Sunscreen isn’t very good for it, that’s for sure. But I would look deeper. Where are the pics of it being built? What waterproofing system was used? Where did you source the tile? Country of origin for the tile?

Looks more like pink slime mold living inside the stone. Which would go back yo the waterproofing type and drain type. What qualifications did the tile guy give you to show he was the one to fix the previous problem?

Thank you all for the posts! I agree - some sort of reaction occurred overnight as the tile color change was not gradual and rather immediate. Whatever it is I've tried scrubbing and as I wrote a two part liquid poultice and a tile rust remover and no change. We have city water and sometimes I've noticed our toilet bowls turning red/orange but a quick scrub takes care of that.

Sanding one of the tiles did nothing either. I know the tile guy installed a rubber liner and applied 2 coats of Redgard along with an entirely new drain. I want to say the tile is sitting above the coats of Redgard. Then I thought it was the Redgard leaching up from the Thin-set...just hate how it looks now.

Rubber membrane and redguard is the lowest form of tile setting, and often done completely incorrectly. I think your issue is exactly that. I'd bet the membrane was flat on the floor, a 2x4 curb with the membrane nailed to the top, and now you have bacterial soup that will not drain out of the porous stone. You do not use both a rubber membrane and redguard on a pan, so it's 100% built incorrectly, even if the membrane goes over a preslope.

And this is why people were warning you against using marble. The unskilled "doing it this way for 30 years" crowd don't know what they are doing.

https://whytile.com/qualified-labor/

https://whytile.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Final-How-to-Hire-brochure-.pdf

https://tilepro-usa.com/tile-pro-blog/f/how-to-prevent-marble-moisture-discoloration

Post your in progress pictures.

Another waterproofing failure. That is going to smell just lovely when it is torn out.

Sooo aside from ripping out the floor down to plywood and starting over is there another "solution" that may work? Again, if bacteria growth wouldn't it start appearing over months and not literally overnight? Thanks all!!

Did you try cleaning with ”Simple Green” or ”Clorox Clean Up”? SG is good for grease removal and Clorox is good for stain. Test each on a small spot first and be sure to spray on dry tile, not wet surface. Let it sit a few minutes and scrub.

We have a pool and everyone in the family is always reminded to NOT spray sunscreen while standing on stone or concrete deck…..go spray on the grass as some will leave a spotty grease mark.

There is no solution to an improperly built shower but a rebuild. You may only see the staining, but there will be much worse issues below that.

If you do end up ripping it out, don't feel pressured to use marble on your shower floors just because you have natural stone on the walls/surrounds. You can use a grey or white ceramic tile (matte or polished) in a similarly scaled/sized mosaic that will look great with the marble and won't require all of the caution that marble often does. I love the look of marble, but stay away from it for shower floors because I also sometimes touch up my roots or use self-tanner, and I'm paranoid that I'd stain them just through those mundane activites (or others). All it took was a limestone shower in a rental once to scare me away from natural stone.

It's probably not sunscreen. Spray tan? Hair dye? Maybe. But not sunscreen, unless it has fake color in it or some really weird extras. But why not test it? Spray a section directly and see what happens.

I would plug it and bleach it with a long soak. You're already considering gutting it so what harm could that do?

It's a beautiful installation.

Appreciate all the responses! Right if we do indeed rip up the floor in the coming months might as well try hydrogen peroxide with paper towels or test an area with bleach and see what happens. Certainly not a solution if there is bacteria growing from moisture underneath but a stop gap for now.

Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer. If it's actually rust, that makes it worse. Same with bleach. Bleach makes rust more prominent, and set permanently. Only if it's organic bacteria related will it work.

Did she step into the shower to spray herself with the sunscreen?

I have managed to convince my DH not to use spray sunscreen inside the house ... so he steps into the garage and sprays himself right next to the cars! 🙄

If you or your housekeeper have used either hydrogen peroxide or bleach on it, there is the source of your issues. If there is iron inside the stone, the use of either can make rust happen ”overnight”. It creates years of natural rust formation very quickly.

