I was asked to visit a stunning old farmhouse in Hoylandswaine Barnsley to look at a Yorkstone kitchen floor which had several problems. The family who lived there were fed up with its black appearance and more importantly how dangerous it was due to a varnish covering that was applied which when wet became an ice-skating rink. The kids would regularly slip over on the very shiny floor, and it was becoming a real concern.
On my first visit to the property, I was shocked at how dark the Yorkstone floor had become in fact I thought initially it was Black Slate. Yorkstone is a variety of Sandstone that is quarried in Yorkshire and usually contains a range of pale colours visible, and at worst it can get dirty and turn grey.
After running a few cleaning tests, it was obvious the previous owners of the house had applied many coats of varnish to the floor, and it was going to be quite a job to strip it off.
Stripping Varnish off a Yorkstone Tiled Kitchen Floor
To ensure the best result I tried a range of different products and methods until I came up with a way to strip away the black dirty shiny varnish. Wood varnish isn’t something we often see applied to stone, so a combination of products including Tile Doctor Remove & Go and a heavy-duty polish stripper were applied to the floor and left to soak in.
After leaving the floor for fifteen minutes to soften the varnish it was then scrubbed with a wire brush attachment fitted to a rotary buffer machine and run over each stone for a few minutes. This scraped the varnish off the surface of the stone and started to reveal the natural stone surface for the first time in years. Some areas needed treating two or three times to get rid of all the varnish.
Once I was satisfied all the varnish was gone the stone was given a deep clean using a medium strength dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. The product was applied this to the floor and left it to dwell for a few minutes before using the rotary floor machine again. This time the machine was fitted with a black scrubbing pad to clean the stone. The floor was cleared of all the slurry using a wet vacuum before being given a final rinse. The floor was left to dry off overnight.
Sealing a Yorkstone Tiled Hallway Floor
Returning the following day, I reviewed the previous day’s work and could see there were a few bits of varnish stuck in the crevices of the stone and around the edges of the room. I managed to remove these using a wire brush fitted to an angle grinder.
Once the floor was cleaned of dust and flakes of varnish it was ready to for the final step of sealing. The client had chosen an impregnating sealer for this and wanted something that would improve the colours and keep the texture in the stone. Three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow were applied which as its name suggests brings the colours in the Sandstone out and offers protection from within the stone leaving a lovely finish.
They loved the transformation that had occurred and let the following review.
When cleaning floor tiles with a mop we recommend using two buckets, one containing a neutral pH cleaning fluid such as Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner or Stone Soap and the second where you rinse your mop afterwards, otherwise you will contaminate your cleaning fluid with dirt every time you rinse.