Slate Flooring...Problems Encountered

15 years ago

Slate tiling...probably picked the hardest for my first tiling job! Help!!!!

About 1 week ago, we installed multi-colored 12x12 slate tiles in our kitchen that we picked up from Lowes. This past sunday, we decided to grout. Due to the tiles being a bit dirty from the tile saw, we decided not to seal the tiles before grouting thinking we'd seal in the dirt. So, onto grouting we went. After grouting the entire floor, we noticed the expected haze that is left on the floor from the grout. We let the floor set for 2 days and now are attempting to clean off the haze and once that's done, then seal the floor. Here are the issues that we're running into.

1. We can't really get all of the haze off to get the rich color of the tile that we originally had

2. Some of the colors from the tile are now bleeding into the grout, discoloring it.

Here's what we've tried to clean off the haze. We've bought a 'grout cleanup kit' from the local Lowes that consists of some nylon pads with different roughnesses to them and a handle to use with them. We've scrubbed the flooring with the most abrasive pad that comes in the kit, dry, and then vaccumed up the debris that gets left. It looked better, but still no where near what we had. Then we took a sponge and tried scrubbing/wiping the tile clean and I beleive this is were the color bleeding starts. Although I also notice that just scrubbing, dry, also fades the grout a bit with the haze residue.

What I am hoping someone can help me with is:

1. How to get the haze off and ultimately get my slate back to a beautiful rich color

2. How to clean some of the stained grout and get it back to its original color

All help is greatly apprecaited. This is my first time tiling and feel really good at what I've accomplished. These issues has just really put me down and takes away the excitement.

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Comments (2)

mondragon
15 years ago
I sealed my slate before grouting so I'm not sure I have any experience to help. I do know the big issue for me when I was trying to clean the tiles during the process was that the combination of the dirt and the slurry that came off the tiles when I scrubbed them overwhelmed a spongemop and required a wet/dry vac. I used a hoover floormate and used several passes, and would actually pour water on the floor and scrub it with a stiff pushbroom and then vacuum it up. I initially did it several times until the water was clear.

The staining of the grout might actually be just dried powder stuck from scrubbing the tiles.
oruboris
15 years ago
I was hoping some of our tile gurus would stumble on this and offer some aid. They hang in the bath and kitchen forums mostly, so you might try posting it there.

Grout is a pain. I'm not sure if you can use a strong chemical cleaner like muratic acid on it or not, but I'd personally be tempted to try it in a hidden spot.

I'd also be tempted to try a color enhancing sealer on an out of the way spot, too. Some can give you 'wet look' color with or without the glossiness [your call].
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Slate Flooring...Problems Encountered

Comments (2)

mondragon

oruboris

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