Which stone floor cleaner

[yamin]

Hi, i'd appreciate your help to choose. Our flagstone floor, unsealed, laid to earth, 1780, is dirty just from years of traffic, but also had carpet on it and has residual glue etc on it. This is not a huge issue, but I would like to give it a more than soap and water clean. I have bought two products and wondered if either one was better, if anyone knows them. First is HG hagesan Remover - Polish wax and dirt remover, intensive deep cleaning removes polish, wax, stubborn dirt and oils. Recommended non calcareous natural stone.

The other is Liberon Stone Floor Cleaner, for use on sealed and unsealed stone floors.

Any help would be much appreciated! I can return the one I don't use

To be followed up by boiled linseed and elbow grease!

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock:

That's not very green, Abi. Cleaning is not approved on the forum. And you want to strip away all that patina? Bad girl.

And boiled linseed! Aren't you aware that boiled linseed can form an unwanted discolouring oxylate skin?

Put all heresy out of you mind forthwith.

:wink: :wink: :lol:

In all seriousness I found HG wasn't enough, and I had great success with bleach. I've yet to try the linseed oil, but it looks great everywhere else

 

[DaveBrigg]

I tried linseed oil on a small piece of limestone from our new hearth. It has discoloured from off-white to a dirty grey/brown and looks like it needs a good clean. As always, try it out on an inconspicuous corner first, and wait a couple of weeks to see what you get.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We clean our slate flags with Ecover floor cleaner diluted with water - it even contains linseed oil.

They were sealed first with linseed oil too - probably 3 coats or so.

Does the trick nicely.

Joce's tongue in cheek comment is actually a very good one. It has taken decades if not hundreds of years to get that "traffic" patina on your flags. It will take just as long to recreate. What is wrong with gentle soap and water rather than a deep clean?

 

[yamin]

Oh no! I didn't mean to elicit the flames of wrath for cleaning away patina!!!! No, I am a huge fan of patina, in fact, that is the reason I have not cleaned our oak floor since we had it put down two years ago, honest! (And by that measure, I am also acquiring a HUGE amount of patina on my kitchen floor LOL!). Anyway, patina I like, 1980s leftover varnish and carpet glue I do not! I have tried soap and water and feel something stronger is needed, sorry!

 

[Hatster]

You should probably try a small inconspicuous patch of both, and then hang on for a month to see if any ill effects result.

Our cleaner made our very dirty brick floor her challenge when we moved into our new house, and just scrubbed it really hard with soap and water, taking one small patch at a time. I didn't believe it would work as well as it did, but it had fantastic results.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh no! I didn't mean to elicit the flames of wrath for cleaning away patina!!!! No, I am a huge fan of patina, in fact, that is the reason I have not cleaned our oak floor since we had it put down two years ago, honest! (And by that measure, I am also acquiring a HUGE amount of patina on my kitchen floor LOL!). Anyway, patina I like, 1980s leftover varnish and carpet glue I do not! I have tried soap and water and feel something stronger is needed, sorry!

:lol:

The tricky thing is deciding where patina ends and squalor begins isn't it?

My own damascene moment happened when little Madeleine, my 2 year old friend, began scooping up handfuls of kitty biscuits off the filthy floor and eating them. I decided if children were going to eat the cat's dinner off the floor it had better be cleaner than the occasional wipe over with an Ecover mop provides.

I reckon I can live with having removed the last 50 years of patina, and the flags have gone from black to soft yellow.

But each to their own, we all have to fix our own dirt threshold!

RE glue/ varnish, I'll be interested to hear if those products remove it. I know Nitromors would. I've spilt blobs of it on my flags where I've been stripping a door frame, there it's gone a very pale yellow.

 

[yamin]

The tricky thing is deciding where patina ends and squalor begins isn't it?

[/quoteDefinitely!!

Thanks everyone, loks like its test an inconspicous patch time, and see where we go from there. I have my doubts anything will shift this varnish, but we'll see. Like the sound of your flags Joce!