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As you can see from our "before" photo, this was a floor in dire need of attention. Our customer had recently moved into the house and "inherited" a lovely Fired Earth terracotta floor. However, it had been subjected to emulsion polishing over the course of a number of years which had built-up, trapping years of dirt within the many layers. Unfortunately, the removal of such coatings is a labour-intensive process as it involves stripping each tile individually by hand using a methyl chloride stripping solution. The results though, are plain to see. After cleaning the tiles, we resealed the terracotta with boiled linseed oil and finished with a number of coats of Fired Earth’s water based sealer. This brought back the lovely rich colour of the clay and imparted a soft sheen in order to make the floor easy to care for. |
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In many ways, this was a typical contract for us, involving a high quality (not to mention expensive) floor that had been badly treated by Building Contractors. The floor had been sealed with an inappropriate PVA-type sealer which left the stone with little protection and did nothing to bring out the true colours of the stone. To compound the problems, the grout residues had not been removed and a plasterer had been allowed to work in the room sans dustsheet. The floor was initially machine-scrubbed using first, an alkaline solution to remove the existing sealer and then an acid solution to remove the grout and plaster residues. This left a clean surface on which to apply a number of coats of a resin sealer which highlighted the striking colours in the stone and gave the somewhat coarse surface a semblance of a sheen to aid ongoing maintenance. |
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This was a contract carried out for a large construction company on behalf of a scientific establishment in whose grounds stood a large Victorian manor, converted into offices. Unfortunately in the 1980s the magnificent Minton floor was covered with carpet tiles. On a positive note, however, they did serve to protect the floor for nigh on twenty years. Once the carpet tiles were removed and some missing tiles were replaced, the remaining adhesive residues were removed with a methyl chloride stripper. The floor was then sealed using boiled linseed oil and finished with a water based sealer to give the effect seen in the picture. Unfortunately, we have no photograph of the floor "before" - just imagine the area covered with chocolate brown carpet tiles!
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This is a section of our website which we intend to add to on an ongoing basis in an effort to illustrate the full range of flooring contracts that we are involved in. For now we have small representative sample which we hope you will find of interest. |
