Cement encaustic tiles are a nightmare to keep clean in bathrooms and kitchens! They will be damaged by just about any bathroom product and most liquids in a kitchen will leave marks as well. The pigments used to make up the colours get bleached and marked very easily and because cement tiles are so porous, liquids go into them very quickly damaging them from deep within. See pic below for etching and bleaching that has occurred to these cement tiles situated on a bathroom floor.
How can we restore cement encaustic tiles once they are already damaged?
People call me up asking if I can clean their cement tiles but unfortunately you cant clean bleached pigments or etch marks in these tiles! Deep cleaning cement encaustic tiles is always the first step of the restoration process, but cleaning will only get you half way there. Making them look good relies allot on experience and the use of specialist abrasives and colour enhancing techniques to disguise damage as best a possible.
Sealing cement tiles properly!
Sealing these tiles requires experience and is paramount to ensuring they don’t need to go into the skip 2-3 years after installation. If they are not sealed professionally they become unsightly in bathrooms and kitchens and some clients that call us up have had problems in wet rooms after just three months of them being installed. In the pic below you can see relatively new cement encaustic tiles in a wet room that have been damaged by regular shower products and soaps.
If you require cement tile cleaning and restoration please get in touch. We work all over Hertfordshire, North London, West London, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.