Received a phone call from a young lady called Kim early May this year, to come out and quote for the Polished Marble floor so we agreed an appointment and a few weeks later I went along to price the job. I was working out the quote and who should enter the room but David Bentley; as I am a keen football fan I recognised him but couldn't put a name to the face, he obliged me with this and we struck up a conversation and no not about football but more to the job in hand.
The Polished Marble hadn’t been put down that long and unfortunately the tiler had applied an inappropriate sealer, as such the polished had been obscured and the Marble looked very blotchy. I did a test on the floor with some Tile Doctor Pro-Clean applied with a burnishing pad and was instantly rewarded with an improvement, needless to say I got the job and returned a few weeks later to start work.
It was a big job, the whole of the Kitchen floor, entrance hall, dining room, utility and downstairs W.C. approx 100m2. It took about 4 days to complete including the grout which needed a thorough clean due to staining from some sort of colourant that hadn't settled, the grout alone took quite some time to sort out.
The marble was of a good quality and highly polished (once the old sealer was removed), a water test which showed no noticeable absorbency and as such no further sealer was required. Any sealer applied at this point would only have been removed at a later when the tiles required re-burnishing anyway. I find their is a lot of discrepancy in the stone market as to whether or not polished Marble needs to be sealed or not; at Tile Doctor we have a couple of steps to see if this is the case.
Water Test Once tiles are cleaned and fully burnished, apply a table spoon of water onto the tiles and let stand for 5 minutes, after which time, clean off with a dry cloth and see if any water marks have been left.
If there are water marks apply 1 coat of Tile Docotr Ultra-Seal to the Polished Marble making sure all of the excess sealer is cleaned off after no more than 5 minutes.
If the water test has left no markings and the Marble is of a highly polished nature and of low porosity a sealer will not be required; if one is applied it will only sit on its surface and make the tiles look dull and this was the case for David Bentley’s floor.
You can see from the pictures the combination of burnishing with Tile Doctor Pro-Clean followed by a water test did the trick. Needless to say David was more than happy with the end results and even posed for me. He was such a nice chap I even thought about supporting his team, but once a Middlesbrough fan always a Middlesbrough fan, unfortunately for me.
Russell Taylor is a Director of Tile Doctor Ltd, UK Tile, Stone and Grout cleaning and sealing specialists, for more information about Tile Doctor and its range of Tile, Stone and Grout products visit http://www.tiledoctor.co.uk/
Posts
