While wet everything looked perfect. SH to get all the black off, rinsed, then ox and rinsed. Came back later and it all looks like this. Do I just need to rinse better, or is this a bigger issue?
Well, rinsing again at 4000 with a 40 deg tip did nothing at all. So, figured I’d try hitting it again with ox and maybe that’s what caused it so I’ll blend it in. After drying it looked exactly the same. It looks like crap, so the ox was looking like a bad idea. They cleaned up and looked great after SH. I mixed 1 cup per gallon of ox like i read on here.
You don’t need to use OX or any acid on all limestone, just those with high % of iron in it. If you didn’t see any after cleaning you didn’t need to use. What % SH did you use?
Probably the white that you’re seeing may be the calcite leaching out of it which the ox may have caused. I’ve cleaned a lot of limestone and have never had to neutralize.
That’s a strange texture, so it could be efflo or calcium.
Why did you use oxalic acid?
Multiple topics in here said to use it to neutralize. My mistake, I should have stuck with what I know and not used it. Any idea on how to fix this now? Only good news is they were fine with it because it looked so bad before and are selling the house. I’m not going to leave it that way and told them I was going try and fix it.
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Not really… Limestone cleaning is on our schedule weekly & honestly the only acid used, is onerestore… mainly for irrigation stains & rust. Buffered acids work better in my opinion.
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If you’re going to try and even it out… lightly coat the whole surface with OneRestore. Give a few, then rinse till there’s no soap left.
If it needs it. If no orange stains come out you don’t need. And depends on iron content of the limestone, ie where it came from.
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I would almost say, if the homeowner is happy then let it be. Imagine if oneretore or something else causes another issue that is really ugly or something - now you have to fix it.
Yes, they said it’s fine and were happy I came back and tried to fix it, but I’m not happy and want to try to even it out somehow. Yes, it looks 10x better than it did, but it bothers me. Overall I did a lot there, patios, pool deck, outdoor bar area, all of it came out great except this. If there isn’t an easy fix, I guess I’ll just forget about it and move on. Lesson learned. I’m just happy this was a cleanup before selling it. I know they don’t have to keep looking at everyday.
