Limestone Nightmare

[Groutcho Marks]

Hello to all,
here goes, I have laid an anhydrite floor screed over a piped UFH system. On this i used a few coats of BAL apd and used flexy cement based ady and grout. The floor was 60 sqr meters and was limestone in an opus pattern. It looked stunning when it was done, all good so far. Then I foolishly used a acid based cleaner to try to remove the stubbon grout from the pitted surface. Massive mistake. This is in my new dream home which I have renovated myself. Gutted. Lots of faded light patches, looks shocking. I will notice every bit that is wrong every time I sit in the room if I don't repair it. The only time it looks at its best again is when its wet, when I have been coating it with impregnating sealer. I have paid 70 quid for a colour enhancer, it looks great when it is wet but when it dries it goes back to the streaky pattern. So my question is, is there a product that I can add to the surface that keeps it looking wet (preferably matt) and so keeping the colour even, or have I really, really messed up?

Thanks WT

 

[White Room]

How many tile are infected

 

[Groutcho Marks]

I'd of said more than half. There is a few different colours and some are more etched than others. V gutted

 

[DHTiling]

Questions..

1 which limestone.

2 which grout

3 which sealer

4 which acid remover

5 pics..

 

[Daz]

The acid cleaner wasn't your best move - sorry mate .

You need to get the stone back to a stable appearance before you can go forward with final sealing.

My suggestion would be to try cleaning the tiles with an alkaline grime remover (testing a small hidden area first). If you get an even clean finish then you can start thinking about sealing when thoroughly dry.

Don't be under any illusions, this is going to take a lot of elbow grease or a professional restoration company.

By the way, "wet look" means shiny IMO.

Good luck and I hope this works out for you.

 

[hillhead]

not nice when a floor goes like this,you need them streaks out so stripping is the way to go.

 

[Groutcho Marks]

Don't know which type of limestone, it was "Minster" from Classical Flagstones part of Marshalls.

BAL Supaflex wide joint grout.

HG Impregnator Sealer

Everbuild Patio Cleaner (yes i'm sorry)

I have sealed again after the acid mistake.

 

[Groutcho Marks]

"All the Minster antique stone tiles are sensitively and ethically sourced from India"

If that's relevant.

I'll take some pics tomorrow

 

[DHTiling]

When you applied the sealer.... what did you use and how did you apply it..?

 

[Groutcho Marks]

I used HG impregnator/sealer. I rollered it on before grouting, and wiped off after 5 mins as instructions. I grouted, left a week, used acid, left a few days sealed again. I tried the acid on a tile before using, it seemed ok. How wrong i was.