My first floor color seal job

[TimP]

This was my first time on the floor...I did my countertop a couple of weeks ago. My wife helped me and we finished it in about 3-3.5 hours and it's aproximately 300 ft. That's with cleaning and everything. Looks good to me.


Before

up close

After

Before and a glimpse of me wearing my crocks in socks....a fashion no no???

After

Before

After

Before

After

 

[damion68]

Nice work Tim, what colorseal did you use?

Mark

 

[TimP]

This Old Grout.....Tec color parchment.

I have one more family job to do.......but I feel comfortable doing it for pay now. It's pretty easy.

 

[Captain Morgan]

great job with the color seal tim.. really looks nice.

Oh, and try pulling your socks up to your knees next time

 

[alazo1]

Looks good. I've only done my small bathroom. I need to work on the edges.

On the before pics, are any of them after cleaning?. How many coats?

Albert

 

[TimP]

The pictures were while I was vacuuming or after is was vacuumed. I've cleaned it before and the grout is stained from oil/grease. I didn't take any pictures after cleaning. To be honest it didn't look much different but I knew it wouldn't. I just cleaned to remove any oils etc on the grout. I only did one coat of color seal....it's all you need as far as I know. We did 2 coats in the bathroom where it was grouted darker....it wasn't dirty to the point of black....actually it's a dark grey color. They started to grout the floor that color and didn't like how it looked.

As far as the edges it's not really that tough...you can wipe over the tiles...I go diaganal in both directions to get the lip of the tile. If you see a heavy spot on the edge it's best to get it cause it will be harder later. But if it's just a slight bit don't worry it blends in plus when you buff the tile with a dry towel after it dries some....it rubs off don't wait a long time cause it gets hard and you'll have to scrape it off if there is a lot. In my opinion it will come off with traffic and later cleanings if it's just a little bit. The sealer penetrates into the grout and unless you really try to wipe it off the grout you can't. And if you do wipe some off you can touch it up with the brush since there is usually plenty in the brush to touch up without it getting sealer on the edges. .

 

[Mikey P]

Now do you guys see why I have been pushing this stuff?


Got to offer it if you're gonna be a pro

 

[Tile Nerd]

Nice job.

 

[TimP]

Here is the last one for free


Before

After

Before

After

Another after no before though

This job took 2 coats cause we went from a dark brown to a light color. Second coat went way faster than the first.

 

[TimP]

I haven't had any tile jobs as of late. The last one I had I offered but they couldn't afford to have their floor tile cleaned. I cleaned their shower out of necesity for them and 3 rooms of carpet. But that's all they could afford. I plan on getting some pictures made to carry in the truck to show people.

I'm only planning on going up 25 cents over clean and seal but you can skip out on a lot of the cleaning effort to make up for it....just my opinion.

 

[XTREME1]

That is some nice work Tim



It is great your wife hangs your art on the fridge for you. Good Boy


How much colorseal did you go through?

 

[TimP]

That is some nice work Tim



It is great your wife hangs your art on the fridge for you. Good Boy


How much colorseal did you go through?

I ordered 3 different colors from TOG. They come in 2 cup or 16 oz bottles. You're supposed to get about 700 ft per bottle on 12x12 tiles with 1/4" grout lines. I find that to be a well conservative number. It goes a long way. At about 30 bucks for 700 ft worth it's not very expensive. So far after color sealing our countertop I've been pretty well satisified with the performance of the product. I've clear sealed it before and so far I believe the color seal is doing a better job. It is easy to do just fairly time consuming.....you could easily teach some chimps and leave them at a job and keep cleaning through a day if you wanted. I'd say it's a no brainer add on....and as you can see hardly anyone does it. Hell it seems most are affraid to learn to clean tile floors and it's easier than carpet....maybe slightly more time consuming but that is compensated by the increased cost.

