Porcelain staining problem

[pevro]

Hello there,A bit of advice for a scared newb.Heres the scenario, purchased Topps black and white Salvatore floor tiles along with Bal Single Part Flex adhesive and Bal Superflex Wide Joint in Charcoal. Topps advised removing wax coating so used Lithofin WEXA. Then proceeded to apply Lithofin Protective Impregnator to tiles after fixed.Now I proceeded to grout m2 sections but after rinsing the excess the white floor tiles have what i can only describe as a dirty wish wash effect that appears to be under the surface of the tile. I stopped after about 4 m2 (half the floor area) am now stuck with half the floor grouted with stained white tiles and half the floor un grouted but scared to proceed in case of ruining the whole floor.Topps said it sounded like the protective wax coting was still present and advised to strip with Fila stripper - this hasn't worked.Bal Technical support suggested a Emulsifying pad and warm water. Failing that Nitromors !! The guy there said that the grout neaded to be treated now almost like an Epoxy Grout. After a pretty liberable application of Nitromors and working with various scrubbers, this doesn't appear to have worked either.So the questions, are the tiles mullered and only option is rip up and re lay. Or is there a magic solution to the problem.Also in the worst case scenario that the tiles have to come up, what can I use to prevent this happening again and to the rest of the tiles.Thanks in advance

 

[DHTiling]

Try a product called Lithofin Abra clean or Aqua mix Nano scrub..

This should clean the grout from the pores in the porcelain and any wax that is present.

On the next section you can use a temporary coating sealer to prevent this happening again.

But you do need to make sure the transit wax is off first before any sealer is applied.

 

[pevro]

thanks dave,I will give one of those a try. Obviously I want to try everything before taking the tiles up.Everyone I have spoken to has agreed that Lithofin are a good product so should I stick with their product i.e the abra clean or is the nano scrub better in this situation?Also going forward is there a bomb proof way of a) making sure the wax coating is removed and b) making sure the tiles are 100% protected from this happening again. For instance is the WEXA up to the job and is the FZ Protective Impregnator the correct sealer.thanks again

 

[DHTiling]

The sealer is fine.. and the wexa would normally remove certain wax's but the Abra clean was brought out to effectively remove transit wax's .

You must follow the directions on the products..

 

[pevro]

Brilliant, thanks again Dave.

 

[pevro]

Just to double check, today I have ordered Lithofin Abra Clean.

1. Am I right to assume this will also clean everything off the ungrouted tiles (transit wax & impregnator)
2. When I come to regrout, would I be best to use something like Bal Protective Sealer to prevent this happening again?

Thanks

 

[DHTiling]

Abra-CLEAN removes

• pencil marks from porcelain tiles (the author has been guilty of that one before)
• polymer transport coatings
• plaster and paint marks
• aluminium marks from tiles
• stubborn dirst deposits
• care product layers

The nitromors has probably removed any sealer..

 

[pevro]

Update:

I lost the battle with cleaning these tiles. In the end I tried both Abra Clean and Nanoscrub. I had some success on the not so heavily stained tiles but half a dozen were just too heavily stained and after nearly a week of applying and scrubbing I took the decision that I would never be 100% happy with the finished look.

In hindsight I think I should have accepted that some oo the tiles were beyond the scope of these products, although I must say for light staining they really were excellent and without them I would have had to reaplce twice as many tiles.

The tiles are all now in differing states i.e. some sealed, some not sealed. Now that I am back to sqaure one with the grouting I am obviously keen to prevent the same happening so a couple of questions if I may.

1) Should I use the remaining Abra clean (about half the bottle) to clean the whole floor with a view to stripping EVERYTHING on the tiles i.e any remaining transit wax and any residual sealer on the previously laid tiles?

2) Presumably I should then THOROUGHLY seal all the tiles before commencing grouting with the BAL wide joint charcoal. Previously I used Impregnator FZ and I am assured this is the correct sealer for polished porcelain.

3) Should I be using a temporary sealer in addition i.e. Bal pretective sealer as the grout is so heavily pigmented.

4) Should I abandon the idea of the charcoal grout or should I be looking at another manufacturer i.e. mapei as I will probably have to purchase another bag now anyway.

5) is there a 100% bomb proof way of applying charcoal/black grout to white polished porcelain without staining them beyond resurrection. I will obviously proceed very cautiously i.e. not leaving grout on the face of the tile for any length of time.

 

[DHTiling]

After some info from my tile retailer last week, they had issues with BAL charcoal and another colour staining polished porcelain that was sealed..They tried a few ways of washing straight off as well as leaving a short while to set but both stained the tiles , even though they were sealed.

So out of curiosity they tried Mapei ultra colour and all was fine.. So they put it down to the pigments etc staining the tiles.

So it might be an option to use another make...

I would advise you use a spare tile , seal it and then try the grout, the last thing you want is too seal it and land back at square one..

worth a thought..