Our customer in Lochmaben, near Lockerbie in Dumfries had bought the old bank with a secret : Victorian Tiles hidden under the old carpet in the entrance hall. The property was in the process of being converting it to a residential property where the customer was going to live. During the renovations he discovered a victorian tiled floor in the entrance hall. It was a good size but had very thick carpet glue covering the whole floor as well as soiling and a chunk of concrete at one of the door ways. To add to the challenge there were a 2 damaged tiles to fix. The customer had attempted to remove the carpet glue using various cleaners and paint stripper but nothing had “done the job”.
After surveying the floor it was evident that if we could restore the floor the colours would really stand out and make the entrance gall a real feature of the property.
We started by concentrating our focus on removing the carpet glue. First job was to scrape the hardened glue off and then apply a coating of Tile Doctors Oxy-Gel and Nanotech HBU Remover mixed together and left for 20 minutes. This combination started to break down the glue and allowed it to be scraped off to the point where only small deposits of glue were left. These deposits were dealt with by using a further coating of the solution of Oxy-Gel and Nanotech HBU and left for a further 15 minutes. This time a black pad was used to remove the remaining glue deposits and left the floor clean.
Next job to to remove the concrete deposit at one of the doorways. This was done by chiselling the concrete carefully so that the tiles underneath were not damaged. This took around 30 minutes of chipping away bot by bit and checking for any damage. Due to the care taken no tiles were damaged. A thin layer of concrete was left on the tiles but this was removed with some water and a 200 grit coarse pad on a buffing machine.
The floor had no Damp Proof Membrane so the next stage was to prevent any potential efflorescence (salt issues) after cleaning the floor and removing the carpet glue. To do this we used tile doctors Acid Gel. We applied this with a brush over the entore floor and left it to soak into the tiles for 10 minutes and then scrubbed the floor with a deck brush and added clod clean water as we went. Once this process was completed we lifted the soiled solution with a wet vac and then rinse the floor thoroughly with cold, clean water and vacuumed the floor again. The action of using Tile Doctors Acid Gel impedes any salt issues oxidising to the surface and leaving white marks of the tiles. It was now time to leave the victorian tiles to dry over night so that they were dry for sealing.
Before the sealing was started we had to repair some tiles. One of the tiles was brown and the pother was white. The repairs were done using epoxy resin sticks. The brown colour was created by mixing different colours to achieve a matching colour. The white coloured repair was luckily straight forward to created and fix.
The next day we tested the floor to ensure it was dry enough for laying on the sealer. Tile Doctors Colour Grow sealer was chosen as it is a tough and water repellent sealer and also enhances the colour of the tiles. Two coats were put on the floor 40 minutes apart to allow the first coat to dry and soak into the tiles. The second coat was also allow to dry and after 1 hour we performed a water test to ensure the sealer was working. The test was successful and the job was complete. The customer was delighted as he could see in just 2 days how the floor was transformed back to its former glory.
