Restoring Colour to Bleached Black Slate with Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal in Roehampton South London

Here we have a Slate tiled courtyard at a property in Roehampton SW15 that had been installed 20 years prior and clearly not received much love since. The main issue was the grouting which was cracked in places and water had been leaking into the basement below. I suspect the Slate had been previously cleaned with a strong acidic patio cleaner as the stone had lost all its colour and looked bleached.

The owner contacted me to see what could be done and once it was clear these were originally black slate tiles, I knew exactly what to do to restore the colour and put the life back into the floor. I discussed the restoration process with the owner and worked out a quote for the work. Happy to have finally found a solution I was given the go ahead and a date set for the work to start.

Cleaning and Repairing a Slate Tiled Courtyard

I started by removing the cracked and failing grouting and replaced it with a modern epoxy jointing compound normally sold for paving. There were a lot of grout lines to cover so it took some time to complete. The floor was then left to set before moving onto the next stage of cleaning.

To clean the Slate tiling I applied a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean and left it to soak in for ten minutes before scrubbing it in with a carbide brush fitted to a rotary machine. The dirt released from the tiles was then rinsed away and extracted with a wet vacuum. The floor was then inspected and the process repeated where needed until I was happy the Slate was as clean as it could be.

Sealing a Slate Tiled Courtyard

The floor was then left to dry off again and I returned later to seal the tiles when the weather was dry. I used Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal for this, in fact it was a perfect choice as its suitable for external use and is an oil-based sealer which is exactly what the slate needed to restore the black colour to the stone.

For aftercare I advised the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner which is a mild but effective tile and grout cleaner that won’t impact the sealer. The floor looked great, and my client was very happy with the completed project.

Source: Professional Slate Floor Tile Restoration Services near Roehampton South London