Marble with brown stains

[noobtiler]

Hi again guys, I decided to go with the 2mm gaps in the end but Ive now laid half the bathroom floor 2 m2 with white marble 600 x 600 tiles and ia couple hours after laying light brown coffee/tar stains appeared on the edges of my tiles. I can only put it down to putting too much adhesive near the edges of the tiles then when levelling causing adhesive to pop through the grout gap and got quite wet. Its only on areas where this happened. Tiles are 18mm thick, I used ardex x77 and mapei kieraquick both white adhesive. Tiles weren't sealed so not sure if that matters. And was laying onto itra matting..PLease help

p.s clients dont drink coffee so cant blame them

 

[david campbell]

sounds like your tiles have stained with the adhesive,it's always a good idea to seal them first if you can't guarentee you will be able to work cleanly!
you can get a product from lithofin called MN power clean that is for cleaning heavily soiled marble,you can mail order from diatech scotland

 

[noobtiler]

No where else has stained only the egdes. Ardex say it shouldnt stain and another tiler who has laid alot of marble says that can happen and will dry out to white, just want another opinion..:mad2:

 

[DHTiling]

Leave it to dry before you use anything....picture frame wetting can happen on certain types of stone.

 

[noobtiler]

Leave it to dry before you use anything....picture frame wetting can happen on certain types of stone.

and is that sometimes brown? thanks dave

 

[DHTiling]

Not normaly...but depends on the marble and veining...

I would leave it and see if it dries...we had one a couple weeks or so ago on here and it dried out...

 

[noobtiler]

cheers dave, will let u know:8:

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

have had white marble go almost translucent on the edges when first layed due to moisture from addy seeping through fissures/veins in tiles which were not noticable before laying. dried out clean before grouting. id do as others have said and see how they dry out

 

[Colour Republic]

So guys what would you do about sealing here? If it is just wetting from the addy would you wait until it had dried out or would you seal anyway?... (maybe i'm gonna answer my own question here) i suppose you'd have to wait to make sure it really is wetting or you'd seal any stains in.

But if you were sure it's wetting, would you seal? and if so would you still use a solvent based sealer or would you go for a water based one to be on the safe side?

 

[DHTiling]

NO i would not seal on a damp tile....

 

[Colour Republic]

NO i would not seal on a damp tile....

I thought you might say that Dave, can be a bit tricky keeping the customer off the floor until it has dried out but needs must, what the longest you've seen it take, I can think of jobs where it's taken 3 days but there must be times where it can take longer. any expriance?

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

personally prefer to cut and dry lay the tiles and seal before fixing if at all poss, but otherwise i would only seal after they had dried out to to be safe and sure.

 

[DHTiling]

couple days most for me....was limestone but i grouted before sealing and had slight picture frame wetting.....so left it to dry before sealing....but the likes of apple stone need to be sealed before grouting and usually need to handled with gloves also as finger sweat can stain them...:yikes:

 

[Colour Republic]

Ok here is another one for you...

I normally, fix, seal, grout, then seal again.

Have any of you ever sealed the underside of a tile from fear of addy staining and if so did it have any implications for the addy making a bond because of it?

 

[DHTiling]

I have never sealed the underside...not something i would contemplate either...

If a stone is suspect of darkening from adhesive then i flat blade the back of the tile with adhesive then the colour change is uniform...this should be done anyway with translucent tiles..

sealing the underside and edges imo is a waste of time...and could hinder the adhesion process depending on the type used..