Amazing restoration results on Gramwood floor | Art of Clean

Over the past couple of weeks, the Art of Clean team have been working a lot on sanding floorboards so it was interesting when the team got booked on a job to sand a Granwood floor.

A Granwood floor is made out of a composition of wood and concrete mix that is then formed into tiles.

These floors are very common in commercial spaces like schools and sports halls these floors has a special requirement to be finished with a solvent based Granwood polyurethane seal.  The downside to this product is that it is very smelly and it is not very good for health and that is why Art of clean team will use masks.

In this case, which is very similar to the previous job we've done for the The Paradise Centre in Ely.

The coating we applied had some anti-slip particles in it because the client requested that we help them solve the slippiness problem on the floor as this was the woodwork shop and all the wood shavings end up on the floor and that causes a slip hazard for the students working in this room

A little bit of advice on what to do when you do have a Grandwood floor that needs refinishing and the best advice would be to attend to your floor before it needs to be sanded.  If the floor is not in too bad a condition the floor can be cleaned back and recoated which means it's much less invasive because if Cranwood floors need to be fully sanded back it is a very messy and very dusty process and the dust created from this is a very harmful.

For that reason the floor should be kept in a good condition and then every one to two years the floor should be cleaned back properly and a fresh coat of gram guard should be applied.  This way the floor is never left to deteriorate and I know invasive sanding will not be required, if cared for well.

In a case where the floor is left too long and it will need sanding, be prepared that the floor will be out of action for a long time usually a week or two.  Also be prepared for the smell, as it is very strong and you will probably not be able to use the floor for a few days and windows and doors would need to be left open so that the smell can despite.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/amazing-restoration-results-on-gramwood.html

Oakwood bespoke colour finish with Pallmann Magic Oil | Art of Clean

I want to share with you the special qualities of Pallmann Magic Oil, which is a great product to use on the installation, renovation and maintenance of wood flooring.

This morning Pierre was mixing a bespoke colour using Pallmann Magic Oil 2K on a sample piece of solid oak wood to show to a customer.

Before applying the oil mix, the wood sample was sanded back using a 60, 80 and 100 grit sanding paper.  The wood was also water popped, which means light moisture is used to open the grain, which in turns swells the wood fibres and more colour is accepted into the wood.

The oil is then mixed using 15% black and 85% brown.  The oil is applied to the wood and forced into the fibres of wood with a green hand pad and the excess removed.

Pierre was using a piece of oak, but Pallmann Magic Oil works well on pine and most other types of wood.

As well as black and brown the other main colours are white, grey, dark brown, red brown and natural .

Some of the benefits of using magic oil, apart from the ones already mentioned are the four hours drying time and so the floor can be used much quicker, as opposed to 12 hours with other brand floor oils.

Magic Oil also comes with a hardener which makes it much harder wearing than many other oils. Also, if the floor is scratched the floor can be easily repaired with simply keying back the area and then apply a re-oil.

In the case of coloured oil, you would need to key back the whole floor.

Below is a previous example using Treatex (left) and Liberon (right).  

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/oakwood-bespoke-colour-finish-with.html

What are the benefits of oiling a wood floor?

Preserving, saving, restoring, up-cycling, - These are all buzzwords these days reminding us to make things last as long as possible or re using items if you can. Wood floors are certainly no exception.
For many years all wood floors where sealed or varnished with polyurethane finish over the top and then once the coating has worn through the floor will be sanded back and re sealed using the same method. Over the years oil finished on wood has slowly grown in popularity. Let’s explore the benefits of oiling your wood floor:

Oiling a wood floor provides you with a natural finish – do take note if you require a modern high shine finish – most oils cannot offer you this.

If you restore wood floors on a listed building the oil option is ideal as it is permeable and allows moisture to move through the wood floor.

Pallmann Magic Oil has a dry time of 4 hours and cure time of 12 hours – this means you can use four floor much sooner – if you opt for a lacquer finish you will have to wait 7 days for the lacquer to cure and 8 hours for it to dry.

