Hi Guys, had a call this morning from a new hotel only open a week or so, the hotel has been completely refurbished including the pool deck.
There is seriously bad white staining all over it, disappears when its wet but back again as soon as it starts to dry. An employee has the to keep it wet at the moment !
They said they have tried cleaning and cleaning but nothing has worked, even used a floor polisher apparently.
I have not seen staining like this before, I did a search on here but never found anything similar.
Whatever it is looks like it was something spilled/splattered. Could’ve been some type of sealer or some chems from one of the other tradesmen. I take it you haven’t went out. If the floor polisher didn’t get some of it I’d be interested to see what will.
It looks like something that was caustic has etched the glaze on top of the tile. I could be wrong but I have done a lot of tile over the last 20 years that would be where i would start.
Sorry for the late response racer, few very long days. Dont have any of these products here in Cyprus, what is the primary ingredient ? I use Oxalic , Hydrochloric , Toluene and Xylene.
Miracle sealants makes a cleaner that you can use search their website. I wouldn’t be cautious with the hydrochloric and make sure that its diluted. Do you know if the grout is a standard sanded grout or epoxy grout? Both will handle the hydrochloric and be fine as long as its not left to dwell to long.
I would start off about 4 parts water to one port acid and go from there. That’s what they recommend for Muratic Acid and it’s basically the same thing as Hydrochloric acid.
I’m sure if you look around you can find some Hydrofluoric over there. Much more used than the other in our industry for most things. Be sure to wear some PPE when messing with the Hydrochloric. Nasty stuff.
I agree with the 4 parts water on the acid. Most ceramic tiles are fired one time after the glaze is applied and fired around 2000 degrees. I feel as if their is something that has made a bond with the tile surface and that it can be cleaned but It is hard to tell what it is with just the picture. I still think that it was caustic or a epoxy. Epoxy if not cleaned in the proper amount of time is a pain in the ■■■ to remove from the top of tile but still can be cleaned with time and pressure from elbow grease. You shouldn’t have to seal the tile but the grout will need to be seal will a impregnating sealer once you hit it with any clean or acid.
Thank you so much Chris, really appreciate the detail, dropping a few of the highlights in your sentence will provide the customer with confidence that we know what we are doing, the elbow grease is not a problem, Im sure like your self there is not a dollar or euro we are given that we have not earned !
I have informed the customer what the problem could be and how it can be corrected, I have offered them to do a test and if it works we proceed to the fix, I have delayed giving a price yet saying that I need to get my costs for chemicals required,
I have a price in my head for this work if the customer wishes to proceed but I’m curious what would this cost in your neck of the woods ? its 501m2. (5400ft2), I am thinking the equivalent of US 0.50 CENTS per ft2.
@GreenScene Hi Chris, I told them I would come and complete a test area and if successful the price would be … to complete, took them a few days to get back to me, they said the supplier of the tile gave them some liquid to rub on it and they would get back to me if they need me, not heard from them yet.
I think they want everything done on the cheap and were expecting a whole lot less than I indicated. the probably still have a guy with a hose wetting the deck down constantly my price is good for 2 weeks…then it goes up !
when I submit the quote !
