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Manchester, Liverpool Derbyshire Lancashire"
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Manchester Lancashire Derbyshire"
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On this occasion we got called out to T
odmorden
to see what we can do with this original Flagstone floor. Todmorden is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is 17 miles (27 km) north east of Manchester.
On arrival it was pretty clear that milling would be the best option because it had rough texture, scratches and lippage. Stone Milling takes off about 70% of the slab texture leaving nice and smooth finish. Milling is more expensive then regular cleaning but the difference it you get from it is deffinitely worth it!
For Milling we used Diamond Milling Pads starting from 50 grit then moving to 100 grit and finishing off with 200 grit.
When milling natural stone then 50 grit does all the hard work and cuts down all rough areas, removes scratches in stone and lippage. 100 grit is there to smooth the surface and remove any scratches which came from the 50 grit. Last one is the 200 grit diamond pad which will give the required finished look and closes natural stone pores.
The actual process is same with all three pads. They get fitted on to rotary machine and water will be added as a lubricant, this way no dust will be created. Also when sanding stone it's important to add extra weight to the rotary machine. After burnishing the stone all soiled water will be removed with wet vacuum and then rinsed several times with water.
When all the milling was done we still had to do an extra clean on the floor as it had some texture and diamond pads won't get everywhere. For corners we used diamond hand blocks which worked as a treat and for the rest we used a strong mix of our alkaline cleaner. We left the cleaning solution to dwell in for about 5 minutes and then scrubbed with stiff srubbing brush fitted to our rotary machine. Again all soiled water got removed with wet vax and then rinsed several times with clean water. After cleaning we left the floor to dry for 3 days.
On return we first went over the floor with our damp tester, as it's very important that stone floor is completely dry before sealing. We found couple of damp areas but fortunately nothing too bad. Problem areas got dried out with heat gun.
For sealing we used water based breathable topical sealer which lets any salt and mineral deposits to come through if they should appear. It also gives a nice smooth finish which makes cleaning much easier and enhances natural colours in the flagstone. Reason for breathable film forming sealer is the fact we assumed there is no damp proof membrane under the floor, as it's the original floor.
Sealer got applied with a paint pad and in total the natural stone floor took six coats of the sealer.
I think it's fair to say we archieved a brilliant result on this floor! Most importantly we made our customer happy and that's all what counts. She even left us a nice review:
To enquire about your tiled floor from our stone restoration service experts, get in touch via our C ontact page or call 07598 913 581.
Tags: Natural Stone , Flagstone , Milling , Burnishing , Diamond Pads , Yorkshire , Sealing , Greater Manchester , Quality Tile Care , Flagstone Cleaning , Sandstone Cleaning