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Help, please, Bill V or other tile guru!

13 years ago

My limestone kitchen floor went in today and is supposed to be grouted tomorrow or the next day. I seem to recall being told to seal the limestone before grouting, to make it easier to clean up the grout. But now I've just read something on the site for Porous Plus that makes me think you shouldn't seal because the sealant could get into the joints and then the grout won't stick.

So now I don't know what I should tell the guys...seal it first or don't seal it. Can anyone help?

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Comments (4)

bill_vincent
13 years ago
First off, it doesn't matter if some sealer gets in the joints or not. Even with the sealer-- you let the grout stay on the tile long enough to dry nice and hard, it's not coming off without a fight. Same in the grout joint.

Now, as for whether they should or shouldn't seal, leave it up to your installer. Just make him aware that however he decides to do it, you expect the stone to be impeccably clean when he's done. The reason I say this is because some installers, including myself, prefer to grout the stone raw, while others rather seal it first. There are very few surfaces I'll seal first, and I have a real problem with customers telling me I HAVE to seal a surface before I grout. I just went through this with a general contractor I do alot of business with. We tiled his own house under construction, and his master shower was chiarro tumbled marble (looks like swiss cheese), and I refused to seal it first. In fact it won't be sealed until this friday. He wasn't disappointed.

Like I said, let them know your expectations, and that they'll only be paid once those expectations are met, and let them take it from there.
shaughnn
13 years ago
Bill V's a meanie. And I agree with him. :^)
Shaughnn
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samcain777
13 years ago
Bill V or someone smarter than me!

We are re-doing showers and have some differences of opinion/questions re installing (with installer!). Does the travertine tile get cleaned before sealing? With what?

The master shower has this "lip/ledge" all around the inside walls at the floor which "arrived" when they put the black stuff in/on. It reduces the dimensions of the shower by an inch all around. What is it for? Shouldn't the wall go straight down and meet the floor? It almost looks like they tried to make it look like a very low bathtub wall/border. Why would they build it out like that so the shower is smaller? They never explained it and I don't want to continue with it loking like that but I don't want a broken/punctured surface to leter get leaks either. Can you explain what they could be thinking/doing?
bill_vincent
13 years ago
Sam, not sure I understand what you're saying. Any chance you can take a couple of pics and post them?

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