Sealing Textured Porcelain Tiles

[Stoney]

Hi everyone I'm new to this site and just wondered if anyone can give us some helpful advice.
We bought Q-Rock textured porcelain tiles from Topps Tiles along with all the products they recommended to get the shiny black tile finish which is displayed in their store. We followed all the instructions and they initially looked great on our kitchen floor. Left o/night to dry, next morning noticed any water getting on them dried white! Splashes from the sink, footprints. Wiped over an area to try with very damp sponge-this dried white/patchy! Topps gave us a tile cleaner which we used and now the whole floor is a dull patchy grey and the black grout is now white.
Apparently Fila have admitted a problem with the formula of their sealer which we used and its been taken off of the shelves, but still no-one at Topps can give us a solution to how to put the tiles right. They're sending a tiler round to remove and re-grout but we still have dull patchy tiles, nothing like what we wanted.
Does anybody know of a solution to this and why this may have happened? Is it the sealer? or do these tiles have somekind of 'wax' seal on them that the manufacturers put on to protect in transit? No-one in Topps told us about this.
What can we do next ? :mad2:

 

[doug boardley]

not sure on this one Stoney, but I'll be following it with interest as I have 25m2 of these Q rock Topps tiles to fix in a weeks time

 

[White Room]

http://www.tilersforums.com/tiling-forum/3196-q-rock-tiles.html

 

[Stoney]

Let me know how you get on.
What was you going to do about sealing them?

 

[doug boardley]

if they're polished porcelain, I'd probably use LTP impregnating sealer (MPG)

 

[Stoney]

These are textured porcelain not polished I don't think. On the box its got Q-Rock Riven Black. They were dullish when originally got out of box which is why we want to use sealer to get the shiny black finish. But after having problems with Fila textured porcelain protector and using the tile cleaner to remove that we are now unsure at what to use to seal them again.

Do you know if these particular tiles come with a wax sealer for transit-Topps store manager said NO but Topps area manager said YES!
Can't seem to get any answers.

 

[White Room]

Just assume that they have a wax on them, then you can't be wrong

 

[Stoney]

Right ok, so assuming they did have a wax coating on them originally. We basically sealed over the top of that with the Fila sealer, then on the advice of Topps we've cleaned off with the tile cleaner they gave us.
What in your opinion is the best cleaning product out there to get rid of anything that may still be on them (either the sealer or the original wax ? )
Thanks

 

[doug boardley]

LTP Online | Cleaning Products
have a look at the link I've posted Stoney

 

[Terry Cottar]

OK you need to do a test area by cleaning one tile with Aqua Mix Sealing & Coating Remover. Let it sit (Dwell) for 15 minutes then wipe it off and rinse with warm water. If this doesn't remove it repeat only this time back the sealing and Coating remover up with Aqua Mix Nanoscrub and agitate it with a white emulsifying pad. Then wipe off and rinse again with warm water. All these products are available from Dave at tradetiler or failing that online at EBay.

tel

 

[doug boardley]

just checked, they're not a polished porc tile, so they'll not need an impregnating or topical sealer. Topps recommend Fila stripper, even though they've had some problems of late with it.

 

[boardy]

Q-rock cant be sealed the best way to deal with the problem would be to use LTP Grimex this a much better cleaner than FILA cleaners £9.08 from tile giant.

 

[doug boardley]

Q-rock cant be sealed the best way to deal with the problem would be to use LTP Grimex this a much better cleaner than FILA cleaners £9.08 from tile giant.

excellent stripper/cleaner Boardy

 

[Stoney]

thanks for everyone's advice still up in the air and not sure where to go on cleaning and sealing with so many products available.
which ones are best out of LTP or lithofin ?:incazzato::yikes:

 

[doug boardley]

both are good brands Stoney, but as I've said, no need for a sealer as it won't soak into vitrified porcelain, which is what you've got

 

[Stoney]

what is vitrified porcelain ? and the trouble is when we bought these tiles Topps displayed them as shiny black and gave us the products to get that finish and now were left with tiles looking far from what we originally wanted. Just want to try and get them back to how we were sold them. ???

 

[doug boardley]

vitrified porcelain to all intents and purpose is a glazed porcelain, polished porcelain is a through bodied clay, ie the colour of the biscuit (the body of the tile) is the same as the face. Were the tiles, when you purchased them, shiney?

 

[Stoney]

Even though we made sure they were all from same batch. Some of the tiles were shinier than others-not shiny as in polished but looked like they could've been sealed already in my opinion!

 

[boardy]

Having worked for Topps Tiles for 4 years some stores had a bad habbit of putting sealers on these tiles which does nothing but dry and give a faulse effect of what they will look like when you get them home.What store did you buy these from.

 

[adamleibo]

Stoney - did you ever resolve this. I think I have the same problem.... very annoying.

 

[foggy34]

me too what was the outcome plz, i removed wax and claned, tiles looking grey almost as if pitted look like they need colour putting back into tiles and then sealing any advise

 

[jay]

any chance of some pics please

 

[foggy34]

got a supplier sending some products over so will try them and inform of outcome! unfortunatly cant get pics for another week or so but will do a b4 and after set