Restoring a Communal Marble Hallway Floor at Cardiff Bay Building Conversion

This beautiful Marble Tiled Hallway can be found in a listed building in the heart of Cardiff Bay. Situated on a very grand corner plot the property was previously occupied by various banks which served the financial markets of shipping and coal import/export businesses for over 200 years.

The building has now been converted into fourteen very desirable apartments one being the penthouse on the top floor with panoramic views of the bay and even a private lift accessed from the main hallway directly to the lounge! Very impressive.

The Marble floor was mostly original and has been added to with similar Marble tiles during previous renovation works. The stone was an off-white marble with various colour veins running through the body. The area of the restoration was the main entrance and hallway to access the staircase and lift to the apartments.

Deep Cleaning a White Marble Hallway Floor

The main method I used to restore the floor was to apply a set of Tile Doctor diamond encrusted burnishing pads of various grits to rebuild the polish on the floor. Before starting that process however I gave the tiles a general clean with a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean scrubbed in with a coarse black pad fitted to a rotary floor machine (also supplied by Tile Doctor). Afterwards the floor was rinsed with clean water and the soil extracted using an industrial wet vacuum. This was followed by scrubbing the grout lines with more Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to get them clean, again extracting the soil afterwards.

I then proceeded to apply the first pad in the four-pad set which is a very course 400-grit pad which removes any light scratches and previous sealers or waxes. Using water to lubricate the process I run the pad over each tile around three times before moving on to the next. Once that section of floor has been completed the soil generated is rinsed off with more water and extracted with the wet vacuum.

This process is repeated with an 800-grit pad which also cuts slightly into the surface of the tile and is the first step in rebuilding the polish on Marble. Finally, a finer 1500-grit diamond pad was applied which further brings up the polish on the tile. Again, after each pad was applied the floor was rinsed and extracted to remove the soil.

After allowing the section of floor to dry for 24 hours I applied the last of the four Tile Doctor burnishing pads which is a 3000-grit very fine pad. This last pad is applied dry with only a sprinkle of water to further build the polished appearance of the Marble and produce a pleasing shiny finish.

Sealing a Marble Tiled Hallway Floor

With the floor dry I was able to move quickly onto the final stage which involves applying a sealer to further improve the look of the floor and most importantly to protect it from staining. For this floor I chose to apply a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that protects the tile so it’s impervious to liquid spills and making it much easier to keep clean.

Just to be thorough once the sealed section of Marble was dry, I then lightly went over the floor again with the 3000-grit polishing pad to remove any light smears and finished by buffing with a White buffing pad to bring up the shine even further.

After four days the Marble floor was looking immaculately clean with a high polish. They say first impressions count when selling property and the polished floor added that extra wow factor for those looking to buy.

 

Source: Marble Floor Cleaning, Polishing and Sealing Service in South Wales