Jura limestone appears to be rusting over time

[mreeves]

Hi there,

Hopefully there will be a few experts on here that can help with this very concerning problem. My builder has laid about 100 sqm of Jura Blue-Grey limestone on the ground floor of my new house. This was laid about 2 months ago. It was sealed with a single coat of Lithofin Stain-Stop. We are now finding more and more tiles are starting get marks that look like rust which really does not look pleasant. Here is a photo.

The spec was as follows: Natural stone tiling; JuraLimestone; colour - Blue-Grey; honed finish; 300 xrandom lengths of 600 to 1200 (40% between 900 to1200); 15 thick; 3 wide joints; on and includingJohnsons Permalayer intermediate layer; fixing withBAL-PTB flexible adhesive; grouting with MapeiKeracolour FF, ref. 112, colour - medium grey; to screedbase;

Is this to be expected? My architect has used the same stone from the same quarry on a number of other houses and has never seen it before. Could it be caused by the tiles getting sealed when they were not bone dry?

Any ideas on what has caused this, and more importantly what I can do about it, would be very gratefully received.

Best regards
Martin

 

[Ian]

Has the floor been covered over for any long periods of time, either when it was first laid or at any point up until now?

 

[The D]

Looks like it is in the stone. Do you have more pics ?

 

[mreeves]

I do not believe it was covered up for any longer periods - just a short while during painting as far as I can remember.

Three more photos here

 

[swanman]

Also one coat of sealer is not enough for limestone

Did they use white adhesive

 

[mreeves]

How many coats would you recommend? I don't believe they used white adhesive.

 

[The D]

It is not adhesive IMO

 

[enduro]

Two-three coats...Have you got any wooden furniture, chairs etc where these marks are. If so i could be when the floor is washed the stain in the furniture will blead into the stone if left on a wet floor.

 

[mreeves]

There is no wooden furniture or chairs in the property as we have no moved in as yet.

 

[The D]

Sorry to go of topic but in your bathrooms you have ply sheets lined with a tile backer board. Are they cement boards like hardy backer and no more ply or are they a foam type board like Wedi board or marmox boards ?

 

[Bolter]

Is it the same tile as is on the walls of the bathrooms? Is that tile doing the same thing?

 

[mreeves]

All of the photos provided are of the ground floor floor tiles which are honed. In the bathrooms we used sandblasted and brushed Jura blue-grey again 15mm thick. Out of 5 bathrooms I can only see 1 tile that has the same sort of rust effect which is a wall tile. The bathroom wall tiles are on a tile backer board but I do not know what specific type.

This is house that is very near completion so it has not been lived in.

 

[The D]

Sorry it is marmox if you enlarge the picture you can see the name and I think you have a potential problem with the way they are fixed. There appears to be no adhesive and there are no washers on the screws.

 

[Topshop]

How high is the humidity level in the house? Has the heat in the home been turned on? It appears to be iron in the stone rusting from moisture. It may be possible that the stone had not dried out enough before applying sealer. Some of the rust may be removed with Iron Out but as long as the home is humid it will return unless well sealed with a good penetrating sealer but after the surface rust is removed and the stone has dried out well.

 

[mreeves]

Sorry it is marmox if you enlarge the picture you can see the name and I think you have a potential problem with the way they are fixed. There appears to be no adhesive and there are no washers on the screws.

You've lost me - did you mean to post this to a different thread?

 

[mreeves]

Looks like it is in the stone. Do you have more pics ?

More photos here (I did post these extra pic earlier but the post seems to have got stuck in moderation or something as it never appeared)

 

[mreeves]

How high is the humidity level in the house? Has the heat in the home been turned on? It appears to be iron in the stone rusting from moisture. It may be possible that the stone had not dried out enough before applying sealer. Some of the rust may be removed with Iron Out but as long as the home is humid it will return unless well sealed with a good penetrating sealer but after the surface rust is removed and the stone has dried out well.

Not sure about the humidity level in the house to be honest. Underfloor heating was on for a long period before tiling and has I believe been on at times since.

 

[The D]

You've lost me - did you mean to post this to a different thread?

No it is to you. You have a problem in your bathrooms I think you need to get the marmox rep out and show him the installation pictures and see what he thinks

 

[mreeves]

No it is to you. You have a problem in your bathrooms I think you need to get the marmox rep out and show him the installation pictures and see what he thinks

None of the photos are of bathroom wall tiles - all of those photos are of floor tiles (ground floor of house) that should be fixed as per the spec in my first post.

 

[The D]

Have a look at your pics and find the ones of the bathrooms before they are tiled there is one with the boards half done post that one

 

[The D]

Picture 149 and 150 from the start

 

[mreeves]

Picture 149 and 150 from the start

Now i'm with you - you've looked at other photos in my flickr photo stream and spotted something else that is not right unconnected with the rust issue. Those pictures were taken a good 6 weeks before the bathrooms were tiled so I can't be sure they did not remedy that prior to tiling. Nethertheless I will mention it to my architect - thanks.

 

[The D]

sorry for going of topic with this and confusing you.

 

[The D]

Picture 18 has tiling on the wall and a section of exposed marmox with no washers on the screws if they did not use the washers the boards will not hold the stone to the wall so you will need to make absolutely sure this was done IMO they should be glued and screwed with washers.

 

[The D]

Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reeves/6441590083/