Matt Vacca
Mid-sized 1960s galley porcelain tile and gray floor open concept kitchen photo in Other with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, quartz countertops, green backsplash, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

When the homeowners decided it was time to update their kitchen to have it reflect more their current tastes and needs, they came to me. They wanted to have a hearth-style hood area and a mantel to display seasonal decorations. The kitchen was extended slightly to accommodate the mantel, and to add the microwave, oven, & warming drawer to the primary work side of the kitchen. A second prep sink and refrigerator drawers were added to the island. Hand selected Teak wood was used as the countertop, because of the luscious texture and durability around wet areas, more than most other woods. A very long towel bar, set to the backside of the island, allows Trisha a handy place to display tea towels. Challenging to this design was that the ceiling height is only 94”, which we couldn’t raise. The kitchen, however, feels more open due to the lightness of the cabinet color, the glass-front and open display cabinets, the different levels of cabinets, and the liberal amount of well-balanced details. The bountiful details include two cabinet colors, two counter top materials, five door styles, three glass types, three drawer styles, and four hardware styles all designed to keep the observer engaged in the space. This kitchen can be described as a lush bouquet with each individual element gracefully adding to the spectacular result Design and remodel by Design Studio West Brady Architectural Photography

When the homeowners decided it was time to update their kitchen to have it reflect more their current tastes and needs, they came to me. They wanted to have a hearth-style hood area and a mantel to display seasonal decorations. The kitchen was extended slightly to accommodate the mantel, and to add the microwave, oven, & warming drawer to the primary work side of the kitchen. A second prep sink and refrigerator drawers were added to the island. Hand selected Teak wood was used as the countertop, because of the luscious texture and durability around wet areas, more than most other woods. A very long towel bar, set to the backside of the island, allows Trisha a handy place to display tea towels. Challenging to this design was that the ceiling height is only 94”, which we couldn’t raise. The kitchen, however, feels more open due to the lightness of the cabinet color, the glass-front and open display cabinets, the different levels of cabinets, and the liberal amount of well-balanced details. The bountiful details include two cabinet colors, two counter top materials, five door styles, three glass types, three drawer styles, and four hardware styles all designed to keep the observer engaged in the space. This kitchen can be described as a lush bouquet with each individual element gracefully adding to the spectacular result Design and remodel by Design Studio West Brady Architectural Photography

This small rough Chinese Slate floor in the kitchen of a house in the village of Cheadle near Stockport in Greater Manchester had not had any sealer put on it for many years and was very grubby (dishevelled as described by the customer) looking even after the customer had tried to clean it. Sealers do take a lot of punishment, especially in a high traffic area such as a small kitchen and will wear off over time and once this happens the floor will start to lose its appearance as dirt becomes ingrained in the stone and it can no longer be cleaned effectively. As we have to apply a liberal amount of water with this sort of work, the first step was to remove the Kicker boards at the bottom of the Kitchen units and silicone the Kitchen units that were fixed; this stops water seeping in and blowing the MDF allowing us to concentrate on cleaning the Slate without causing any damage. I started the cleaning process by applying a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to get rid of the built up dirt and any remaining sealer, leaving it to soak into the Slate before scrubbing the floor with a black scrub pad fitted to buffing machine running at slow speed. Tile Doctor Pro-Clean is a strong alkaline cleaner/stripper that is safe to use on natural stone, we do have stronger products available if required but in this case a strong dilution of Pro-Clean was sufficient to tackle any remaining sealer. This process gave the Slate and grout lines a good deep clean and after rinsing the floor with water which was then extracted using a wet vacuum I repeated the process on stubborn areas until satisfied the floor was as clean and free of old sealer. Last stage of the cleaning process was to give the floor a final rinse and then get it as dry as possible using the wet vacuum to soak up the moisture. The floor was quite small so I was able to leave the floor to dry off over lunch time and then on my return managed to get it fully dry with a little heat from a heat gun. The customer wanted a mat finish so once dry I applied Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer which impregnates into the pores of the natural stone protecting it from within and enhancing the natural colours of the Slate at the same time. For general cleaning of Sealed stone floors, we recommend the use of a PH Neutral Cleaner as anything with a strong PH will degrade the life of the sealer over time. Steve Keary Greater Manchester Tile Doctor

