Travertine floor cleaning Birmingham
Travertine is a popular choice for flooring and if it’s properly taken care of it will last a lifetime. That said, as a soft limestone rock it is vulnerable to damage if not well maintained. If you need some help keeping your travertine floor tiles looking their best why not call Tile & Stone Medic Birmingham today to see what we can do for you?
Common issues with travertine
Travertine flooring is susceptible to a host of common issues, thankfully most are quite easily managed by an experienced professional cleaner. The most common form of damage seen with travertine floor tiles is called Etching. Travertine is marked easily by spillages of regular household items like sauces, vinegar, fruit juice and similar liquids. Etching refers to light or pale marks which appear on the surface of the tile after such a spillage. It can look like a small patch of discolouration, or sometimes covers several tiles depending on the size of the spill.
Travertine tiling should always be sealed and looks its best when professionally polished, whether that’s a reflective shine or a matt finish. Whatever the finish though, with regular footfall, light splashing and general wear and tear, the finish of the travertine will gradually degrade. If you’ve noticed your floor tiles becoming flat and generally dull they may need to be re-polished to restore their sparkle.
Resealing travertine
Resealing travertine tile floors is a common job that helps keep the stone in good condition. Sealant basically works as a barrier against day to day wear, but as such will gradually break itself down in the process. Wearing down of the sealant may leave the travertine tiles looking dull, but more importantly it will also leave it far more open to staining. It’s therefore vital to ensure the sealer is topped up.
It’s important to lay travertine on a solid and well laid subfloor, if not movement in the subfloor can mean tiles become loose. If this isn’t treated tiles can crack and become dangerous. Similarly, if the grouting between the tiles is subject to excessive wear tiles can again become loose. If light coloured grouting has been used it’ll show dirt more readily than darker colours.
How we maintain travertine tile flooring
We use a variety of treatments and solutions to repair aged or damaged travertine floors. For etching repair, we’ll need to take a look first to see how extensive the damage is. Generally our technique involves specialist tools used to buff out the visible damage, before applying a finishing polish and reseal.
If the travertine tiles have faded or become dull, they may only require a simple clean and polish. This polishing can be done to your specification depending on the finish you’d like. For example, tiles could be left matt, have a wet-look finish or be taken to a high sheen. Finishing with a professional seal will help protect against staining from minor spillages and general abrasion in future. Providing the floor is swept and hoovered regularly, the sealer should only need a top up once a year or so.
When tiles are chipped, cracked or seriously damaged we have to asses the scale of the damage to the tile before we can choose the best treatment. It may be the case that a tile needs to be fully removed and replaced, in which case we can help with tracking down replacement stone.
Will repairing my travertine tiles cause disruption
Our restoration work is planned around your schedule so as to minimise any disruption to your home or workplace. When repaired etched travertine and damage from general wear and tear, work can often be completed in a few hours. Our services don’t use bulky or loud pieces of machinery and the strongest chemicals applied would be mild alkalis which don’t present any significant hazard. You can feel assured that the job will be completed as safely and efficiently as possible, so you can get back to enjoying your space and its newly refreshed tiling.
If your travertine floor tiles need some professional care and attention then don’t hesitate to get in touch with Tile & Stone Medic Birmingham today. We’re here for all your maintenance and repair needs!
FAQs
Whilst we may use specialist chemicals in the course of our work, we can assure you that by the time we leave all residues will be gone and your tile or stone flooring will be perfectly safe for everyone to use. We work to extremely high standards of health and safety, conducting proper risk assessments where appropriate and never putting you or anyone else in danger.
We always work in the most considerate way possible. Work will be tailored to your needs and will fit around your schedule where possible. We avoid bringing loud or bulky machinery into your home and when a job is complete we thoroughly clean up after ourselves to leave your space looking as tidy as it did when we arrived.
