I am trying to clean a victorian tiled hall floor but am having a problem.
The floor has been previously sealed with Hg Golvpolish.
I have cleaned the floor back using Hg Remover but the area of the floor that gets the most traffic and is a bit more worn than the rest now looks white and patchy and the more I clean it the worse it gets.
The rest of the floor looks great but this area is really spoiling it
The tiles seem more porous in this area could that be causing it.
Is there something I could use to get colour back into the tiles before re sealing with Golvpolish
I am totally baffled now and don't know what to do so help would be much appreciated.

David.

Are you sure you have removed all of the Golvpolish? Sounds to me as if there is still some on the other tiles. The white could be two things, It could be your not rinsing the floor and leaving some of the cleaner on the tiles or it could be efflorescence in the tiles coming out because you are adding water to them. How are you cleaning the floor? Photo's would help if you could upload some.

Hello David and welcome..

Can you tell us exactly what tiles they are..? and some pics would really be useful..

Hi. Thank you. What I have done so far is lightly scrub the main area of the floor that doesn't get much wear with a green scouring pad using HG Remover and that worked well. The problem area which allready had white patches in places I tried to clean back more deeply using wire wool but this has made more of the tiles look patchy. I tried not to use too much water just in case that was causing the problem. Also the area was rinsed well several times with clean water. I will try to get some photos uploaded.

Please do and what tile is it..?

Originally Posted by Dave

Hello David and welcome..

Can you tell us exactly what tiles they are..? and some pics would really be useful..

Hi.Thanks. They are victorian plain quarry tiles in Buff Red and Black. Its mostly the red tiles that are looking patchy with a white staining. I will try to get photos uploaded later today.

Ok..

When you wet them does this whiteness go..?

Here are some photos which I hope will help. From what I can remember they do look better when wet and the white patches show more as it dries. Thanks.

From the pics it does look like you still have some topical sealer left.. did you just apply to the pad and scrubbed or have you applied and left to dwell.. then scrubbed..

You do have to careful with over wetting though.. as this can cause further probs.. Quite a few of our viccy tile installers have tried and tested methods .. some even use Nitromors..

Hi. I just scrubbed it but did not leave it to dwell because i was worried about over wetting the tiles. I think some of the tiles do still have small areas of Golvpolish left on them but I don't understand why bits of them are white. I have tried re aplying Golvpolish to the white areas in the hope that it will lift the colour but it just looks the same. The white bits look like staining to me rather than efflorecsense but I am not sure.

The HG remover has just sent the topical sealer left on the tiles white.. Try again but rub the remover on without flooding it and leave for a while to dwell.. it should say this on the bottle.. Some stubborn areas will need agitating to loosen up..

Thank you very much I will try that. What would you use to agitate it with.

David.

An emulsifying pad..

Hire a low rpm scrubber = 200 rpm fit with black pad , buy polish stripper use neat on the floor apply to floor using an old brush let soak for few mins go over with scrubber. mop off continue until when the floor dries out it doesn't have any discolouration.

seal, we use dry treat. apply once no maitenance = brilliant cheers

Hi David,

The problem you have is very common with old unglazed tiles. It's a build of alkaline detergent that has been absorbed into the tile body. as the water from the cleaning solution evaporates the detergent base is left behind slowly releasing a white silicate residue. Mop down your floor with a bucket of water with a half cup of vinegar in it, do this until the alkaline is reduced. You'll notice that floor dries much quicker once the chemical is removed thoroughly.

Ta, frank.