travatine problems

[michaeldocherty]

I have just carried out a large travatine job and the tiles are showing up with marks on them I have sealed them and the customer thinks it is grout under the sealant, the tiles are not the best, does anyone know the best method of cleaning the tiles, and starting the process again

 

[TilingLogistics]

I have just carried out a large travatine job and the tiles are showing up with marks on them I have sealed them and the customer thinks it is grout under the sealant, the tiles are not the best, does anyone know the best method of cleaning the tiles, and starting the process again

What grout did you use? Is the trav polished or honed? How many M2? What size are the tiles?

Kev

 

[doug boardley]

did you use a solid bed trowel Mike? just wonderig if it could be ribs off a normal trowel bleeding through?

 

[CJ]

Grout Haze underneath the sealant :veryangry:

 

[DHTiling]

Sounds like filler in the tiles sucking more sealer than the stone has...leaving that rough look like grout can...common with poor grade travertine...

 

[michaeldocherty]

Yes it does look like a haze, its about 65 sq mtres,

 

[DHTiling]

Michael..can you talk us through your prep and sealing of the stone please.....?..

then we can advise better...

 

[michaeldocherty]

I think they are honed and polished but not to a high shine, the customer has scraped one of the tiles and it acually came up quite good, I did think of getting hold of one of the tiles and putting sealer on it to see what the effect will be, if it does come up with marks then I think it will be down to the customer buying cheap tiles from China

 

[TilingLogistics]

I think they are honed and polished but not to a high shine, the customer has scraped one of the tiles and it acually came up quite good, I did think of getting hold of one of the tiles and putting sealer on it to see what the effect will be, if it does come up with marks then I think it will be down to the customer buying cheap tiles from China

It sounds as though you have the same problem I dealt with for Mark at Bling Tiling a couple of months ago! Is there shadowing on the tiles when you look at them in different light?

Kev

 

[michaeldocherty]

They were laid in the normal way and because of under concrete heating I used flexi adhesive, I then thourally cleaned them with water and a sponge, quite a few times, they were then sealed and then grouted, I then cleaned the whole area and then re-sealed the tiles, I laid some of the tiles with another tiler and he did comment about the amount of holes in the underside that were filled, these tiles were puchased by the custmer direct from china at a very low price, in most of the tiled area it looks like a haze on the tiles, but in the utilty area it does look like the grout has not been removed properly

 

[michaeldocherty]

It sounds as though you have the same problem I dealt with for Mark at Bling Tiling a couple of months ago! Is there shadowing on the tiles when you look at them in different light?

Kev

Yes it seems to be ok in the evening but worse during the day

 

[TilingLogistics]

Production workers get paid for the amount of tiles they produce. The likelyhood is that some of the honing process has been skipped to speed up production. If this is the case it can only be rectified by honing them again! However, an interesting point is you say that the customer scraped one of the tiles and it appears better! What did she use?

Kev

 

[michaeldocherty]

Production workers get paid for the amount of tiles they produce. The likelyhood is that some of the honing process has been skipped to speed up production. If this is the case it can only be rectified by honing them again! However, an interesting point is you say that the customer scraped one of the tiles and it appears better! What did she use?

Kev

he used a stanley blade

 

[TilingLogistics]

Then it probably is not honing related. Can you tell me what sealer you used? Were the tiles completely dry before you sealed them? i.e. at least 24 hours! What grout did you use? Did you just grout the grout lines or the faces as well?

Kev

 

[michaeldocherty]

Then it probably is not honing related. Can you tell me what sealer you used? Were the tiles completely dry before you sealed them? i.e. at least 24 hours! What grout did you use? Did you just grout the grout lines or the faces as well?

Kev

Yes I think it was at least 24 hours to dry, I used Hg sealer