This is a Terrazzo cleaning and sealing project in Ilford, London, IG3. The Terrazzo floor was around ten years old, and my client decided on restoring the Terracotta as part of a project to re-decorate her kitchen and dining areas. My client likes a shiny finish on the floors, so she regularly polished the Terracotta with a shop bought polish. Before polishing, my client would clean the floor with a mop and bucket. However, a mop does not remove much soil, and the mop moves a lot of the surface soil into the grout. The result was that each new layer of polish locked in a small amount of residual soil. The outcome was a thick coat of polish with a lot of dirt trapped in the polish. Before starting work, I protected the surrounding walls from splashes with a plastic sheet. Working in sections, I coated the floor with a heavy duty sealer remover and let the chemical work for 30 minutes. Then I used a rotary scrubbing machine with scrubbing pads and scrubbing brushes to remove the softened sealer off the tiles. The grout was quite deep, so I had to clean the grout by hand. I was surprised at the amount of polish on the floor. In most cases, one or two applications of sealer remover will remove the existing sealer and polish. Terracotta is a soft tile, so I could not use abrasive brushes, and I had to continue with standard polypropylene scrubbing equipment In the end, it took me five applications of the sealer remover to remove all traces of the old sealer off the tiles. I had to remove the sealer form the grout by hand, using the sealer remover, grout brushes and pads. Just like the tiles themselves, it took several applications of the sealer remover to remove the sealer off the grout. I had to be careful, as the grout was a soft sand mix, so again I had to be patient. Raw Terracotta is very absorbent, and I had used a lot of cleaning and rinse water on the floor. So I left the floor for three full days to dry out. I returned three days later and applied three coats of colour enhancing impregnating sealer to bring out the natural colours in the tiles. After sealing, I left the floor for two more days to fully dry, ready for finishing. My client was keen to have an easy to maintain, high gloss finish, so we agreed on a gloss finish surface sealer. I sealed the floor with five coats Gloss finish Acrylic surface sealer. Each layer of Sealer drys in around an hour, so I sealed the floor in a day. My client was over the moon with the finish. The Terracotta has a nice shine, and the natural colours of the tiles stand out. As with many Terracotta cleaning and sealing projects, this project took several days to complete. But I am sure you agree that the finished result is well worth the time and effort. If you have a Terracotta floor in need of cleaning and sealing, drop me a line, I will be happy to help. https://www.abbeyfloorcare.co.uk/terracotta/terracotta-cleaning-london/