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This time we got called out to Horwich in Bolton , Greater Manchester. Horwich is a nice little town with about population of 20 000 people. Our customers had been living there about 5 years and when they bought the house, last owners advised them to wax the slate floor yearly with Lithofin Wax as they had been doing it for about five years already. Floor was already then looking bad but over the years toping it up with wax just made this slate floor look horrible. Reason for it being not deep cleaning between coats, just mopping won't do the trick with wax, as with hot weather wax will get sticky if there is too much of it. When it get's sticky, it will be a magnet to dirt, as you can see from photos here.
When I went to see the floor, I knew from the first look, this slate floor is going to be very hard to restore. I did our wax stripping testers and our customer was suprised what he saw. He didn't know such beautiful tiles were underneath this thick soiled wax. I explained our work process and they were happy to book us in straight away. Our customers wanted it done quick as this dark soiled stone floor was ruining the whole rooms appearance. Lukily for them we were able to accommodate their needs with two weeks waiting time.
On arrival we started cleaning this slate stone floor with Lithofin WAX-OFF. Lithofin WAX-OFF dissolves organic dirt such as wax, oil,
grease, tar, fresh paint, sealants, care product residues, etc.
and allows them to be removed with water. It is extremely strong product, so using filtered masks was essential. Cleaning product got sprayed on and then it got left for 20 minutes to break down layers of wax. After dwelling time we scrubbed the floor with stiff scrubbing brush fitted to rotary machine. As it is riven slate, then of course machine wouldn't get to everywhere, so we had to scrubb rougher stone areas, grout and edges with our hand brushes.
Due to tiles rough texture we had to repeat the very same process 2-3 times, working small sections. It was tiring job but as long as we can get the floor restored for our customer, we don't mind hard work.
All cleaning took us two long days, after all floor was cleaned from wax we did another clean with our alkaline cleaner/stripper to make sure we get everything off the slate floor and leave it in perfect state for sealing. After cleaning with alkaline cleaner we rinsed the floor thee times with clean water, to nautralise all chemicals.
When we returned to seal this beautiful slate floor, first thing we did was making sure the stone floor was completely dry by conducting several damp tests. There was still some dampness in some grout lines around edges, so we had to dry them out with our heat gun.
For sealing we used film forming topical sealer, it isspecially formulated water-based blend of acrylic polymers that provides both a stain resistant surface seal and a durable low-sheen finish. In total this slate floor took 4 coats of the sealer, leaving half an hour between coats to dry.
I think we can all agree that this floor went through massive transformation. It really fills us with joy when we can make such a difference for people!
Our customer was extremely happy with the work and also took our yearly maintenance plan.
Before leaving we also gave all the maintenance info needed to take care of this beautiful natural stone floor: https://www.qualitytilecare.co.uk/maintenance-tips-and-advice-for-your-natural-stone-floors-walls
Tags: Slate Cleaning
, Natural Stone Restoring
, Wax Stripping
, Slate Floor Restoration
, Bolton Floor Cleaning
, Bolton
, Greater Manchester
, Bolton Tile Cleaning
, Grout Cleaning
, Floor Sealing
, Original Post: Riven Slate Cleaning