Travertine Tile Cleaning Archives - East Yorkshire Tile Doctor

Travertine Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Travertine tiles carried out in East Yorkshire

Travertine is a natural material that has unique features and colouring that no other stone can offer. The distinctive look of Travertine creates some of the most distinguished floor tiles and has proved very popular with commercial and residential use. It can be used for floor tile, kitchen flooring, bathroom walls and floors, and it is often used externally. There are many varieties such as Tumbled and Polished and like all natural stone it needs to be sealed to prevent dirt becoming trapped in the pores. Unlike other stones however Travertine does suffer from pitting however these holes can be filled.

One of the main issues with polished Travertine is the polish starts to wear down with use and eventually becomes dull. Another issue we see is acid etching where strong unsuitable cleaning products used on the stone etch the surface and ruin its appearance. To resolve both these problems the stone needs to be re-polished with diamond encrusted burnishing pads of different grits to hone the stone and bring back that deep shine. If this sounds familiar you should talk to us about our annual maintenance program where we visit you once a year to clean, polish and seal your floor thus keeping it in top condition.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Travertine Wall Tiles Cleaned Polished and Sealed Hull

Travertine Bathroom Wall Tiles Refinished Following Installation

For this job, I was asked to work on my client’s newly installed bathroom in their house in Hull, the largest city in East Yorkshire. The new bathroom consisted of natural Travertine stone, and my task was to give the tiles a thorough clean, polish and seal. Travertine is a form of limestone with a distinct appearance consisting mainly of tan, white and cream-coloured shades. It’s commonly used for both residential and commercial use; although recently installed the tiles were dull and lifeless and not looking anywhere near their best.

Travertine Wall tiles Before Cleaning Polishing and sealing Hull

Polishing and cleaning Travertine bathroom tiles

My first task was to polish the wall tiles using the Tile Doctor burnishing system, this consists of four six-inch buffing pads with different grits. Starting with a coarse pad you grind off any dirt off the tile before moving onto the medium, fine and very fine pads which build up the polish. The result was a superior polished finish, as you can see from the below photo

Travertine Wall tiles Before Cleaning and Polishing Hull

Travertine Wall tiles After Cleaning and Polishing Hull

After achieving the desired polished finish, I set about cleaning the tiles using a solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, a high alkaline cleaner safe to use on stone and grout, diluted with water. Once mixed, the solution was applied using spray bottles as the air makes the solution lighter and enables it to stick to the vertical surface. The solution was then scrubbed into the tile and grout to lift out any ingrained dirt and muck left over from the initial installation of the bathroom.

Following the clean I gave the bathroom tiles a good rinse with water to remove any trace of product; I used a wet-vacuum machine to remove any excess residue and left the tiles to dry.

Sealing Travertine bathroom tiles

The last step was to seal the bathroom Travertine tiles. After checking to make sure the whole area was completely dry, I applied five coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. Colour Grow is a colour intensifying, impregnating sealer which accentuated the natural shades in the Travertine, while at the same time providing a durable surface seal. The product is suitable for use on both internal and external Travertine tiled floors and walls, along with a range of other natural stone surfaces.

The sealer was applied using cloths, and the Tile Doctor three cloth system. The surface was also buffed after the application of each coat of sealer.