This project was to clean, grout fill and seal 80 square metres Travertine. The tiles were laid in the lounge, kitchen, dining room and washroom areas of a home near Edinburgh
The Travertine had been down for 10 years. On installation, the Travertine was sealed with an impregnating sealer. However, the floor had not been professionally cleaned or re-sealed since being installed.
The home had three dogs and cats, so the floors had to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.
The pets brought plenty of outdoor soil onto the floors. The soil mixed with oils from the dogs, creating a sticky soil, which was ingrained into the surface of the tiles.
The Travertine had suffered heavy wear and abrasion from the pets in the home. A lot of the original grout filler had collapsed and new holes were exposed by the wear.
The sticky soil had also filled the myriad of holes in the tiles.
The homeowner was looking for a clean floor with a hard-wearing, natural-looking surface that would stand up to the wear from the pets.
Cleaning Travertine Floor Tiles
On the first day, I gave the floor a thorough clean with a strong solution of Travertine cleaner and sealer remover. I used a rotary scrubbing machine to work the cleaner into the grout and holes. Then I replaced the scrubbing brush with a cleaning pad to work the cleaning solution into the surface of the Travertine tiles.
I pressure rinsed the floor with clean water. The pressure rinsing helps remove more ingrained soil from the grout and the holes.
Grout Filling Travertine
On the second day, I filled the holes in the Travertine with grout.
There were lots of holes in the floor from the collapsed filler. There was also some screw holes from an old kitchen storage unit that needed filling.
I used Jasmine coloured grout to fill the holes, one tile at a time. As the grout dried, I removed any surface grout and grout haze with dry pads and vacuumed up the dry dust.
The finishing sealer can be very colour enhancing, particularly to old grout. So at the end of the day, I applied a pre-sealer to minimise the colour-enhancing effect of the finishing sealer.
Sealing Travertine Tiles
On day four, I finish sealed the floor using an impregnating and film-forming sealer.
Sealing took me around 5 hours, but it is well worth the effort because the sealer gives long-term protection and makes the Travertine easier to clean.
