of four Tile Doctor Diamond encrusted burnishing pads. Each of the four pads has a different grit: I first applied the coarse pad and worked my way through medium, fine and eventually very fine using a little water to lubricate and rinsing the floor between each pad to remove any residue; after the burnishing process was complete I gave the entire floor a final, thorough wash.
I then used a wet-vac machine to extract the water and get the floor as dry as possible before leaving for the day and allowing it to fully dry completely overnight, it’s very important that the floor is as moisture free as possible before being sealed as it can affect the final result.
The next day I returned to the house and sealed the floor with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, an impregnating, colour-enhancing sealer that really accentuates the look of the black and white tiles.
Now that the problem has been resolved, my client is very happy with the condition of her Terrazzo tiled entrance and hallway floor.
Source: Terrazzo Floor Cleaning and Restoration service in South Cumbria
Tile Doctor is the largest Tile and Stone cleaning network in the UK and have a number of services available including the provision of a regular maintenance service.