Uh oh.... Ceramic tile issue....

[floorguy]

Ok so i am cleaning this tile with some good degreaser stuff, cleaning up really well, area consists of a foyer and 2 bathrooms..

In the bathrooms I always do an "acid" wash to get the organic crap IE hard water, piss drips, etc.. and it always seems to give a "kick" to it as well.

sooooo this time i put the acid down in the dirtier areas to, well you know break it down...this time no fizzy like there usually is, so i am like ok not much here. I doodle bug it in let it sit about 5 minutes, see it is making some results doodle a little more and rinse and suck...

WELL HOLY SHIT. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: when it dries it is gawdawful blotchy, the areas i hit an made progress, yea well it made progress ok..looks almost like it bleached it out..(its a light greyish tanish tiles with some dark greyish) I have pics tomorrow when i am not tired.

So i go over to the mens room, which i have left on there longer..get it done and :shock: :shock: :shock: humm even worse..

this tile is really smooth, the mop glides on it when you mop it....welllll not anymore in these spots.

yet when i run my hand across it, it still feels smooth, no roughness nor "transtion" area where acid hit and didnt hit..

I thought you couldnt screw up a man made tile??? well wtf....

can somebody help me on this.....????

pics later in the day, time for beddy bye for me

 

[Mikey P]

Are we talking about the tile surface or the grout that got all splotchy?

 

[Fon Johnson]

What acid did you use? It sounds like you etched a glazed tile to me.

 

[floorguy]

the surface, grout lines are small

hummm is it a matte finsh glaze on it??? like i said cant feel a etch to it..

oh yeah, it was a brown away acid...and some rust remover acid...which i have used before..

 

[Fon Johnson]

It was probably the rust remover.. that is some strong stuff. It is either etched or you have removed some sort of sealer/coating.

 

[RickL]

Sounds like thye (housekeeper??) has been putting something on the T&G like Mop & Glow or wax. When you don't get reaction on the grout lines (fizz) it's because something is preventing the acid from hitting hte grout. Your probaly gonna have ot hit it with a GOOD stripper like bare bones or fasstrip etc.Post pics if you can.

 

[floorguy]

the "sort of" good news is, it just dawned on me that my Sis in-law works for a large tile company here....

I think I am putting in a call to get a (oh damn what is the name) person to come look at it and see what he thinks.

in the end...

TEST A SMALL AREA FIRST.....hahahahahah...ok not really cuz I might have to pay to fix this :? :x :x

 

[floorguy]

 

[Fon Johnson]

Doug, it is possible that there is some type of coating/sealer on it, but it looks etched. You might be able to apply a sealer to it to sort of blend it in. Have you tried putting some stripper on it to see what happens? Are you certain that it is a cementious grout? If the grout is epoxy, there will be no fizzing.

 

[Ron Lippold]

i would say keep going it still looks dirty try a heavy duty stripper

 

[alazo1]

Is it possible that these are cement tiles vs ceramic or porcelain?.

Regarding the bleached areas, how did you apply the acid. From the looks of it whatever did that was spilled on the floor, there's even some on the wall.

Albert

 

[floorguy]

I poured it out of the bottle of course :roll:

no the splashing on the wall, is the partion by the urnial...and it is etched in the paint...yes its been cleaned...

thats whats funny, is it cleaned up TONS and I mean tons better, yet it still lookes bad in areas...and if i cant acid wash it to help the cleaning then WTF????

yeah maybe ill try stripper, when we stripped the store part and came out to this entry way..(its the same tile as the bathrooms) it seemed to clean it good, where foot prints where or where the machine turned...


sighhhhhh like i dont have enough shit to worry about at this place.....

 

[Brian R]

Yikes,
I am waiting for the final result.
If I have to learn, I would rather learn from someone else...no offense bro. :|

 

[Jeremy]

Etch everything & then polish?

 

[floorguy]

no, I have been busting my ass on 60k of VCT, that needs stripped at least twice everywhere..

working from 8 pm to 6 am. and trying to get sleep in between, dealing with kids and the rest of life...

i need to make a phone call tomorrow and get it going though