Hi Bill, How does one find out if a stone is "extremely porous" - e.g. I have a few different stone floorings recently installed but not yet grouted (Benjamin Gray limestone, Lagos Azul limestone, and Gray Sandstone) - what do I need to do to figure out whether to upgrade to Porous Plus, or just stick with Impregnator? (Or one of the other recommended sealers.) Thanks, Becky

Hi, Most people on this blog seem to like the sealant 511. I originally purchased Porous Plus (which is made by the same company) for $235 for my marble. When my installer went to use it, we couldn't find a guaranty for the estimated timeframe before it needed to be resealed and he was surprised at the cost. He got another sealer at Home Depot that cost $95 and was guaranteed to work for 20 years. Now I don't put much stock in guarantees having worked in the marketing department of a large corporation. But a product with a 20 year guaranty in my opinion would be better than a product that doesn't make any claims at all. Even if the first product only worked for half of the time stated (10 years), I thought it would still be a better product. Don't know yet if that was a correct assumption or not. When I went to return the Miracle Porous Plus, the Tile store would not take it back because they said it had been kept at a temperature lower than 55 degrees and now couldn't be used or resold (which given the recent warm weather here was questionable at best). My contractor never heard of that and the temperature requirement was not stated on the product container nor did the salesperson mention that to me. I made sure to tell the salesperson that this was my first remodel and that I wanted a product which required the least amount of maintenance. I'm curious to see the other comments from this thread but from what I read so far, 511 seems to be the sealer of choice. You might want to check with some installers or fabricators and see what sealer they recommend. Good luck! Karen

The best natural stone/grout/concrete sealer on the market is DryTreat's StainProof Original, StainProof Plus, MetaCreme and the 40SK for commercial use. DryTreat's products are alcohol based and have over 60% active ingredient vs. DuPont's best, the bulletproof, a water based sealer which has only about 13% active ingredient. Miracle's 511 sealer only has a 8% active ingredient. DryTreat's sealers molecules are 300-400 times smaller which ensures a deeper penetration to maximize protection. DuPont's and Miracle's 511 are both topical sealers which means you must re-apply them every 6 months or so. StainProof Original/Plus you only apply them once, and if you clean and maintain your stone you will be good for a life time. DryTreat sealers are VOC compliant and suitable for indoor, outdoors, residential and commercial use. Their warranties are real; they stand behind their product 100%. We have been in the tile and stone industry for over 30 years and dealt with all sealer companies. We have been using DryTreat for over 8 years and never had one issue. Definitely the best impregnating sealer money can buy!

may_flowers - I'm going through a tile company not an individual and the only two options they have are the polybend grout and the Fusion Pro. I thought about going out on my own and buying epoxy or urethane, but my job would probably be the first time these guys have ever used either and I don't know if I want to be their guinea pig. Romy - I'll keep you updated on what I find out. The guys started on my floors Monday and they had to remove the previous tile from my kitchen, office, laundry room and one bathroom. It is taking them forever to get the concrete slab smooth. They did tile my office yesterday but they didn't ask what pattern I wanted. Everything is taped off, so I can't see what they're doing from my family room. I walked around the front to get at one point and he was almost done with my office but it did a regular pattern and I wanted it done in a brick pattern, so he had to start all over. I couldn't believe he didn't ask how I wanted it laid before he started. They sill have so much stuff to scrape off the rest of the floors to get it smooth. I think they're doing it all by hand. Shouldn't their be some type of machine they could use to make it faster?