Is there a good way to restore tile?
Hello All
I’m a remodelling contractor. Currently I have two clients with beautiful period bathrooms(built with the houses in the 20’s) who want to gut their bathrooms and start over because the tile looks dingy. Two of the bathrooms have 1″ unglazed hex tile on the floor, and one bathroom has 3″ glazed hex on the floor.
All the bathrooms have beautiful craftmanship; mortar beds, nice inlays, intricate boarders, the works. If I can spiff up the tile, I can restore the bathrooms to their original splender and maintain the period look and feel. I’ve tried scrubbing w/ tile cleaner. They still look dingy and worn.
Is their a wonder product I don’t know about or any services that can restore tile?
Anyone’s input will be apreciated.
Thanks
Frank
Replies
Well, if the alternative is to tear it out, might as well try everything you can think of, going from bad to worse. Start with ammonia. That's probably all you need on the glazed stuff. For the unglazed, after ammonia gets off all the greasy stuff, try vinegar to attack the actual material itself, and then stronger acids until you just get the whole top layer of porcelain off. If it ruins the tile, hey, you tried. At least you've got it roughed up so you can put new tile right on top of it!
I had some friends in college who cleaned the enameled bathtubs in their apartment about once a year with 10 molar hydrochloric acid they stole from the chemistry department. They just splashed it on and rinsed. The year of blackness disappeared, and the last bit of water down the drain was distinctly tinted white.
If super strong acid works to clean the tile, it will probably take out most of the grout. Rinse like crazy, maybe even sprinkle with baking soda to neutralize the acid, rinse some more, and then regrout.
Good luck!
B
In addition to the replies you get here, you might want to try posting this on the forum board over at
http://www.johnbridge.com
I'm no tile expert, but I can't help but wonder if a good sealer might bring that stuff back to life. Does it look decent when it's wet?
Any chance of a pic or two for these foks here to look at?
Try Aldon Chemical at http://www.aldonchem.com/
Their products worked for me.