We clean and reseal hard floors across London: tile and grout, natural stone, sealed wood, laminate, vinyl and LVT. We identify the floor first, match the product and water level to it, then scrub, rinse and dry. Fully insured, with a re-clean guarantee.
A hard floor looks easy to clean, and that is exactly why so many get damaged. The same pad and supermarket spray often go onto marble, oak and grout alike, when each needs something different. We are The London Carpet Cleaning Company, cleaning London since 2009, and we have rescued more than one floor a strong cleaner had already burned.
How we clean a hard floor
The first step is identification. A quick test tells us what a floor is made of, whether it is sealed, and how much moisture it can take. From there the method follows the material.
- Tile and grout. Tile faces wipe clean, but grout is porous and traps grease and foot traffic. We apply a grout-safe cleaner, agitate the lines, lift the soil out, then re-seal the grout so it stops drinking in dirt.
- Natural stone. Marble, limestone, travertine and slate get a pH-neutral product and gentle agitation. Acidic cleaners etch stone on contact, so we never use them here.
- Sealed wood and laminate. Cleaned with very little water, because too much moisture creeps into the joints and swells the boards. We work nearly dry and dry as we go.
- Vinyl and LVT. Water-tolerant and hard-wearing, cleaned with a neutral solution to strip the grey film mopping leaves behind, then buffed.
Afterwards we rinse where the floor allows, buff the surface, and re-seal grout and stone. A fresh seal keeps the next round of dirt on top, where a cloth takes it straight off, rather than soaking into the pores.
What hard-floor cleaning costs in London
Floors vary so much by material and size that we price per job rather than per square metre.
- Hard-floor cleaning from £60, by floor type and area
No call-out fee, and the price we quote is the price you pay. Tell us the floor type and rough size for a figure up front. Get a free quote, any day from 8am to 8pm.
Tile and grout cleaning
Grout sits just below the face of the tile, so a mop skates over the top and leaves the dirt sitting in the lines. That is what makes a tiled floor look grubby even after you have washed it. We clean tile and grout with a hot rinse and a firmer brush than a mop, lifting grease and ground-in grime out of the grout and off the tile. It works on ceramic, porcelain and natural stone in kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and conservatories, and it brings the grout back far closer to its original colour than scrubbing by hand will.
Knowing your floor, and the words that go with it
Most floor damage we are asked to undo comes from the wrong product rather than from neglect, and a few terms help you spot that trouble before it starts.
- Grout
- The cement-based filler between tiles. It is porous, so it absorbs grease and dirt and looks grubbier than the tile.
- Sealing (impregnator)
- A treatment that soaks into stone or grout and blocks the pores from the inside, so spills stay on the surface instead of sinking in.
- Etching
- Dull, often rough marks where acid has chemically burned the surface of stone. It is a change to the stone itself, not a stain on top.
- pH-neutral
- A cleaner that is neither acidic nor alkaline, safe for stone because it lifts dirt without attacking the mineral.
- Efflorescence
- A white, powdery salt deposit that rises to the surface as moisture moves through stone or grout and evaporates.
What cleaning will not fix
We would rather lose the job than take your money for something a clean cannot do. Existing etching on stone, deep scratches gouged into wood, and laminate that has already swollen from standing water are all damage rather than dirt. Cleaning lifts soil off a surface. It does not rebuild one that has been burned, cut or warped, and that repair is restoration or replacement. On inspection we will tell you honestly which you have, soil that will come up or damage that is now part of the floor.
Getting ready, and keeping it that way
Clear small furniture and rugs off the floor if you can, and we will move anything heavier between us. Day to day, sweep or vacuum grit often, since grit is what scratches a hard floor underfoot, and wipe spills on stone quickly so they cannot etch. How often a professional clean pays off depends on traffic, so a busy kitchen tends to benefit yearly while a quiet room needs it far less. The floor is safe for children and pets once dry.
Areas we cover and related cleaning
We clean hard floors across all 33 London boroughs and Greater London; check the areas we cover for your postcode. Many people book a floor alongside other work, so our hot-water carpet cleaning pairs well, and a tired rug can go for rug cleaning on the same visit.
Hard-floor cleaning questions, answered
How long does a hard floor take to dry?
Most hard floors are walkable within an hour or two, because we use far less water than carpet cleaning. Sealed wood and laminate dry fastest. If we re-seal grout or stone, we will tell you how long to keep traffic and rugs off it.
Can you get my grout looking white again?
Usually we can lift it a long way back, because most grubby grout is trapped soil rather than a stain. We deep-scrub the lines, then re-seal them so dirt stays on the surface. Grout that is cracked or always a darker shade may not go bright white, and we will say so.
Do you clean wood and laminate floors safely?
Yes, with very little water. The risk is moisture seeping into the joints and swelling the boards, so we clean nearly dry rather than flooding the floor. Already-swollen laminate is water damage that cleaning cannot reverse, so there the fix is replacement.
Is the work guaranteed?
Yes. We are fully insured, and our re-clean guarantee is simple: if a spot we treated comes back, so do we, at no charge. We also tell you before we start what a clean can and cannot achieve on your floor.
We have cleaned London floors since 2009, fully insured and DBS-checked, with every job backed by our re-clean guarantee. Call 020 8077 8090 and we will look after yours.
