Porcelain tile help

[David-M.]

Just to update further on this:

The Power stripper and grout stain remover samples arrived and neither of those had any effect whatsoever.

I'm fairly certain now that this isn't transit wax, but a pre applied sealer. Speaking to LTP again today, they say that they've never come across even a sealer that is impervious to all their chemicals, and just to confirm this, they asked me to do the permanent marker test on one of the tiles I'd not used any chemicals on and it just pooled and wiped straight off. They are keen to get hold of a sample of these tiles, so I'm sending them my offcuts and hopefully that will help anyone else that has the same problem as me.

The problem that I do still have is that the tiles look fine, but they do have a slight haze to them, and while I can live with that, it is the sealer that they've used for sure, and the reason that I know this is that I spent an hour with a pan scourer yesterday and managed to partially remove some of it, but it's very tough!

 

[David-M.]

You can just about see the abrasions from the pan scrubbers.

 

[tfs]

what is the name of that tile mate?

 

[David-M.]

Not sure mate, here's the box if that helps?

 

[tfs]

it says the tiles are presealed, it may be the nano seal that I mentioned previously. If this is the case then this type of seal is made to last. Nanotechnolegy (to the best of my knowledge) is a permenant seal. These tiles usualy have a very oily/ waxy finnish to the tile. This should have come off with an intensive cleaner (obviously this did not work though)

My first thought would be that the tile has been Nano-sealed but, I would be very keen to hear what LTP have to say after there tests.

You could try contacting the tile manufacturer?

 

[David-M.]

I rang Al-Murad today and they are going to look into it and get back to me on Monday. To be honest, if they say that that is the finish and that's how they are supposed to look, then, that's fine, I just didn't want to have them all stained by grout or whatever and have to all come back up again.

LTP said also that they'd been checking out Nano-sealed tiles and found that they benefit from a coat of MPG, or at least some of them did. All very confusing for a novice like me.

Regarding the waxy oily surface, there's none of that, it's dry and it's hard, just as you'd expect it to be if there was no sealer or wax on there, but there is that kind of haze that looks as though it should come off if that makes sense?

 

[tfs]

I rang Al-Murad today and they are going to look into it and get back to me on Monday. To be honest, if they say that that is the finish and that's how they are supposed to look, then, that's fine, I just didn't want to have them all stained by grout or whatever and have to all come back up again.

LTP said also that they'd been checking out Nano-sealed tiles and found that they benefit from a coat of MPG, or at least some of them did. All very confusing for a novice like me.

Regarding the waxy oily surface, there's none of that, it's dry and it's hard, just as you'd expect it to be if there was no sealer or wax on there, but there is that kind of haze that looks as though it should come off if that makes sense?

Trust me bud, it is very confusing to most of us. No presealed tile should absorb grout anyway.

goodluck, I hope someone comes up with an effective solution for you. Let us know how you get on.

 

[David-M.]

Actually mate, now you've said that, I do feel a little less suspect of the tilers that I've seen that didn't know about all this stuff, I mean, if I'd have gone with the Pilkington's ones that looked pretty much identical, only shinier and about £150 more, there would have been none of this, and I suppose that's what many of the fitters must do. get decent tiles and be free (ish) of all this nonsense?

Cheers

 

[David-M.]

Another update, I just noticed a small ID label that says "superblacknano", so I'm guessing that's what all this is then :lol:

 

[DHTiling]

These updates have been very useful and a BIG thanks to LTP for helping you out..

 

[David-M.]

I forgot to mention that I've done a box of the tiles with MPG to see how they went, as LTP mentioned that nano tiles may benefit from it. So far so good, but I'm runnng out of micro-fibre cloths (15 in all) after just 8 tiles.

Would I be better off with a drill attachment for buffing them up, and if so, could you recommend one as I've got 88 more tiles to do and at this rate it's going to cost me more in cloths

Thanks.

 

[DHTiling]

Paper towel rolls..

 

[David-M.]

Kitchen roll?

 

[DHTiling]

You can yes.. But i am talking about Trade paper towel rolls..

i get mine from Eurocell plastics.

 

[David-M.]

OK cheers Dave.

I've found that kitchen roll sticks to it pretty quickly, so 3 buffs with that and then a final one with the microfibre does the trick. It's hard work though. Only 70 or so to go.