Step This Way To Bring Tired Terrazzo Stairs Back To Life

Apr 27 2008 Donny Sheridan

Q The communal stairs to my tenement flat have a terrazzo marble effect. They were put in years ago and look very dirty. What is the best way to clean them?

A Cosmo Ceramics Ltd (0141 420 1122) sell a product for cleaning and polishing terrazzo to bring it back to life.

Q What can be done to remove heel marks from sanded floorboards?

A There is not much you can do with finished flooring except steaming out the worst dents. With sanded floor boards you best option is to re-sand and varnish.

Q My daughter had a kitchen fitted and there are kickboards left over. I would like to use them as worktop splashbacks. Can you suggest an adhesive that would act as a sealant, making them waterproof, to stick them onto newly plastered walls?

A Kickboards are not waterproof but go ahead if you want to. A waterproof adhesive that is extremely strong is Unibonds' No More Nails Ultra Instant Grab Power - it is ideal for wet conditions.

Q I live in a semi which is about 80 years old. It is red brick beneath the harling/wet dash. The outside of the house needs painted and I had the bossed harling chipped off and re-done. But the firm made a mess of it. Someone told my husband to water down cement and put it on the uneven bits with a paintbrush and then paint over it. It's awful and all you can see are the brush marks. How can I get this watered-down cement off?

A Get a reputable firm to remove the patch repairs that were poorly done and the only way to remove the watereddown cement is to chip it off. Another solution is to paint the roughcast with textured masonry paint to mellow out the poor workmanship.

Q Our five-year-old bungalow is timber framed with breeze block and external roughcast. When the external walls are wet from rain the shape of the breeze blocks become visible. Is this causing damage?

A It's basically the damp mortar beds, which won't cause any damage. Maybe your builder did not apply a first scratch coat, or the walls of your house are particularly exposed to the rain.