carrera tile countertop question

[charmschool]

Hi! My husband and I are extreme DIY'ers restoring an older home, on a budget. We both love the look of marble counters, but buget constraints led us to 12x12 Carrera floor tiles for our kitchen countertops (we were able to purchase for less than $1.75 each, and with 25 lineal feet to cover, you can imagine the savings!). The tiles came with a lovely polished finish, which we knew would not last, and we're actually anticipating the patina that will develop over the years, but we're currently in a state of the uglies, as only about a third of the polish is gone, due to scratching, acidic food spills,etc.

Any suggestions for speeding the process along, without having to hire a professional? We don't really want a "proffessional finish" type look.

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[doitright]

Hi CharmSchool, Welcome! :)

Hopefully you have some extra tiles on hand. You have a couple of options. I strongly suggest TESTing first on a spare tile. Start with some vinegar and mist it on the tiles, then rinse off. This may require brushing it on, or even changing the dilution ratio. Experiment and see what will give you desired results.

The second option is to simply honing them with some sandpaper (such as a 400 grit wet/dry).

After your desired finish is attained, I strongly suggest sealing the stone and the grout with a tile and stone specific impregnator/sealer. The sealer will not protect the stone against future acid etching.

[charmschool]

sorry, I got busy & haven't checked the board in a few days. Thanks, doitright, I actually tried both vinegar & lemon juice, but it seems to dry up before it etches to any great degree, since I'm trying to cover such a large area. I read somewhere else to try muriatic acid, but I'm afraid I'll have the same problem. Anybody tried it?

The sandpaper idea is intriguing. Would I be better off doing it by hand, or using my palm sander?

Thanks,
Charmschool

[jvcstone]

Charm,

You don't want to be using any muriatic acid in your kitchen

Nasty stuff :laugh2: :shake:

Little old palm sander would probably give you a nice surface, but as John said, test first. Even if you need to go spend another 1.75 for a test piece.
JVC

[joh]

Hi charmschool, you can try the sand paper. Please be careful not to leave any marks from the sand paper. You may attempt to do this, but before you do, find the number for your local stone restoration guy just in case the results are not to your expectations. :tup2:

[StoneBuddy]

A good acidic grout residue remover would work just fine. Might as well etch the whole surface if that's the look you want. The sandpaper is a good route also, but you may have a problem with it being tile instead of slab.

Anyway...good luck with this one.

[doitright]

John (JVC) brings up an important point! We don't use muriatic for anything, even though some of our acidic products contain amounts of hydrochloric acid (muriatic).

Buddy also brings up a excellent point! If your tiles are perfectly flat (no lippage), you risk the chance of picture framing, unless the lippage is removed first. If that's the case, this would certainly be a job for a restoration professional.

TEST, TEST, TEST! Did I mention you should TEST first? :shades: :D