The pictures shown are of a Quarry Tiled floor in the dining room of a property in Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury. Bayston Hill is a large village in central Shropshire around three miles away from the county town of Shrewsbury.
The client had recently purchased the property and decided to renovate the quarry tiled dining room floor by painting it with red tile paint. The floor had not been painted previously and due to its age did not have a damp-proof membrane installed in the sub floor. I suspect the lack of a membrane led to moisture rising through the tile only to become trapped under the layer of paint. The moisture built-up until it destabilised the bond between the tile and the paint causing to lift and peel away.
I wouldn’t recommend painting a Quarry Tiled floor and clearly painting the tiles was not a viable option in this case. Looking for a solution the owner reached out to Tile Doctor to see if the Quarry tiles could be restored to their original condition. There was also an area by the kitchen door where there was a row of tiles missing in the threshold and just filled with concrete which needed restoring.
Restoring a Quarry Tiled Dining Room Floor
I started the work with the repair which involved removing the concrete, cleaning up the area and relaying replacement tiles. Luckily, they had found spare tiles in one of their sheds, so I was able to use those.
 |
 |
After the repair was done, I sprayed down a generous amount of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and then left it to work for about half an hour making sure that it wasn’t drying to the surface. After the dwell time I went over the floor with a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. The combination of Tile Doctor Remove and Go and the scrubbing action removed most of the paint. I then repeated the process on the stubborn areas.
There were some old cement deposits on the tiles in places which I removed using Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. I then rinsed the floor several times with water using a wet vacuum to remove the soil. I then left the floor to dry off for a week.
Sealing a Quarry Tiled Dining Room Floor
I returned the following week and first checked the floor was totally dry using a moisture meter. The readings were good, so we were ready to seal. I selected to use a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This is a solvent based sealer that provides durable surface protection as well as allowing the surface to breath which is important on this floor as it has no damp proof membrane. It provides a colour intensifying finish which enhanced the natural colour beautifully.
The client was very happy with the new floor and certainly pleased to see the back of the paint that they had applied. The floor now had the natural finish that was in keeping with the age of the property.
Source: Quarry Floor Cleaning, Sealing and Renovation Service in Shropshire
