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Flooring Bathrooms Building a Home

limestone installation

2 years ago

Hello, I am building a custom home and we have selected a limestone flooring for the bathrooms. We are going with an earth tone/organic feel for the home and like this natural stone. Our builder is not as familiar with limestone and states that he has had a problem with haziness on the stone after sealing it in the past. Can any designers/builders recommend a good sealer that will not produce haziness? Do you seal the limestone prior to install or after? Do you need to do any specific mortar/grout to prevent staining, etc. any tips or recommendations for limestone install are greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

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Comments (2)

PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
limestone requires a very ridgid deflection , must be set w proper mortars you Cannot seal limestone with just any sealer. You want to use an impregnator solvent based sealer that will allow the stone to beeathe, we call these sealers Vapor permeable.

Id listen to your builder he is telling you he iis not a qualified tilile setter or he doesnt have one. He may also want to steer you to an easier cheaper material for the floors deflection or budget ...

You should know Limestone is a very fickle material, long term maintanance potential calcification issues may occur, i could talk you out of it differently than your builder is in about 5 mins flat!
Verbo
2 years ago
Marble is metamophisized limestone and is harder and more durable than limestone. Read all the horror threads about marble. Then know that limestone is softer, not as dense, and the darker colors etch white. All bathroom cleaners are acid based, and will etch marble and limestone. Urine etches it. Lots of skin care products are acid based and will etch it. Then there are the scratches, chips, stun marks, and stains.

If you can’t live with that reality, then you need to be only looking at porcelain.
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First, unless you have a different design of drain that I've never seen (which isn't completely impossible) you can't see the weepholes ithout removing the tile and mortar from around the drain. They're usually down in the flange plate. Secondly, mortar, in and of itself, will not plug the weepholes. In fact, water will drain through the mortar to get to them, just as it drains through the rest of the mortar bed. However, what can happen is dead skin, etc., can block passages in the mortar at the weepholes thereby clogging them up. This is why in the last few years, it's been required that there be some gravel (some installers will use a handful of spacers instead) placed over the weepholes prior to mudding the pan. If the weepholes are clogged, what would have to be done is remove tile and mortar about a foot all the way around the drain, clear the weepholes, remud, and retile.
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I'm one of the crazy people who installed limestone in a children's bathroom..... I had 3 bathrooms to do and lost my ability to make a decision when it came to my daughter's bathroom so I allowed myself to get talked into the limestone. I didn't want a "kiddie" bath but something that would still be cool when she's a bit older. Anyway, we're not moved in yet but I sealed it, sealed it again with Miracle 511. Here's a pic, the tile work is finished but we haven't installed the fixtures yet. I chose the mosaic and would have agreed to anything that matched it :) Tumbled limestone is not really my style but it does look earthy and my daughter is a real nature lover. The part I do love is the floor. As you can see, it's small bathroom and is now a limestone cave. My daughter and my husband think it's so cool and I guess that's what counts, it does actually look a bit better in person.
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