Yeah we've always used non abrasive natural stone safe cleaners. We haven't used hydrogen peroxide or bleach to clean the tiles. Yep she used Sun Bum spray on sunscreen in the shower and that's the only out of the norm "routine" that one time. For now going to see if it keeps getting worse.

Could you take a photo of the can of sunscreen used? If I’m understanding this correctly you’re saying that the discoloration on the marble wasn’t there before the sunscreen was used but showed up the day or so after.

I went and searched for problems caused by sunscreen on car paint, to show my DH, and wondered if any of the information or products might help you with the marble. You have nothing to lose.

https://everydayshowcar.com/remove-sunscreen-from-car/

How did she manage to not hit the shower walls?

Sunscreen or self tanner? What would be the rationale for applying sunscreen in a shower?

Again thank you all for the posts - all informative and much appreciated! I will try to find a picture and post. I'm not sure how the shower walls got "spared" and look fine. It was sunscreen not tanner. We have a roofdeck and it was windy so I'm assuming she didn't want the spray to miss. In hindsight arrrghhh but still could be total coincidence....seeing if the organge/red is getting worse day by day. I do think we will need to eventually rip out the floor and install a porcelain hex tile - should have done that from the beginning.

Hey Adam,

Were you ever able to get the stains out? Like your wife, I also sprayed sunscreen in my shower and, unfortunately, am faced with exactly the same looking stains on my floor tiles, lol. Judging by some of the comments here, looks like I may have set them in even more too, since I did try initially cleaning with bleach and hydrogen peroxide.

Went out and bought Iron Out today, and still no dice...so am wondering if you've had any luck on your end.

Alas the stains are still present and no change. I have yet to attempt any additional methods of removing the organge but seems like the stains are fully baked and permanent. I also used an iron remover but not a single tile turned purple and all I got was a headache from the sulfur smell hah. The stains don't seem to be getting worse and right now we're living with the patina. We will most likely rip up the floor in the coming months/yr and hope to retain the marble walls and replace the floor with porcelain tiles. One of the stone guys said to try very concentrated hydrogen peroxide soaked in paper towels and leave overnight but haven't attempted. What brand did you use? Still seems crazy that sunscreen is the possible culprit and the walls are totally fine. She used Sun Bum SPF 50 spray for reference.

Hm, I only used a 2% hydrogen peroxide solution so maybe I'll try your proposed solution. Although someone in these comments said that hydrogen peroxide makes it worse? So I guess I'll just have to do some additional research.

Looking at the ingredients of the Sun Bum, it has Avobenzone, which is from what I understand the culprit for the orange (that's the main ingredient of the sunscreen I used as well. and if you have some shirt collars with an orange stain, this is the likely culprit for it, too). The iron remover looked to be the promising solution from my research, and it very well may have been, had I attempted sooner than later. I'm thinking the walls are probably fine as they aren't exposed to as many chemicals as the floor would be, and so there are just a ton of chemical reactions happening on the floor that aren't on the wall.

My stains don't seem to be getting any worse either, so at least we got that going for us. Still doesn't look great though, lol.

Interesting and thanks for the feedback. We were told we need to purchase the hydrogen perioxide from a salon as it needs to be 30% or 40% concentrated and very strong stuff but I could be wrong. I'm a bit wary of proceeding at this point and right now just monitoring the situation to see if the orange gets worse...I've tried a number of liquid poultices, iron remover and no dice...we even tried to sand down one of the tiles and nothing. Seems like the orange stains seeped up from under the tile floor and not from splattering on the top where the sealer would come into play and could be due to the grout absorbing all the moisture.

I deal with this all the time. My rentals have marble bathroom and shower floors.

Step 1) Baking Soda (sprinkle over the stains)

Step 2) Hydroxgen Peroxide (pour into the baking soda until a VERY wet paste is created)

Step 3) let it sit overnight

Step 4) Rinse off the next day

Step 5) Wash the floor with Dawn + water

Step 6) Let dry

If the stains were not removed. Repeat one more time.

If this does not remove the stain, it's not coming out.

Cheers,

Joey