Removing Ingrained Dirt from a Floor Damaged Brick Floor with Tile Doctor Remove & Go in Needham Market Suffolk

This Brick tiled floor was in an old timber framed house just outside the village of Needham Market. The customer had been flooded from Storm Babet in 2023 which impacted over 750 properties in Suffolk. It was now April 2025 and it had taken the house that long to dry out. The brick floor was now monochrome with ingrained with dirt and almost unrecognisable.

I visited the property to survey the floor and recommended the bricks were given and intensive deep clean to remove all the dirt and then sealed with a colour enhancing sealer that would put the life back in the floor. I worked out a detailed quote for the work which was accepted and a date set of the work to start.

Cleaning a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

To remove the ingrained dirt the floor was sprayed with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go which was left to soak in for ten minutes. This gives the solution time to break down the dirt and contaminates in the brick. The floor was then scrubbed with a rotary buffer fitted with a Silicone Carbide brush, this action works the solution into the brick and lifts the dirt to the surface where it was extracted with a wet vacuum.

The next step was to give the floor an acid wash with Tile Doctor Acid Gel to dissolve any efflorescent salts left in the brick by the flooding. This product is also a good cleaner and will remove other contaminates from the brick such as mineral deposits and rust stains. Finally, it will neutralise the floor after the use of Remove and Go which is a strong alkaline. The gel was brushed into the floor, left to soak in for ten minutes as before but this time worked into the floor with a 120 wire pad fitted to a rotary machine.

The floor was then inspected and spot cleaning carried out where needed including a further clean of the grout which was scrubbed by hand using wire brushes. The slurry was then rinsed off with water and extracted using the wet vacuum. The floor was then given a final rinse by hand with cloths.

Sealing a Brick Tiled Kitchen Floor

The floor was left to dry out thoroughly and when we returned tested with a damp meter to ensure it was ready to be sealed. Happy the floor was dry the sealer was applied for which we had chosen Tile Doctor Colour Grow. This product contains a colour enhancing formula and works by soaking into the pores of the brick to occupy the pores and prevent dirt from becoming ingrained there, this ensures soiling remains on the surface where it can be easily cleaned away. Colour Grow is also fully breathable so any moisture still in the brick will not be prevented from evaporating at the surface.

The process went very well and the customer was thrilled that we had managed to get the floor looking like new again. The new sealer will also ensure it nice and easy to maintain and we left a complimentary bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner to get them started. This is a mild, ph neutral tile cleaner that is safe to use on sealed floors, we recommend this as many of the products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong and will strip off the sealer with repeated use.

Source: Brick Cleaning and Restoration Products and Services in Needham Market near Ipswich