Topical sealer on tile.

[Sierra Clean Care]

I’ve got a client that wants the tile in his home cleaned.
I did the ‘wet test’ and nothing penetrated into the obviously dirty grout lines. I tested in 5-6 different areas, and nothing penetrated.
As you can see from the photos, there is a artificial sheen/shiny topping on the tile.

I did a small test patch W/UPE, scrubbed with a crb, let dwell for 10 minutes, and rinsed with my tile wand….
Zero change at all…

He wants to know if the coating can be removed, or does he need to replace the tile.

They purchased the home this way.

Keep in mind, this is a quite a large home, and there is approximately 4500 sqft of tile between the 3 floors.

Any help or recommendations will be appreciated.

 

[Mikey P]

likely acryilic floor wax...

Do a test.

A slight chance thats it something more durable that may require a specific stripper, which would lead to a LOT of investigation and trial and error



If there are painted wood or MDF baseboards have them removed prior to you showing up...

Raw or stained wood will likely get damaged but could be painted over.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

A few things I've learned over the years:

1. Spend a lot...A LOT of time talking to your customer about the limitations, and the need you'll have to be paid for every trip back. As Mike mentioned, you might need to do some experimenting with different strippers till you find the one that will break down the finish. This in itself can be time consuming, and you can end up with a collection of finish strippers in your stock room you'll likely never again use.

2. Don't overlook what Mike said about MDF and painted baseboards. Stripping a floor in a home that was never designed to be stripped is a wet and often destructive process. Be very cautious. It is easy when you're concentrating on the floor and trying to remove a stubborn floor finish to lose awareness of the collateral damage that could be occuring.

3. Be prepared to do some hand scrubbing of the grout lines with a grout brush to (try to) remove the finish from the grout. If you have a mal-grit stripping brush it might help.

4. This will take a great deal of time. Price accordingly.

Because I know your nature, Jeff, I know you'll be careful. Some of this is for the benefit of others who might read it.

If I were doing this for a living, this wouldn't be a job I'd do.

But I'm no patient in my nature, so that's more a measure of self awareness in me than a warning to you.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

Thank you gentlemen. This man has around 4000 employees, he knows how to manage expectations.
He said jokingly, ‘If I have to replace it, we will just go to our place in the Bahamas for a few weeks’.
Gawd I hope he wasn’t joking…

 

[Mikey P]

I'd tell him to replace it, based on how ugly it is and the sloppy grout job...