Using an oil on your wood floor will allow for localised repairs – Yes if your floor gets scratched or damaged you can sand the damaged out and sand the surrounding area of the floor lightly to blend it in and apply oil to the area and is most cases the floor will be as good as new (consult a wood sanding professional for more advice before you attempt to do this yourself!)

Oiled wood floors can be given a good clean and fresh application of oil to give them a new lease of life.

Caring for your oiled wood floor is much easier than you think – You can use Pallmann Clean to clean your oiled wood floor followed by Pallmann Magic Oil Care – This gives the floor a fresh look

For easy day to day cleaning and care - Use Pallmann Clean and Go

You can find the wood care products on  www.artofcleanonline.co.uk

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/what-are-benefits-of-oiling-wood-floor.html

Sanding An Ancient Pine Floor

Just before the holidays, Nathan (Art of Clean, Service and Sales Technician) carried out a remarkable transformation of an ancient looking pine floor.

After removing the carpet grippers and underlay we were faced with a really rough floor. The floor was covered in adhesive black edging and old remnants of previous foam backed carpet.  It certainly took some sanding but we got a good finish considering what it looked like before the sanding.

As we were leaving the job, our client informed us that the floor was going to be painted, which would be a shame to hid the beautiful warm feel of pine boards beneath a layer of paint.  We're keeping our fingers crossed, hoping the client might change her mind and use a varnish or stain instead.

Maybe you've recently had your floor sanded.  We would be interested to know your thoughts and what do you think?  How would you like to see your pine floor finished?  

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/sanding-ancient-pine-floor.html

Getting wooden floors - oiled or varnished?

Who has wooden floors, do you have varnished or oiled, and why?

There are many way to treat our wooden floors to protect and get the best out of them.  There are a couple of advantages of a varnished floor.  Varnished wood floors are easier to look after and clean on a daily basis.  They are also less likely to get damaged in the first place and the occasional dent is character anyway.  But if they get stained or damaged you can't really do much about it yourself.

Advantages of oiled wood floor -
If they get stained/damaged you can lightly sand and re-oil either small patches or the whole area yourself and it will look okay.

But it's not as easy to look after on a daily basis. e.g. you're not supposed to use microfiber clothe on it, neither wet nor dry as any large amount of moisture will swell floorboards. Sweep floor at least once a day, but both wet and dry with microfiber.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/getting-wooden-floors-oiled-or-varnished.html

You'll Be Amazed At The Transformation Of These Old Floorboards

As our homes become the most expensive purchase, we'll ever make.  It's no wonder we want to spend time and money on their upkeep.  But sometimes we find the prospect of having work carried out daunting but with annual maintenance, your home will bring you many, many years of solace and happiness.  

At the Art of Clean, our technicians love a challenge and we also like to help with the solutions to your cleaning and restoration queries.  No job is ever to big or to small and over the years we've had one or two challenges in our time.  But that's what we thrive on.  Why? You probably ask.  Could it possibly be that we love to see the transformation process.  We all love seeing how interior designers take something old and tired and transform it into something new, to show-off and be proud off.  We also like to amaze ourselves and think, 'was that really there before?'  and 'if only I had those floorboards sanded sooner.'    

Each job brings its own rewards and triumphs and at the end of a working day, if only you could see the joy on the faces of our technicians, when they've finished a job (honestly, I'm not being sarcastic), they really do have smiles on their faces!

Last week, Nathan was sent out on job to sand a floor in a Cambridge home.  You'll be amazed at the transformation of these old tired pitch pine floorboards.  From our estimation, this floor was probably laid down in the 1900's, so this pine is a better quality than you would get in the new white softer modern pine. 

Our client had a bespoke brown oil floor, which had been originally quoted with the carpet down, so we didn't have the opportunity to see the condition of the floorboards.  But the quote was for sanding strip filling and brown oil or darker. 

When Nathan arrived at the house, he found a room in a bit of a mess.  The floorboards were totally covered in the dreaded black stuff which is a nightmare to sand off.  Nathan had to remove all carpet grippers and take up nails and staples.  He then walked the room and found loads of boards loose which obviously needed fixing down.  He proceeded to fix them and the problem was the boards were actually tongue and groove and not standard boards. 

