No one will take the job, help please.

[Dollo]

Moved into this home, the main shower is stone and really ugly due to neglect. The previous owners did not take care of much in the house. No stone pros will work on it, not enough work to make it worth lugging their equipment upstairs I was told.
I need to clean it, level the tiles on the floor and seal it. How would you do it.
I appreciate the guidance.

[Davy]

Looks like standing water in a place or two. And the looks of the mold and discoloring on the floor and lower walls, it's likely the shower wasn't built right to begin with. Stone isn't nearly as good as porcelain or ceramic tiles in wet areas. I'd tear it all out and start over, myself.

[Dollo]

Thanks Davy, removing it and starting over is not an option at this time. What would I use, no, what would you use in the tight quarters, to level the floor tiles, and clean them and the wall stone please?

[cx]

Why ever would you wanna level the floor in a shower, Dallas? You apparently already have some areas with inadequate slope to drain, why would you make that worse?

Sorry, I have no help on cleaning products for what you've got.

[Tiger Mountain Tile Inc]

I, too, am confused on what you mean by leveling the tiles. You obviously want the water to drain so are the tiles uneven with one another?

The members of this forum that were really good with stone and stone maintenance don't participate much anymore. Further, that doesn't look like an easy project to tackle.

You want to look for someone in your area that does tile and stone maintenance or natural stone restoration.

You might try entering your information in this list and see who comes up around you.

Also, you might try reading up on different cleaning products for natural stone and testing some of those out. Stonetech, Aquamix, Mapei Ultracare, and Miracle are all common brands that you may have access to.

[Davy]

What area are you in?

Restoration guys have diamond pads that go on hand held machines that polish the stone starting with a course grit and going to a fine grit. But so many times the stone can't be helped much if the surface has started deteriorating. I can't tell if your stone is limestone or travertine but the soft stones can erode away after years of use.

You can find a PH neutral cleaner (nothing acidic) and see if it will help. I have used Original Krud Kudder on stone and ceramic before and it works okay but let it dwell first, then scrub and rinse. There are other stone cleaners on the market too.

[Dollo]

Thanks everyone. To reiterate, no one will take this job. I have tried six or seven different stone guys in my area and they all say it's not worth their time when there's so much other work to do. It's not worth carrying their equipment up the stairs they tell me.
As far as leveling the tiles goes, when they were laid a lot of the edges were laid uneven. I would just want to make a continuity of height, not bring the floor level with a drain as I still do want drainage. I'd like to look into the idea of the diamond grinders but I don't know enough about what to ask. I can get, or skip, the leveling done, the most important part to me is the granite on the side that has discolored over time, is that something you know how I could fix? For the most part it has just darkened and looks unusual, for lack of a better term. There is also some travertine that has discolored as I don't think any of it has been sealed for quite a number of years. Any guidance on products or processes would be much appreciated. Are you Stone Pro for the sealer, I'm we're looking for what products could bring it back to the original color as far as the walls, granite and travertine go.
I know the area of understanding that I have, and I have laid tile and refinished floor tile in the past, but this shower is not going to allow me to use a floor machine, or the gorilla pads I've used in the past working down from a small numbers to high numbers, or heavy grit to low grit, to get a finish. What kind of hand machine would someone use? I assume an angle grinder won't work, what will?
Again I am grateful for all the help that you all give me. Best wishes and all you and much success.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Hi Dallas,

We’ve seen thousands and thousands of showers on this forum. And we are pretty advanced in our body of knowledge and experience. We aren’t perfect, but we’re always striving. And we are very slow to just give up on something so quick. But when you’ve got actual standing water on the surface of a shower, that such a kindergarten mistake that we’re pretty darn sure that there are so many things wrong that you’d be throwing good money after bad trying to bring this shower back.

But we understand where you’re coming from and money doesn’t grow on trees. Go ahead and post a few more pics if you’d like to keep exploring. Please try to post as clear of pics as you can. The pics so far are kinda fuzzy on my screen. Feel free to post as many as you like.

[Davy]

I see the name Dallas in your post. Are you in the Dallas area? If so, I know a restoration company that does good work.

Many times moisture can cause stone to discolor. Polishing the surface may or may not help.

[Dollo]

I should have set the record straight a while ago, there is no standing water in the shower. The "seams" where the wall meets the floor does seem to need re-grouting. It is a bit disgusting, but I am sure you have all seen much worse... there are worms, fly larva, that come out of these seams where the floor meets the walls. Black worms that get to about half inch long. When I flush these edges it washes them out as well as black dust like material, wet of course, that must be their excrement. That is the only place I can think were there would be standing water, oh, and along some tile edges that are raised slightly ore than the adjacent tile edge, but very little water gets trapped there and dries fairly quickly.
Here are more pictures, I am trying to add some clear pics but am not savvy with resizing them so we will see how it goes.
Thank you again for all the help.
One more thing, my name is Dallas, I am not in Dallas, or anywhere near there.
The first pic shows the granite darkened from the original color, I would assume it is from not being sealed but do not know for sure. Is there anything I can do to bring it back to the original color?
Pic #2 shows what I can only assume to be mold, what do I do here?
Pic #3 shows the granite on the wall as darkened and maybe corroding, there is also rust on the floor tile
The last pic shows darkened wall granite and mold on the floor.
Any guidance you can offer is most appreciated.

[cx]

Welcome, Dallas.

If you'll add a geographic location to your User Profile, someone might have a recommendation for someone to help in your area.

I also don't see any indication of what you have already tried to use to clean the problem areas of your stone. Did I miss that, or have you just not tried cleaning it up yourself?

As for missing grout in the floor/wall joint, there never should have been any grout there to begin with. That joint, like all tile joints where the tile backing material makes a change of plane, should have been filled with a flexible sealant, such as 100 percent silicone.

You indicate a possible problem with the granite not having been sealed. There is no real requirement for such sealing. Some granite will accept such a penetrating sealer, other granites may not. But in either case I doubt that would likely cause or prevent any color changes in the stone. I could be wrong about that.

If you actually have mold on the surface of your stone, it simply means you're providing the proper conditions for such growth. That would be proper temperature, moisture, and some form of food. The easiest of those to remove from the environment is the moisture. Do you have a properly sized exhaust fan in that bathroom? Do you use it adequately after each shower use? That can go a long way toward controlling any mold issues.

The black worms? You've certainly got me there. Don't think I've ever seen that reported here since I've been hanging out on these forums. I'll be curious to see if anyone else is familiar with that problem.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Dollo]

Thank you CX, helpful info.
Yes, we have a window in the shower, always open.
5 or 6 different stone pros have come in for an estimate, but I can usually not ever get them to give me the quote or even call me back after that, #4 told me it is not worth him taking the time to carry his equipment up the stairs since he can do much more indepth work elsewhere and make more money doing it that he could ethically charge me.
I will seal the seams with the silicone as you directed.
Thank you.

[cx]

Open window not at all the same as an exhaust fan, Dallas. And, again, that information would mean a lot more if we had a geographic location in your User Profile.

It's not that you need to "seal" any seams in the shower, it's that you don't want solid grout joints in the changes of plane. Has nothing at all to do with the shower's waterproofing, it has only to do with providing movement accommodation between those different planes. To do any good with that, you would first need to remove all the existing grout, though.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

The 4th picture in your first post…down in the lower right corner. It looks like a glossy surface similar to what standing water might look like. What is that?

[Tile & Stone Guild]

Personally I’d tear that out and redo as opposed to trying to rehab it. At best it may look better temporarily but it will come back. Normally I wouldn’t recommend bleach on stone but it won’t mess it up more than it already is at this point.