Salt crystals growing in grout lines by hotel pool

[Jason del Norte]

Getting this call from a hotel maintenance guy.

He says he has a soft water pool and the dried water residue is growing like a salt crystal in the grout lines and spilling over onto the tile.

He says the crystals are hard as stone and he can only chip it away with the tip of a screwdriver. Wants to sand it away.

It's a hotel pool area residue making this problem.

I might go look at it tomorrow, it's 50 miles away. Or just tell him to keep up the good screwdriver work.

If anybody has any experience in this it would be great to hear about it.

 

[Dr Vapeur]

Calcium carbonate. Hot water and an acid (vinegar) would probably desolve the salt. Here in Quebec we get the same thing when the salt come in from the street and dries on the rugs.
Richard Gagne

 

[boazcan]

Scrape away all that you can. It will take several applications of muratic acid to rid entirely.

Sent from my GT-P5113

 

[clean image]

Road salt is calcium chloride
Calcium carbonate is lime and hard water deposits and what marble, trav and limestone primary made of

Fist it depends what kind of tile you have there..

2nd, I would ask for questions, when did it start happening, how long tile been down, is it just in splash zone?

I would have him send you pics before driving 50 miles

 

[clean image]

Road salt is calcium chloride
Calcium carbonate is lime and hard water deposits and what marble, trav and limestone primary made of

Fist it depends what kind of tile you have there..

2nd, I would ask for questions, when did it start happening, how long tile been down, is it just in splash zone?

I would have him send you pics before driving 50 miles

 

[ted mcfadden]

Is the "soft water" pool water filtered through potassium chloride salts. They do that here and I see salt residues everywhere. They are usually easier to remove than with a screw driver though. I wonder how long this has been a problem for him?

 

[Dr Vapeur]

My bad road salt is calcium chloride. Thanks Carl. Acid is still the answer. Here on rugs we use vineger and on brick muratic acid.