slate tile that bleeds

[steve frasier]

what might you use to clean it so it doesn't bleed or is it better to just clean it, seal it and color seal the grout

 

[Mikey P]

BLEEDS?



huh?

 

[RickL]

Build a shrine and start a church! Actually I'm with Mike never seen slate bleed. It will rust or effervesce (white build up).
I would do an acid test first then clean with a stone cleaner and then acid wash (if it passed the test most all slate will).
I wouldn't color seal as any color seal you got on the slate will most likely have some absorb into the slate and be a bitch if not impossible to get off .

 

[steve frasier]

did an acid test in small area in the back corner by hand, it transfered a bunch of gray color from the slate to a towel

floor has no sealer/wax on it,

has a few scratches, the groove of scratch is white, looks like slate maybe I am wrong

did a small area with some neutral cleaner, it didn't remove any color but I doubt it would get the grout clean

from the look of the grout it looks like someone cleaned it once already

 

[Mikey P]

IMll bet you anything that was grout residue left on the slate you were seeing on your towel.

Gray grout right?

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[steve frasier]

no, grey tile kind of off white grout but you can look at it and see that the tile has discolored the grout

there is a bunch of it in a retirement center, the blueprints say it is slate, it is 12 years old and never been waxed according to the guy who has been there since the building was new

it is right of an entrance, they have scrubbed it a few times with a slightly alkaline general purpose cleaner with brush on a rotary

all the other tile and grout looks fine but they want it clean

I will have to take a picture of it for you

 

[RickL]

I would clean it with Barebones stripper and then do an acid clean making sure you scrub the grout lines with a grout brush.
Also shake the acid in the jug before you mix it. If you want it to really pop and they will pay for it I'd also apply a color enhancer (really makes slate pop)

 

[Pmatte]

Iron content seeping possibly.

 

[sweendogg]

ORR the obvious here.. its just plain ole dirt...

 

[Doug Cox]

Wheres JB when you need him?

 

[alazo1]

you sure it isn't a stamped overlay? May be powdered release agent still on there or some other stain/dye residue. I ask because of the scratches. Usually overlay material is white. The grout lines aren't always integrated into the stamp/roller which are easier to detect. Sometimes the pattern is scored later with a tuck point wheel or similar then the "grout" colored.

That makes sense.

Did it bleed with the neutral cleaner?. If it did'nt try a regular high alkaline and if doesn't bleed go with that. Stay off the acid.

Albert

 

[steve frasier]

here are a few photos of the tiles

don't know anything about stamped overlay

photo doesn't look to bad but the grout is stained by bleeding tiles, I ran an auto scrubber with a brush head and neutral cleaner over the other tiles and they are fine, the grout wasn't stained and tiles weren't that dirty

stripper makes the tiles bleed gray

no big deal either way, just trying to figure out why it bleeds

thanks for the help

 

[sweendogg]

Steve you you tried demoing and area? With your spinner tool and chems ?

 

[steve frasier]

Steve you you tried demoing and area? With your spinner tool and chems ?

no, kind of threw me with the color transfer, didn't want to create a bigger mess

 

[sweendogg]

Again I highly doubt color transfer but would very easily believe soiling.. Quick question.. are the floors at all slippery when you walk across them?

Alot of maintenance people like to daily "disinfect" with a high pH disinfectant. The problem is it leaves an alkaline residue behind that when hit with an acid product will show signs of soiling.

 

[steve frasier]

no not slippery, they use a neutral quat or neutral floor cleaner and micro fiber mops, but not sure how it was maintained over the years but probably mop and bucket

after talkling to the maintenance guy again I am pretty sure that the discolored grout is from the color coming off the tile, I promise you it bleeds, maybe something wrong with the tiles

the pictures don't do a good job of showing this, tile and grout are much darked then in the photos

he did mention that it was kind of chalky grey color residue when it dried when they did it before

It will cycle back in another 6 months, I will turbo it then and see what happens

When I get some more envirox I might give that a shot, it cleaned out some ceramic tile bathrooms pretty well that I had tried everything on and the dirt in the grout didn't budge

Thanks for the help

 

[sweendogg]

The chalkiness is normal for a non sealed slate floor. However if it has been sealed and its still doing it, that suggest effloresence to me. I could see how you could get some dark mineral effloresence settling on the stone surface, mixed with water would create a situation that would stain unsealed grout.

 

[Gary T]

I'm gonna suggest eff also. Probably on slab install with no vapor/moisture barrier. May not be much you can do with it. Clean it, seal it with a flouro-chemical sealer and see what happens.

 

[Gnu]

Are you guys talking about it possibly being prefab tiles? Those things will bleed. I beleive they color process involves pigment dyes that can and will bleed. I bought a crap load of tiles from diamond home improvment. Said granite everyflipping where on the box. until I dropped one and it was like fiberglass and concrete or something.

and having a sprinkler spray next to work area the colors bled onto concrete slab,