You would be forgiven for thinking the photos below show efflorescence forming on the tiles. But you’d be incorrect. This white bloom is actually the result of someone attempting to restore the floor and not neutralising the detergent they were using before they applied their cheap wooden floor varnish. Not only was this a completely inappropriate tile finish, but by failing to neutralise the detergent, the varnish was slowly being reduced to a powder by the cleaning product.








Once the amateur varnish was removed, the floor was left to breath for a number of weeks before being treated to a professional sealer. The photo below shows the sealer mid-drying stage.