It’s fairly common for owners of older properties – especially houses those that are over 100 years old or more – to find original Victorian tiled flooring hidden underneath carpet. It can wait years for the tiles to be discovered, by which time they have amassed huge amounts of dirt and dust. Such was the case at this property in Bridlington, a Yorkshire town through which a stream known as the ‘Gypsey Race’ runs, before emptying in the North Sea at the Bridlington Harbour. Interestingly enough, folklore says that when the stream is flowing, bad fortune is at hand. The stream must not have been running on the day that we restored this Victorian hallway, as we managed to achieve some truly fantastic results!! The hallway had been severely dulled after going years without professional care. We set about giving it the thorough clean and fresh seal that I’d des partly needed. Here’s how we did it. Our first task was to remove any old, no longer effectual sealer. We did this by liberally applying a strong dilution of our alkaline-based Tile a Doctor Pro Clean, which doubles as a reliable cleaner and a stripper capable of stripping away old sealer. The product was worked into the tiles using a black stripping pad fitted to a 17″ rotary machine, and the process was repeated three times. I noticed that there was still some stubborn dirt and old sealer around the edges of the hallway, so I used some of our handheld diamond encrusted burnishing blocks to grind it away. To finish the cleaning process, we washed the floor with Tile Doctor pH Neutral Tile Cleaner, leaving it fresh and ready to be sealed once left to dry overnight. Upon our return to the property the next day, we ran some quick tests to check for any excess moisture (even a small amount could have damaged the performance of the new sealer). Once satisfied with the the condition of the floor, we proceeded to see it with an impregnating sealer, meaning a sealer that penetrates into the pores of the tile to fill them and therefore prevent trapped dirt and ingrained stains. Our impregnating sealer, Tile Doctor Colour Grow, has the added benefit of being colour intensifying, which really highlights the unique colourful patterns of the tiles. To give the floor a durable sheen finish, as requested by the customer, we also added a coat of Tile Doctor Seal and Go sealer. The result was a complete transformation of the condition and appearance of this great Victorian tiled hallway. Our customer is very pleased – the floor is now a complete asset to any property, and will now be easier to keep looking great in future. Ronnie Phipps East Yorkshire Tile Doctor

If you want a polished stone floor to keep its appearance, then it will need a regular maintenance plan in place, without it the stone will lose its polish and start to look dull and un-inviting which was the story with this Travertine tiled floor installed throughout much of the grout floor of this house in the village of Great Wilbraham near Cambridge. I was able to find out from the owner that the floor was last treated six years ago with Lithofin Stain Stop which is a solvent based impregnating sealer which like all sealers will wear off after a few years. Naturally this depends on the amount of wear the floor receives and what tends to happen is this process occurs more rapidly in the high traffic areas leading to an uneven appearance. The best course of action now would be to remove what was left of the sealer and re-polish and seal the floor. During my inspection of the floor I had noticed a number of irregular holes in one of the Travertine tiles which needed filling with a colour matching filler; this worked out quite well and as you can see from the photographs below the result looked entirely natural. After protecting the clients skirting boards with protective film we proceeded to burnish the floor through with a set of Tile Doctor Diamond encrusted honing pads. During the application of the first coarse pad we also added a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean combined with NanoTech Ultra-Clean to aid the removal of sealer residues from the pores of the Travertine. The floor was then rinsed and the soiled solution extracted using a wet vacuum. With the sealer remove we were now able to concentrate on building up the polish on the stone by applying the remaining pads from Medium, Fine through to Very Fine, each lubricated with a little water and ensuring to rinse in-between the application of each pad. With the floor now clean and the polish restored the last step was to protect it so it would keep its appearance for as long as possible. There are a number of solutions for this but for a long durable shine I opted to work Tile Doctor Shine Powder into the Travertine. The powder is applied liberally to the floor and then ground in using a slow speed floor rotary machine fitted with a white or tan buffing pad lubricated with water. The shine on the floor has now been restored and the client has a beautiful and durable finish to their Travertine tiles. Mick Conlon Cambridge Tile Doctor

