stained porcelain

[jane61]

I set Supergres porcelain tile with customs Marble and granite mix , then grouted it with customs polyblend grout . There are smear marks on the grey tiles that were there even before I grouted .There is a skylight right over the shower floor that really highlights it . I tried some Hydroment Remove, a non-acidic cleaner that seemed to work well on a sample piece of tile , but not on the actual installation . I also tried some Bar Keeper's Friend , which states on the container that it is for porcelain , that looked good on the sample piece , but it etched a wall tile(it contains oxalic acid . I have been tiling since 1987, believe it or not and I have used Supergres before , but in a beige color , not grey . Another tilesetter I know had a problem with this same tile , they said try vinegar to clean the tile . At this point after using 2 products that were supposed to be harmless , looked helpful on my sample , then didn't work I am feeling very nervous about trying a stronger acid on this installation . Thanks

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[Tool Guy - Kg]

There are smear marks on the grey tiles that were there even before I groutedThis is catching my attention. Are these the same smear marks you successfully removed on your test pieces?



:)

[Trask]

I had some "smear marks" that turned out to be "bake" marks on porcelian...They never came out...until we tore out the tile.

[Davestone]

I woud agree, and if you could give us a pic, this would be interesting. :dance:

[jane61]

My sample piece was on a 4 inch piece of tile , and it seemed clean. I am going to make a much larger sample board to experiment on . I'm going to try vinegar on one section and sulfamic acid on another section . Sulfamic acid was recommended my the Customs Tech person , they said it was much better than hydrochloric acid . I read the CTIA link on acid cleaning , but does anyone know how much weaker vinegar is than hydrochloric acid or sulfamic acid?Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera to take a picture of my installation ,I'll have to try and borrow a friends.

[jane61]

I used phosphoric acid cleaner 5 parts water and 1 part acid . I used an egg timer set to 5 minutes when I applied the acid wash to a 4 ft section , then after the timer went off I applied the mira clean neutralizer to the 4 ft section and set the timer again for 5 minutes . When the timer went off I washed the section with clean water and a sponge and buffed it dry . I had to clean about 200 sq ft of tile , and I was wearing a respirator and gloves but alot of it was getting on my jeans ,maybe I should have been wearing a rubber apron . The 2 or 3 tiles that appeared to get etched by the Bar Keepers Friend were alot less noticeable after the acid wash and because all the finished plumbing pieces were on . I asked the contractors to have the plumbers hold off on installing the numerous pieces of Grohe finished plumbing trim on the walls, but it got installed anyway, so the contractor taped off the expensive trim with some plastic and red vinyl stucco tape , and nothing got damaged . I plan on writing to the tile manufacturer, because they claim their tile is stain resistant , and it wasn't stain resistant to setting products .They should add an instruction sheet saying pre-sealing is necessary or plan on acid washing later . Generally if you wash down your porcelain installation with water and a white 3m pad the next day after setting, and the day after grouting , acid washing is not necessary. For a residential job to have to add an extra week to wait for acid washing , screws up the whole work schedule because it' really best to not have finished plumbing items and painted walls etc... to mask off. Maybe I'll try to bill the manufacterers for my time and materials for acid washing .