Mosaic Floor Restoration, Replication, Replacement -- Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,
California, USA

The Administration Building of the Old L.A. County General Hspital actually dated to the early days of the hospital’s history and showed the effect and wear of over a century’s use. Comprehensive mosaic floor restoration, replication, and replacement was called for, as restoration of the porcelain tile floor in the interior public spaces of the structure involved repairs and the reproduction of new matching tile.

The sub-floor had moved and settled over the years, resulting in long cracks across the surface. We removed any offending or damaged tile unit, using our Italian pneumatic mini carving hammers for greater precision. Any crack repairs were fairly well-disguised thanks to careful blending of the replacement tile during the reinstallation process.

Wikipedia Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_â€“_USC_Medical_Center

In addition to exterior restoration, the interior porcelain tile floors needed extensive repairs and rehabilitation.
Not only were the historic surfaces prone to the usual poor ongoing maintenance, the sub-floor had moved and settled over the years, resulting in long cracks across the surface.
Several areas on the two levels of mosaic floor had been tastefully repaired, and crack damage and area loss were in evidence everywhere.
The first task item in any repair of this nature is to remove the offending or damaged tile unit. We used several tricks from the magic tool bag, including these Italian pneumatic mini carving hammers. They give us an unusual amount of control in removing the damaged tiles while leaving the adjacent sound material intact.
After demo work was completed, these high speed die grinders (20,000 rpm) with diamond-rimmed cutting wheels made short work of the rest of the setting bed preparation.
Here’s a closeup of typical longitudinal cracking and the prepared area ready for new tile.
Other areas of the two floors had significant tile loss on a more random basis, as if the sub-floor had given up the ghost.
Here, the cracks have been prepared by remvoval of damaged tiles and careful preparation of the setting bed.
Careful use of special pneumatic carving hammers allowed us to remove the existing setting mortar while dramaticallly reducing the chance of damage to the adjacent historic undamaged tile.
Here’s a different angle on the same area showing the cracks prepared and waiting for installation of new material.
A finish shot of the same area. The crack repairs are fairly well-disguised thanks to careful blending of the replacement tile during the reinstallation process. A good color-match on the replacement grout is also crucial to the success of this type of repair. We were careful to match the color of the surface grout(weathered) rather than the unstained inner (original) color.