I guess it was inevitable that I would be asked to clean the floor in a public toilet at some point; fortunately for me this one in a pub in Ambleside Cumbria was in a reasonably pleasant condition. The floor was Black Honed Slate Tiles but the sealer had been badly etched by Uric Acid (aka urine) around the cubicles, and a bad smell was building up from the reaction with various sealers and coatings that had been applied previously which were unsuitable for a stone floor. Ambleside of course is in the centre of the English Lake District which is famous for its walking and so naturally these floors tend to get a lot of muddy boots trampling over them from the thousands of tourists that visit this area every year.

Cleaning the Black Honed Slate Tiles

I manage to strip the products from the floor using Tile Doctor Remove and Go combined 50/50 with Nano-Tech Ultra-Clean followed by the use of a Steam Cleaner which neutralised the remaining odours as well as helping to remove any remaining cleaning products. Finally the floor was rinsed with water all of which was removed using a wet Vaccum and then left to dry before sealing.

Sealing Black Honed Slate Tiles

We have a number of sealing products for Slate tiles, each one providing a different effect; in this case we opted for two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which enhances the colours in the natural stone and provides stain protection combined with a nice matt finish, which was very practical for this situation. However the customer wanted a higher sheen effect so we added two coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go to the surface as well. It isn’t always possible to do this with sealers as their can be compatibility issues.

Before leaving I left the customer with a bottle of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner which is an PH neutral product specially designed for cleaning sealed stone floors.

Source: Slate Tile Cleaning and Sealing in a Pub Toilet

Cleaning and Sealing a Black Honed Slate Tiled floor in an Ambleside Pub WC