Travertine Tile Cleaning Archives - West Sussex Tile Doctor

Travertine Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Travertine tiles carried out in West Sussex

Travertine is a natural material that has unique features and colouring that no other stone can offer. The distinctive look of Travertine creates some of the most distinguished floor tiles and has proved very popular with commercial and residential use. It can be used for floor tile, kitchen flooring, bathroom walls and floors, and it is often used externally. There are many varieties such as Tumbled and Polished and like all natural stone it needs to be sealed to prevent dirt becoming trapped in the pores. Unlike other stones however Travertine does suffer from pitting however these holes can be filled.

One of the main issues with polished Travertine is the polish starts to wear down with use and eventually becomes dull. Another issue we see is acid etching where strong unsuitable cleaning products used on the stone etch the surface and ruin its appearance. To resolve both these problems the stone needs to be re-polished with diamond encrusted burnishing pads of different grits to hone the stone and bring back that deep shine. If this sounds familiar you should talk to us about our annual maintenance program where we visit you once a year to clean, polish and seal your floor thus keeping it in top condition.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Travertine Bathroom ensuite After clean and seal Horsham

Travertine Tiled en-suite maintained in Horsham

The pictures below are from a Travertine tiled en-suite bathroom at a house in the town of Horsham. A black mould had become ingrained in the pores of the shower tiles and the owner wanted it cleaned up before she rented the property out. The client had tried various well known supermarket products to remove the mould and grime from the tile, grout and sealing strip but without success so we got a call.

Travertine Bathroom ensuite Before clean and seal Horsham

Cleaning Travertine Shower Tile

After explaining the cleaning process to the owner I set about the task by first cleaning the tiles and grout with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which was decanted into a spray bottle and sprayed onto the tile where it was allowed to soak in before being scrubbed in with a stiff brush. The wall was washed down with fresh water and stubborn areas re-treated. This worked well and removed all the discolouration and grime leaving the tiles and grout looking almost new.

Sealing Travertine Shower Tile

Travertine is a natural stone and to prevent grime penetrating into the pores of the tile making it difficult to clean it needs to be sealed so the next step was to let the tile and grout dry out followed by some assistance with a heat gun. Once they were dry we were able to seal them using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that also enhances the natural colour in the stone.

To finish the job we cleaned up the shower head and taps removing any calcium deposits and cleaned the shower screen. The old silicone sealer was discoloured and the only effective way to refresh it was to completely remove and replace it with new mould resistant silicone.

Once all the remedial work was complete the client came to have a look and was very pleased with the outcome as was I.

Travertine Shower Tiles refreshed in West Sussex

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Travertine Tiled Floor After Cleaning and Polishing

Travertine Tiled Floor Maintained in Horsham

1 Comment / Grout Cleaning, Horsham Tile Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Work History / westsussex

This Travertine tiled floor was installed in the high traffic lobby area of a house in Horsham, the tiles were in reasonable condition but had become dull over the years and were now in need of a refresh

Cleaning Travertine Tile

I swept the floor and gave it a quick wash with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean paying particular attention to the grout joints on which I used a stiff hand brush along the grout lines to get them looking clean. The next step was to use the diamond encrusted burnishing pad system starting with the coarse pad and water to clean the tiles and remove any remaining sealant that may have been present on the tile. This was continued with the finer pads using nothing but water as before then rinsing the floor of any dirt picked up by the pads. When the floor was dry I used a green polishing pad to add a shine to the floor.

Sealing Travertine Tile

To protect the travertine it was sealed using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer which enhances the natural colour in stone. Once it was all dry again I buffed it up again but used a soft white buffing pad. You can’t really appreciate the difference in the photographs however natural stones such as travertine tiles do need to be maintained on a regular basis if you want them to keep on looking good.

Travertine Tiled floor refreshed in West Sussex

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