Terrazzo is a quite a bit different from the natural stone floors we most commonly work with. It’s a type of flooring material that was made popular by Venetian builders in Italy in the 1920s, but is ultimately descended from styles of design that date back hundreds of years. A typical Terrazzo floor consists of chips of marble or granite set in concrete and polished to result in a smooth surface. This Terrazzo floor, installed in the hallway of a property in Bridgend, South Wales, was in relatively good physical condition, but it had clearly lost its shine due to the build-up of dirt and muck over the years. In fact, it was first installed in around 1940! The owner was keen to have it rejuvenated to its best possible condition, so they asked me to come in to see what I could do. My first course of action was to apply Tile Doctor Pro Clean liberally across the floor and leave it to dwell for a short period. This is a high alkaline cleaner that is designed to deal with light to moderate soil build-up, and to strip away any old sealer remaining on the floor. I scrubbed the product in using a black pad fitted to a rotary machine and vacuumed up the resulting cleaning with a wet-vac machine. Next, to restore the shine to the floor, I undertook a process known as burnishing, which involves the application of diamond encrusted polishing pads. We will typically start with a Coarse grit pad to level off any uneven areas of the floor and grind down any particularly stubborn marks and stains. Then, we gradually refine the polish on the floor using Medium and Fine grit pads. A small amount of water is used as lubrication with each pad. After I had finished applying the first three pads in our four-pad system, I gave the floor a thorough rinse and left it to dry overnight. I returned to the property the next day and immediately ran some damp tests to check for excess moisture issues, which one might expect with an old floor like this one. Thankfully, the floor proved dry – and I could finish the burnishing process with the fourth and final Very Fine diamond encrusted burnishing pad, which achieved a beautiful shine finish. Finally, I sealed the floor with three coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow, an impregnating sealer which provides robust protection and enhances the coloured patterns in the Terrazzo. As you can see from the photos above, the floor is looking so much more colourful and bright after a deep clean, polish and a fresh seal. The customer was over the moon! Julian Iancono South East Wales Tile Doctor

Recently I visited a client in the town of Maidenhead, Berkshire who needed assistance restoring a very dirty pitted Limestone tiled floor which had suffered over the years due to poor maintenance choices. The pressures of a busy family life had, understandably, prevented my client from undertaking regular cleaning and the products and methods used for cleaning were by and large unsuitable for this type of natural stone. In addition, the pits in the tiles had been filled with grout; however, they were not flush to the tile and therefore a large amount of soil had collected in the pockets. The result was a Limestone tiled floor in considerably poor condition that was increasingly difficult to keep clean. My client had tried and tried to get the floor clean, using methods such as scrubbing with toothbrushes, steam cleaners, and mopping – but they weren’t getting anywhere! I explained to my client that steaming is, in fact, one of the worst cleaning systems to use on natural stone floors. Steam not only damages sealers, it also thins out greasy soils. Some of these soils are absorbed onto the domestic microfiber pads, however a lot of the soil becomes thinner allowing it to penetrate deeper into the pours of the stone and grout. This in itself starts the vicious circle to rapidly soiled and dirty tiles and grout. This happens because the grease soils magnetise dirt! My first task in the cleaning process was to mix a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean, which is a high alkaline cleaner. This solution was applied liberally across the entire Limestone tiled floor and grout. It was allowed to dwell for 30-40 minutes, giving it time to seep into the stone to get underneath and lift the ingrained dirt to the surface. During this time, I scrubbed the grout lines using a specialist stiff grout brush. The Limestone tiles were then scrubbed with heavy mechanical rotary agitation machine. I then gave the floor a thorough rinse using the latest in cleaning and capture technology, which involves firing hot water at high pressure in a spinning motion across the floor, in effect blasting away the ingrained soils from the grout and pitting in the limestone. The high pressure is delivered from a system mounted inside my van which also contains waste tanks to capture the extracted soiled water. After being allowed to dry thoroughly for 24 hours, I returned to seal the floor with Tile Doctor Colour Grow which would have brought out the deep colours in the stone, however after discussing the options with the client it became clear that they wanted to keep the floor looking as light as possible so Tile Doctor Ultra Seal was applied. Ultra Seal is a natural look impregnating sealer that soaks into the pores of the stone and protects it from within. The floor now looks fantastic and the sealer should ensure it remains looking that way for some time to come and before leaving I made sure to provide my client with some professional maintenance advice. Tim Colenutt Berkshire Tile Doctor