This customer was having problems cleaning a travertine tile floor in Birmingham, in fact she was finding it impossible. She had dogs and as the grout lines were quite deep and because it was travertine stone with many pit marks and holes the dirt was getting lodged in. Our task was to clean the floor and grout lines, repair the holes and a few cracks and then the seal the floor with a none colour enhancing impregnator seal.
Firstly, heavy duty floor cleaner was mopped on to a section of floor and left to dwell, for this job we used Prochem ‘Ultra Pac Renovate’ as not only being a heavy duty floor cleaner, it also contains technology that penetrates deep into the pores of the stone forcing grime and grease to the surface. Once the dwell time had been achieved, 320 grit honing powder was sprinkled onto the wet area and then agitated in for approximately 3 minutes using a rotary scrubbing machine with a soft to medium rotary brush attached. The area was then rinsed and neutralised using freshwater extraction. This process was carried out over the 30 square metre area.
Whilst the floor was drying, the repair work was then undertaken, concentrating on the holes first. A straw coloured epoxy resin was used, mixed with hardener, so that it dries extremely quickly and makes the repair very resilient. Once the holes had been filled they were left to dry, whilst the cracks were being repaired. Cracks are repaired using specially formulated wax sticks that melt at 300 degrees. They are melted by using a specifically designed hand held iron that heats up to 300 degrees. The wax is then melted into and over the crack and left to dry. Once dry the excess wax around the crack and on the surface of the stone is removed with a paint scrapper. All surfaces where repairs have been made including the holes are smoothed over with appropriate hand held diamond micron pads to remove any excess from the surface and to blend the repair into as close a match as possible to the floor it self.
Final part of the work was to seal the floor. This was done by working Miracle ‘511 Plus H2O’ sealer into the floor with a pad applicator, it was left to dwell for 5 minutes, if any pools formed these were worked around the floor and left for a further 5 minutes. Any excess was then wiped off. The customer wanted a natural honed finish (mat).
If your Travertine floors need cleaning, repairing and sealing, then please contact us for a none obligation quotation.
