I hope I haven't ruined my slate floor! I've just laid about 25m2 of slate floor. I followed all the instructions on all the packets, and am now left with a floor with quite a lot of grout smeared around, particularly in the riven bits. Trying to clean the (flexible) grout off is turning out to be more work than laying the slabs!
I was probably a bit of a prat trying to grout the floor a couple of days after knee surgery. Due to my lack of mobility, I don't think I cleaned the grout off soon enough, or particularly well. I did however seal the slate before grouting.
Any tips on how to clean th grout off would be much appreciated!
Brick (patio) acid and a sponge. Use old jeans, rubber gloves and knee pads. The acid should not attack the sealer, and doesn't attack the slate at all. It will of course start to dissolve grout in the grooves, but that can always be carefully put back if needs be.
In the end you will have loads of calcium chloride and sand everywere, but that is washable off.
Its murder doing the grouting: If you had posted earlier I would have told you how I evolved a system...that works.
Just be ultra happy it was slate, not limestone. That etches faster with the acid than the grout does...
Anybody who's ever known the delights of caving, or even that of a karstic landscape, will have experienced what happens to limestone when acid as weak as C02 dissolved in water is allowed to attack it over a long enough period :-)
Put acid on calcium carbonate, ie limestone, and it'll happily bubble away and dissolve. Not manic miner disappearing floor fast, so you'll be able to wash it off, but if you're trying to shift other stuff with acid, you'll probably lose.
I'd been cruising the tiling sites and they make it look a doddle. At least I have some idea of the misery to come. Thank you very, very much TNP, advice, converted to PDF for later use and to compare experiences :-)
On the issue of suitability of materials, a few years ago I looked at different stones for floors in hallway, kitchen cloakroom and conservatory - e.g. whether to go for different ones or the same throughout. The conclusion from everyone asked was not to go for marble, limestone etc. for areas such a kitchens and near to outside doors where there is a dirt issue. They might have been suitable for the cloakroom but it wasn't worth it for one small area. Slate is far more maintainable because virtually any cleaner can be used. Limestone may be suitable for bathroom floors but that's about it unless one has an area well isolated from sources of dirt.
These soft materials are suitable for wall tiling in most areas, so for example, I've used marble in the kitchen and limestone in the cloakroom. Again one has to be careful with cleaners but with suitable impregnation with Lithofin MN Stainstop no issue.
The other thought with floor tiling is that it can be very hard work in stone. I went for 600x400 slates and these are veryheavy to start with. When held at arms length for tiling they become very heavy indeed. I had a professional tiler do the job because frankly it would have been back breaking for me and would have taken far too long. As it was, this amounted to well over a week's work for two tilers.
Slate is a very good material, so is sandstone though beware of 'too much riven' stuff (dirt in cracks needs a scrubbing brush). Quarry or terracotta tiles are good but have to be well sealed.
Steer clear of marble and limestone - they are too prone to acid attack and staining.
Get quality tiles that LOOK like limestone etc...but can be acid washed to remove grout splashes.
I'd only consider one of those materials in a bathroom floor, where bare clean(isH) feet and no wine, vinegar or citric fruits are likely to end up. Or maybe if you adopt Scandinavian or Muslim style living, with shes off at the front door. and are exceptionally houseproud, careful and have no kids and definitely NO PETS. .
We had limestone put down professionally on our kitchen floor about eight years ago. They did a fantastic job: 600x400 tiles, with 5mm gaps, perfectly even and level. We take no special care of it other than a good scrub and one coat of sealer a few years ago. Looks great.
So a couple of years ago when we wanted the bathroom re-done we went for limestone again. Same grey tiles on the floor. The walls (well, one full wall and three bottom halves of walls and the sides of the bath) were done in creamy 400x400 tiles, plus matching windowsills and ogee architraves and dado rails. Quite a complicated job done by a different contractor and again it looks fantastic. The only problem stain-wise is white soap stains in the shower, but to be honest we don't care. I've seen lots of ceramic tiles that are supposed to look like limestone, but they have nothing like the class of the real thing.
Going back to the subject, our hall floor is done in riven slate and is also good-looking with low maintenance. It's important to leave wide gaps between uneven tiles: the tilers had already laid half the floor with 5mm gaps before I saw what they were doing, but after I had a quick word with the boss they took them all up again and re-did them with 10mm gaps. Much better.
Maintenance-wise the slate is very good except for a white stain caused by a dripping TRV. One of these days I'll get round to finding out how to get rid of the stains, but not before I've replaced the TRV :-).
For me the point of irritation is being able to see the screen printing on the fake tiles.
Try this in order....
A wipe with a solution of Lithofin Wexa - about 20:1. It's a good cleaner and you don't need to mix up very much - maybe a litre of solution for quite a large area.
If that doesn't work then go for a scrub with some brick acid. Not near the limestone of course. That should move it. Then rinse thoroughly and go for the Wexa. Rinse again and lightly polish.
The tiling shop where I bought the adhesive/grout/tools etc. told me that under no circumstances was I to use brick cleaning acid on my slate floor as it would totally ruin it. I popped round to Wickes, which don't sell it. That's 2 fairly common items you might need when building a wall they don't sell - lime and cleaning acid!
B+Q thankfully sell Feb acid based cleaner (I think it's got detergent in it too), which my wife has been applying neat to the floor. (I still would have to scuttle around on my backside after my knee op.).
The floor is cleaning up very well - thanks for the tip!
Depends where you are : limescale is generally (calcium,magnesium) carbonate, so your "brick acid" (sulphuric, IIRC) should get it into solution so you can take it away. But in some areas there is a significant amount of calcium sulphate in the limescale, and
*that's* not going to shift with any over-the-counter acids. On the other hand, it's soft (2 on Moh's scale, couple of dozen on the engineer's hardness scale whose name I've forgotten), so a mild abrasive might be adequate. Table salt should do the job, and wash off with water afterwards. When I grew up in a hard water area, we didn't have central heating. Now my teeth hurt whenever I go to hard water areas, unless I drink beer only. Now there's an excuse!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.