Help-white porcelain tiles from topps with black grout now stained!!!

[Jamesd27]

I recently purchased some black and white polished porcelain tiles (salvatore ceramics 400x400) from topps tiles to do my kitchen in black and white chessboard style.
When i purchased them the guy there advised to avoid staining the white tiles i needed to lay them then clean then using 'Fila Grout Residue Remover', then apply 'Fila Polished Porcelain Protector', then grout with 'BAL Superfelx Tile Grout in Charcoal' (he said black was too dark and would definately stain) and finally clean again and apply another coat of the pocelain protector.
I did all of this with the exception of the very final sealing of the tiles as the white tiles are clearly stained. to try and remove this i have used 'Qep Heavy Duty Tile Cleaner' and just tried 'Abra-Cleam' with no visible difference.
Very annoyed and not sure if its my fault or if i was misadvised. Should i go back and complain or is it my fault for taking the guys word as gospel and not testing first. So far i have grouted an area about 2 metres squared.

Any advise?

[Onlinetiler]

Hi James,
Sorry you're having these problems, it tends to happen quite a lot with polished porcelain.

On the face of it you seem to have been given good advice and have done everything correctly so I'm not sure why they would have taken any of the grout stain at all, the only thing I can think is that maybe the Fila polished porcelain protector hadn't cured thoroughly before you grouted. I'm not a user of Fila products but they do have a very good rep and I've not heard of them failing before.

I have however used the QEP tile cleaner before and in my opinion it was pants. I recently used this product http://www.ltp-online.co.uk/images/t...mover_2009.pdf on an identical situation and although it took a couple of go's it did do the job and removed a charcoal grout stain from a white polished porcelain so I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

Good luck with it

[Richard Edwards]

Welcome to this forum

It sounds like you were ill advised to me. Even after applying the porcelain protector, the pores in polished porcelain will be liable to accept the coloured grout. All grout that has colour added - ie all grout except standard grey and white will contain cement dye. This dye gets everywhere and this is the cause of your difficulty.

It is easy with the benifit of hindsight, but applying a small amount of coloured / charcoal grout to an off cut of tile will have shown you enough to stop the grouting and use grey.

Now, I do not use Fila products very often although my kitchen designer / bespoke manufacturer does and we use it on his floors that we install and they are well regarded. Dave reading this post might advise an LTP product. You could try a few coats of Fila protector - both directions to see if this ' fills up ' the pores and lessens the effect of the areas not yet grouted. - Try this on another off cut first - say 4 coats.

I would be loathed to use coloured grouts on polished / unsealed porcelain - Not what you wanted to hear.

You might try using the grout film remover at this stage on a small area so see if you can lift some of the staining by removing the grout that is in the pores.

I hope some members will be along shortly to see if they have an ideas

[paul flight]

i dont think you will be able to remove the staining from the white tiles . this is why tilers hate black grout . it have so much dye in it . i use fila all the time and never have a problem.. go back to topps and talk to them about this ask to speck to the area manager..

[Dan]

Looks like you have some efflorescence problems with the grout there too. Quite common with the BAL charcoal grouts.

A BAL rep told me it was something to do with the type of sand they use.

[starmsy]

ive used t-cut to get staines out before and it did the job for me! i was worried i tryed loads of things and on the off chance used t-cut and it worked!
good luck!

[Dave]

Looks like you have some efflorescence problems with the grout there too. Quite common with the BAL charcoal grouts.

A BAL rep told me it was something to do with the type of sand they use.

It is polymer leaching.. common problem as you say..

If not products do not clear the tile pours then you can have the floor re-polished.. this involves taking a minute layer from the tile surface by grinding process and then re-polish back to a high gloss..

There are a few product you can try though..

You say you have tried Abra clean.. then deffo a stubborn stain then..

LTP Grimix is another cleaner... Lithofin Wexa is another..

Aqua mix phosphoric acid substitute is another..

You need to be using Scotch pad or even a rotary scrubber to agitate the surface... Hopefully you can salvage this..