All you need to do is have some grout color charts on your truck....order the colors your custy picks out. Only bad thing starting out is that you wont have the sealer in stock to do the job right then but you wont be out a ton of money to get into it for sure. Then you will be able to schedule a job properly as you'll know how big it is.

 

[Gary T]

I'm only planning on going up 25 cents over clean and seal but you can skip out on a lot of the cleaning effort to make up for it....just my opinion.

Tim, the only comment I'll make on the pricing part of your post is you can get more.

As for the "...you can skip out on a lot of the cleaning effort to make up for it....just my opinion."

Do yourself a favor and purge that line of thought from your brain. Proper prep of the grout is absolutely necessary for the color seal to last, period. Do not cut corners, or skimp on cleaning because you think you will be just "hiding" the dirt. If there is soil, the product will not bond. The only thing that may not be absolutely necessary is the acid treatment of the grout, although it is highly recommended for the best bond.

 

[TimP]

I'm only planning on going up 25 cents over clean and seal but you can skip out on a lot of the cleaning effort to make up for it....just my opinion.

Tim, the only comment I'll make on the pricing part of your post is you can get more.

As for the "...you can skip out on a lot of the cleaning effort to make up for it....just my opinion."

Do yourself a favor and purge that line of thought from your brain. Proper prep of the grout is absolutely necessary for the color seal to last, period. Do not cut corners, or skimp on cleaning because you think you will be just "hiding" the dirt. If there is soil, the product will not bond. The only thing that may not be absolutely necessary is the acid treatment of the grout, although it is highly recommended for the best bond.

That's what I'm talking about....I usually acid wash my tile as I've found the best results cleaning doing as such. I plan to use an alkaline cleaner and scrub the grout lines to remove the grease etc and dry that's it. Doesn't take much to clean tile like that....and therefore 1/2 of the normal cleaning job.....that's the way I see it.


And as for getting more for the color sealing you have to remember what market I'm in. I definitely don't have Mikey customers. The average house is probably 80-100,000 here and that's probably high....so think about that compared to a starter home in mikeys woods of probably as cheap as they come 250,000. Hell 200,000 is a very very nice house out here. My customers probably make 30-40,000 average. And I feel at that rate I can clear more than cleaning carpet. Just the way I see it.....it's about understanding your market. I have tried going up on cleaning in the past month or two and have found that I was pretty well at the peak so I went down to match my competition and didn't mind as much since gas has come down over 25%.

 

[Gary T]

I get it.

Etching the grout is still a very good practice if you're going to color seal. Apply it, and by the time you're done putting it down, go ahead and rinse it off. It only needs a min. or so to do it's job. It really doesn't add much time to the job.

Just trying to help.

 

[Mark Imbesi]

How much of an acid is needed to etch the grout? Would a ph of 4 do it?

BTW, Great job, Tim!

 

[TimP]

How much of an acid is needed to etch the grout? Would a ph of 4 do it?

BTW, Great job, Tim!

As long as it bubbles on the grout.....I doubt ph 4 will do it though. Usually it's a ph of 1 if I'm not mistaken. I use tog easy etch or viper renew.


If you are wanting to extract and worried about acid hurting a shop vac or something of the sort you can use baking soda or spray alkaline over it to knock it out.......

 

[Mark Imbesi]

I'm actually looking for an acidic cleaner for use with my Challenger OP. I'm planning on cleaning first with Anomaly (ph 11.5 - 12.5), but the more I read up on this service, I need to follow up with an acid, especially if I want to color seal. Thanks for the response.

 

[alazo1]

All you need to do is have some grout color charts on your truck

Can you just go to HD and get a bunch of these?. I take it you leave it with the custy? anyone know if there is a minimum order for grout perfect?.

Albert

 

[TimP]

I think you can order as much or as little....just pay more in shipping probably. You can order easy from the TOG website. Grout perfect you have to fill out a form and fax it or something....not sure since I haven't bought from them. Maybe you can call????