Mosaic/Tesserae Tile Information

In the UK when you talk about Mosaic tiles, we often think of those fantastic, patterned floors uncovered in ancient Roman villas by archaeologists dating back two thousand years. Mosaic floors have continued to be popular in this country today where and you will find Mosaic’s made from modern materials including Ceramics, Glass, Mirror tiles, stone such as Marble or Travertine and even expensive metals such as Gold.

Tile Doctor have been involved in the sympathetic restoration of several historic mosaic floors in listed buildings often referred to as Tesserae Stone and you will find many examples of this via the links below.

Examples Include:

Mosaic Wall Tile Cleaning

Mosaic Floor Tile Cleaning

Mosaic Restoration

Tile Sealing

Tesserae Stone

Cleaning of Mosaic Tiles

Cleaning and Restoration will depend on the material making up the mosaic so we recommend you read the instructions on our other websites, for example in the case of Travertine Mosaic’s please refer to Travertine.tilecleaning.co.uk, although its worth pointing out first that abrasive machinery is more likely to loosen a small tile and so care should be taken.

Restoration of Stone Tesserae tiles

To deep clean Tesserae stone floors apply Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel, leave it to soak into the pores of the tile for ten minutes and then run a coarse 200 grit diamond burnishing pad fitted to a floor buffing machine running a slow speed. Do not add water at this stage let the Oxy-Gel do the work.

Once the whole area is complete vacuum the soil away using a wet vacuum. Next add water to the floor and repeat the process using the 200-grit pad.
Repeat the process with more water but this time switching to a 400-grit diamond burnishing pad.
If any corners and edges have been missed where the machine couldn’t get to, then you will need to scrub these by hand using a 50-grit diamond block, using a little water. Scrub until the area is clean and then switch to the 100-grit block and repeat, then onto the 200-grit block and repeat finishing with the 400-grit block.
Rinse and brush down the area with water only one last time and then leave to dry for a day. If the weather is cold you may need to increase the drying time to several days especially in the case of old floors which won’t have a Damp Proof Membrane fitted. Once dry the floor should be sealed to protect it from ingrained dirt. For patterned floors such as Mosaic we recommend using Tile Doctor Colour Grow which will enhance the colours and thus the pattern in the floor.

Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner	Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel	Tile Doctor Colour Grow
200-Grit 17-inch Burnishing Pad	400-Grit 17-inch Burnishing Pad	Diamond Hand Burnishing Block Set

Maintenance and Aftercare Cleaning

Once sealed you don’t want to be using harsh chemicals like a bleaching agent as this will bleach out the colour and damage the sealer even washing up liquid is a degreaser and although very nice to your hands and skin is no good on a sealed surface 6 months of using this product will mane no sealer left on the surface of the tiles, as well as this a steamer will have the same effect on a sealed surface as steamers operate at a min of a 100 degrees celsius in order to generate the steam and this take the sealer in even less time than washing up liquid. use instead a ph neutral cleaner such a Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner weekly maintenance.

Mosaic Tiled Floor Renovated at Hotel Development in Berkshire

To find out how we can help with your Tile, Stone or Grout problem contact us
on 0345 512 0122 or email info@TileDoctor.co.uk.

Mosaic Tile Cleaning including Tesserae Stone

Cleaning of Mosaic Tiles

Restoration of Stone Tesserae tiles

Maintenance and Aftercare Cleaning