Edinburgh – Tiling Tips – Tips and Information About Tiling

Polishing a Small Marble Lobby at an Edinburgh Residence

23rd September 2017 Reese Mackie 0 Comments cleaned, Edinburgh, entrance, hall, hallway, high shine, lobby, Lothian, Marble, polished, sealed, tiled, vestibule

I was asked to take a look at this small but beautiful Marble tiled vestibule at the entrance to a lovely house in Edinburgh. As you can see from the photograph below the colours in the Marble were looking washed out and the overall appearance was dull and lifeless. As the main entrance it must have seen a lot of foot traffic and a fair amount of wear and abuse over the years. Cleaning and Polishing Marble Tiles The first task was to brush and vacuum the floor to remove debris and grit. After this the floor was sprayed with a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean a tile cleaner that is safe to use on stone floors and scrubbed in with a black buffing pad fitted to a rotary machine. This released a lot of dirt from the tile and the soiled cleaning solution was then rinsed off with water and extracted using a wet vacuum. Once the floor had all the surface dirt removed we then proceeded to polish the marble with a set of diamond burnishing pads which restore the shine the stone. The burnishing pads come in a set of four and you start with a coarse pad with a little water and work your way through the set moving from a the coarse pads through to the finer pads; this process polishes the stone more and more until you get a smooth finish. After each pad was used the area was thoroughly

Marble Posts

Dull Marble Tiles Re-polished

14th March 2017 Reese Mackie 0 Comments cleaning services, cleaning tiles, Edinburgh, floor polishing, floor restoration, hallway floor cleaning, kitchen cleaning, marble tiles, tile maintenance, tiled floor

Details below of a Marble Tiled floor installed in the hallway and kitchen of a house in Edinburgh. The tiles were in good physical shape but had lost their polished appearance over time resulting in a dull un-appealing finish. This is not unusual for polished stone especially in high traffic areas such as hallways and kitchens. Cleaning Marble Floor Tile and Grout Our first job was to give the floor a general clean to remove grime and dirt especially along the grout lines. This was done by applying a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is left to dwell on the floor before being scrubbed in, Pro-Clean is an alkaline cleaner so it’s safe to use on tile and stone unlike acidic cleaners which can damage the surface of the stone over time. The now dirty cleaning solution was removed using a wet vacuum and the floor given a rinse using water. Marble Tiled Floor Polishing The next step was to burnish the Marble which is a process that removes ingrained dirt and brings up the polish on the tile. The process involves the application of four diamond pads in sequence; you start with the coarse pad together with a little water and this cuts through and removes surface grime and any surface seal. You then progress through the other finer pads one by one until you get to the

Marble Posts

Edwardian Marble Floor Restoration

22nd February 2017 Reese Mackie 0 Comments bathroom floor, commercial, Edinburgh, hotel, marble tiles, Tile Cleaning, tile sealing, Walkerburn

Windlestraw is a picturesque Edwardian manor hotel overlooking the Tweed Valley, near Walkerburn in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. One of the bathrooms in the manor was in the process of being refurbished when two layers of floor tiles were removed, unveiling an original Marble tiled floor dating back to the 1920s. After the top layers of tile had been removed the Marble was still covered in old adhesive and cement and although Marble is known for its quality and durability the hotel owner didn’t want the building contractor to proceed any further in case they damaged it. The owner was keen to restore the Marble floor as an original feature so we were called in to set the situation right. Refurbishing a Marble Tiled Bathroom Floor To restore the floor I used two processes known as milling and burnishing. Milling literally involves grinding down uneven or rough surfaces using very coarse, diamond encrusted pads. The pads are usually used to resolve lippage issues on natural stone but in this case we needed to use the very coarse abrasive pads to grind off the adhesive and cement. I used a set of three coarse milling pads rinsing with water between each pad and starting with a 50 grit pad, before moving on to 100 and 200 grit pads. This process was very effective and

Marble Posts

Antique Marble Lamp Base Restored in Fife

20th February 2017 Reese Mackie 0 Comments Edinburgh, Fife, lamp base cleaning, lamp base sealing, marble tiles, scotland

At this property in Fife, I was asked to restore not a tiled floor, but in fact a solid black Marble lamp base. The lamp base was particularly by scratched and damaged as a result of a lack of care and consideration by a removal company. It’s a shame to see such a high-quality item suffer this kind of damage; nonetheless, I was keen to help with restoring it back to looking its best. I arranged to collect the base the next time we were working in the area of Fife, a historic area of Scotland which houses St. Andrew’s, one of the world’s oldest universities. The customer and I agreed that I would drop it back a week later following the restoration. Restoring a Damaged Black Marble Lamp Base Restoring the appearance of the Marble (and other high-end stones such as Limestone) commonly requires a process known as burnishing. To begin, we applied to the base the first of a set of four six-inch burnishing pads. This pad, which had a Coarse grit, was fitted to a small handheld buffing machine and used to burnish the Marble with a little water for lubrication. I then worked my way through the pad system to apply Medium, Fine and Very Fine grit burnishing pads. The process gradually improved the appearance of the base, managing to remove some of the lighter scratches; however, it