Hi Everybody,
I need some sound advice. Just had a new cermaic/slate kithen floor laid. There is dried grout/adhesive (evostic) in patches all over the tiles. How do I remove this safely and do the tiles need to be sealed? This is a high traffic area and Hubby says sealant will wear and look patchy but I can't see how tiles will be easty to keep clean. Also is there a polish that could be used? Any advice will be gratefully received.
Sheila

is the tile slate or ceramic?

The tiles are ceramic made to look like slate.

You are lucky that its not slate. Get a tile cleaning product
from your local tile shop and when you have the floor clean enough
you can then use a sealer. even though it isnt necessary for
ordinary ceramic it will help to keep the floor clean.

Thankyou I will give that a go. As long as it gets the grout off I'll be happy.

I think you are wasting your time with a sealer on ceramic tiles, How could the sealer penetrate the glazed surface, I'd seal the grout if it was a light colour and just mop the floor regularly as you would a lino or laminate floor.

Originally Posted by Oli

I think you are wasting your time with a sealer on ceramic tiles, How could the sealer penetrate the glazed surface, I'd seal the grout if it was a light colour and just mop the floor regularly as you would a lino or laminate floor.

I agree, sealing ceramics is not a good idea. The sealer will just sit on top of the glaze and go tacky or begin to peel off. It won't be absorbed into a glazed ceramic like it would a natural stone. There are cement/grout film removers out there to clean up any grout residue.

Agree myself, don't seal ceramic tiles.
You can certainly seal your grout,you'll need to get a cleaning compound to remove the mess your tiler left.Speak to your tile supplier.

Originally Posted by Oli

I think you are wasting your time with a sealer on ceramic tiles, How could the sealer penetrate the glazed surface, I'd seal the grout if it was a light colour and just mop the floor regularly as you would a lino or laminate floor.

Normally I'd agree with you but I have recently laid slate effect ceramic tiles 600x300 (client bought them off the internet) but they were surprisingly very porous. I had to use lithofin power clean to remove the grout that had sucked into the pores and then lithofin multi seal. They look really great now.

Originally Posted by Oli

I think you are wasting your time with a sealer on ceramic tiles, How could the sealer penetrate the glazed surface, I'd seal the grout if it was a light colour and just mop the floor regularly as you would a lino or laminate floor.

oli there are many types of ceramic tiles that can be sealed
and it also helps to seal the grout.

guys listen there is so much different stuff appearing on the market now dont decide it doesnt need sealing just cos its ceramic. do a test first theres loads of stuff cropping up now like trav lookalike and slate and a lot of it needs sealing think about porcs as well cos tons of them needs sealing as well

tel

Originally Posted by Terry Cottar

guys listen there is so much different stuff appearing on the market now dont decide it doesnt need sealing just cos its ceramic. do a test first theres loads of stuff cropping up now like trav lookalike and slate and a lot of it needs sealing think about porcs as well cos tons of them needs sealing as well

tel

It's a suprise to me that any glazed product would need to be sealed. Glazed products should be impervious to moisture. I will speak to a few manufacturers when I'm back in work to see what they say.

Thanks for all the advice. I will test the tiles after a good clean up. I will let you know how I get on.
Thanks once again.
Sheila

Originally Posted by matt257

It's a suprise to me that any glazed product would need to be sealed. Glazed products should be impervious to moisture. I will speak to a few manufacturers when I'm back in work to see what they say.

your right but to get it to looklike stuff the makers have to alter it sometimes. just like hardly anybody believed porcs needed to be sealed depending on the porc

tel

hi sheila do your tiles have a gloss finish or matt if mat does water obsorb into tile as water wipes of no mark or water leaves a dark patch

some tiles need a grought relase prior to groughting.I would use meratic acid to remove the hazeing did it last year when my apperentance groughted 1800sq ft didn't final wash 20 days later grought was permabond in the pours of the tile. when I was finished you would have never known.