Nathan proceeded to sand the floor and it came out amazing.  After the floor was done, our client was ecstatic with the results and couldn't thank me enough.

The client had requested the floor to be stained a bit darker, so black was introduced to the oil.  The end results meant that our client had a very bespoke colour which was unique to her home.  It was fantastic!

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/youll-be-amazed-at-transformation-of.html

How do I look after my solid oak floor?

Here at Art of Clean, we love to keep you informed on what the team have been working on recently. 

This week, Nathan and Ben were sent out to sand and oil a oak wood floor.  

The oak wood floor was in pretty good condition, but over time wear and tear had become apparent and with a high volume of traffic through the house, scuff marks and dents in the oak floor had become obvious but with no other issues, made the sanding very straight forward.    

Due to wood being natural it needs expansion gaps around the edge of the room, so the floor boards were cut short of the wall to allow for movement.  To cover these gaps quadrant beading was placed to finish off the floor to hide these gaps.

Our client wanted all the old beading replacing which was a relatively big job in itself.  

We sanded the floor and finished it to 80 grit.  After sanding, the rest of the day was spent measuring, cutting and pinning down the new oak quadrant beading.  

Solid oak wood flooring is a joy to have and looked after carefully will be an investment that needs to protecting with the correct care and attention.  Here are some simple steps to maintain your oak wood floor.

• keep dust and dirt particles away by mopping the floor about once a week, with hand-warm water.  Don't soak the floor with water, just dip the mop into the bucket of water and squeeze firmly.   
• to prevent furniture from damaging the solid oak wood floor, use pads on feet of chairs and tables and rugs are great to stop high volume of traffic from scratching the surface.
• immediately wipe up all liquid spills of any kind.  Don't risk liquids staining the floor or getting into the gaps between the boards, which could cause swelling.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

Source: http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/how-do-i-look-after-my-solid-oak-floor.html

Pitch Pine, neglected but loved

The other day we sent to boys out on a job and this is what they found.

Pitch Pine flooring, for those of you that don’t know is a very popular wood, mainly due to its hard wearing nature. It has this rich, unmistakable quality that you don’t find in new flooring and as such requires special attention. Often found in old Victorian buildings, its grain is symbolic of authenticity and the colours tend to grow warmer and even redder over time.

Like people, it is easy to forget that over the years wooden flooring can age, accumulate wear and tear and thicken ;-)

What the boys found was a floor that had spent the last fifteen years absorbing ever drop of moisture and wax thrown at it. Its colour had in fact deepened, but to a degree that the intrinsic grains and knots were all but invisible.

This called for some intensive care!

Breaking out the tools of the trade, the lads set to work. They huffed, they buffed, they sanded, they…did something else that rhymes and after some hard slog, they turned a much neglected pitch pine floor into a rather snazzy and fresh looking show-piece.  

If you find yourself sitting in your home one day and your eyes linger on your wooden floor, ask yourself, could it look better. If you start to um and ah, the answer is YES.

Don't delay, treat your flooring to the care it deserves, call the professionals.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

The sanded marvel beneath

Cambridge City is one of the most iconic in the country. Its streets, buildings and general culture is renowned around the world. Take a step inside anyone of its heritage laden homes and you will be bombarded with classicism and design style; even in the regular homes you or I might reside in.

However, while age brings respectability and class, it also allows for a stagnant approach to decoration.

Art of Clean specialises in restoring and bringing new life into the dated. With that in mind, Paul set to work on this.

As you can see, the veins and deep colour suggest an age beyond the buildings statue. There is so often new life, youth beneath the flooring and it takes a keen eye to find it. Stripping a wooden floor of decade’s worth of lacquer is never an easy feat. It takes hours of process and care, but Paul’s an expert and with his skills in hand, he set to work stripping and caring for these bored boards.

By the end of the day, his talents had worn away years of excess and revealed something beautiful below.

Colour redeemed, holes filled, boards joined and low and behold, there's life again.

Keep an eye out for our forth-coming blog on floor colouring.

Call the Professionals.

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk