cheri-- it depends. For installing terracotta tile (which is what you're talking about), you actually use TWO different sealers. The first is a grout release, which should be a water based penetrating sealer, such as Aquamix's Sealers Choice. The second is a top coat sealer, unless you want it to have the raw look to it, in which case, you'd just seal the whole thing after it's grouted with the same water based penetrating sealer. If the grout gets dirty before I seal it, do I have a problem? Or can I clean out the dirt before I seal or color it? OMG, yer gonna hafta rip it all out! (just kidding. :-) Did I get your heart racing?) Seriously-- if it gets dirty, hitting it with oxyclean and then rinsing it well will take care of it-- either way, for the colorant OR the sealer. Bill do you think it wasn't mixed correctly or used to much water when cleaning it? Or I heard tap water could make the grout lighter. Positano, there are more reasons for the grout to come out lighter than stars in the sky, starting with it being a chronic problem that grout charts are sometimes printed more "vividly" than the actual colors. Without analysing a piece of the grout, it would be impossible to say for sure, although your assertions are all possibilities.

There's a product from Surface Treatment Technologies that I am evaluating shortly (as soon as I get the working samples from STT) - I believe they have a lifetime warranty, but I am not certain, as I don't have the product literature in front of me to quote... Although, I have heard nothing but RAVE reaviews from many of my colleagues in the Natural Stone Industry that have tried it, and now use it exclusively, so It has a really good reputation - but I like the Missouri approach - "Show Me"..... ;-) Stay tuned as I'll be posting a seperate thread on it within the next 10 days... That said, I have to agree with Bill's remarks about the impregnator versus the porous plus - although in the past, all I have ever used is Porous Plus 511 - Bill's logic makes sense - I guess I have been a bit old fashioned in my reasoning for insisting on using nothing but 511 Porous Plus - BUT, when you NEVER have a call back - (ever since I've been using 511 Porous Plus) you don't want to "fix" what aint broke... BUT - My Brother Bill makes a good point, so, I guess I'd better test both 511 products to see for myself... I'll post that too in the next 10 days. kevin Kevin M. Padden MIA SFA Fabricator, Trainer & Consultant to the Natural Stone Industry www.azschoolofrock.com

The problem is the enhancer is into the stone, not on the surface, so even the acetone may not do it. You could try it though, and see what happens. Quite frankly, you may have to let it wear off.

Here is a picture of my backsplash, after sealer/enhancer. The two tiles (4x4 and 6x6) in front are without the s/e. It went from gray to a brown color. That was my biggest chaos in my kitchen remodel, that my tile salesman sold me the tile, showing me the brown sealed sample, and when I picked up the new tile, he said the gray will turn to brown when sealed (didn't tell me what kind of sealer). Then my tile installer said "that will never happen" and to prove it, used HIS sealer on one (not an enhancer) to show that, sure enough, the tile would stay the same color. I thought my tile salesman sold me the wrong thing or told me the wrong info, and the tile installer said "I better take all this down before it sets; you need to go get the 'right' tile." And he took down the WHOLE backsplash and laid it on my living room floor. Come to find out if either one would have told me it was a sealer/ENHANCER that was used on the sample, I would have been fine. The brown enhanced color was what I wanted. The salesman should have told me which product was used on the finished sample (and I should have asked). The installer should have known the different products out there, but he said "there is not a product in the world that will make a stone turn color...." And I believed he was the expert. Guess what... he never came back to put my tile back up. Just left me hanging, and I had to hire someone else. Sorry to hijack the thread, but to this day, I get mad thinking about that chaotic two days, and the week afterward that I tried to get this guy back to my house. He was so sure that he was right, and apparently had never HEARD of an ENHANCER... and he's been in business 30 years. I think he got embarrassed that he had steered me so very wrong.