Hi all, went to look at cleaning and restoring about 35m2 of hasar 40x40. Tiles have been down 4 years and they have become scuffed and what looks like water/cleaner staining. Now restoration is not my everyday thing but with work only just picking up this begger can't be too choosy. Customer is ok for me to go in for a day and try in a inconspicuos area and see how i get on. Customer want's it to be shiny again although hasar was never overly polished anyway, but i do know what see means as i used to work for company that imported it. What do you guys sugguest? I thought of giving it a deep clean with lithofin stain away and hiring a buffer. I'm abit worried about the buffer leaving swirls in floor though tbh and thinking i might have to let this go. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Rick!

good news stoner, plenty of restoration guys are members here, (I'm just a mere mortal tiler tho'!)

As above, plenty of guys on here who do that every day

Hi Rick, If you cleaned the floor with a low rpm cleaner like a numatic 200rpm with a PH neutral cleaner Selden do one but any will do use it neat for first wash and then 50/50 for next two .
use a green or red pad if you are worried about scratching, i have used every type of cleaner & sealer going in the last 36 years, i'm not keen on the more common commercial cleaners or sealers and tend to use those that have done the job but are not well known = usually not available in retail outlets.

A lot are sold obviously but they lack strength as they are governed by sale to the public. We use stronger options and i'm talking about dirt & crap embedded in floors over a hundred years old see our stuff www.heritagetiling.com

Until late last year to seal we used British nova products and if asked we will still use them however as with all water based emulsion sealers the pretty look wears off and they need regular polishing to keep them up to scratch. The sealer we use now is Dry treat our Co has trialed it on listed & unlisted floors and it is brilliant but doesn't give a shiny finish on the plus side it is less prone to giving headaches by not taking to the floor and it does stop staining & still breathes which as most of our stuff is over lime screed is important.

I would not pass up cleaning the floor as you can make some good money, if you need any more details let me know but the kit and products are out there to use although i would get other cleaning products than lithofin we have used them & Hg but they are not strong enough for ingrained dirt they are fine for light -heavy domestic stuff but on the size of floor you are talking of you need to be able to buy in gallons and by the box so their products would be a hefty bill and still wouldn't get the crap off.

I would imagine it would need 1 machine you can hire them easy enough Selden are on the web so look them up and find a dealer near you another product they sell is seville orange that is great for getting greasy muck off and smells of oranges.
Good luck don't boot the job into touch you will need big kentucky type mops and 30 litre size mop buckets as well. plus when sealing a flat mop system.
Just re-read your post thought it was a larger floor but advice on products still the same.
Cheers Steve
waiting on a delivery otherwise wouldn't have seen post

Thanks for a great reply tenchman.
The stains i mentioned are what looks like household cleaners that someone has had a go with. The fitter who put the floor down went back and tried to do something and then never went back, customer thinks he made it worse tbh and this what slightly concerns me. I might try lithofin to start with as floor is not in the same league as some of your heritage floors and lithofin is easily accessible and customer is happy for me to try for a day somewhere it's not noticeable. I suppose i'm morried about removing the scuffs and making it look polished again, thanks again tenchman

Rick!

Hi Rick, true our jobs are so bad they look like they should be binned i'm going to put one in my albums that was in a fire and now looks fine.

However given how extreme some of our jobs are it was meant to reassure you that this mildy stained job would be a doddle for you provided you approach it correctly as you are doing like cleaning a corner first.

I'm sure once you get whatever is on the floor off it will look fine only problem is likely to be some stains that are really ingrained but deep cleaning should remove them.

I'm sure it will look brilliant when you get stuck in, it seems easy from my point of view as that's all i do but if it is something you only come across every now & then it may be off-putting.
You have plenty of back up here on the forum send pics if you like but it will add another string to your bow if you can get into this line
Cheers Steve