Seal Slate backsplash behind stove

[Lizd]

We have just had a slate backsplash installed all round the kitchen benchtops. The builder sealed it with 2 coats of Tasmanian Chemicals Premium Long Life Gloss, which the slate supplier had sold us for that specific job. Unfortunately, steam from the kettle left a plume of white glaze across the tiles and all oil splashes went straight through the sealant into the tiles. Uncleanable!
I took the advice of Bunnings hardware and stripped the sealant off the tiles behind the stove with Polystripper Advanced paint and varnish stripper + steel wool and got back to naked slate. Oil splashes all gone.
Then I put on 2 coats of Dunlop Ultimate Enhancing Sealer. Left it all to go off for a long time before frying anything, and the oil splashes went straight through into the slate again.
My next plan is to strip it all off again, paint it with the Dunlop sealer and then go over that with some sort of Estapol-type varnish? Or is there an impervious slate sealer?
Thankyou anyone who can help.

 

[Tile seller]

Hello,
I'm not too familiar with the products you've used thus far however, I think they are top sealers. (They just sit on top of the stone)
It's best when useing these to use a impregnating sealer first/primer or its possible that the stone won't seal all that well.
I'd go with known brands like LTP or Lifofin too. They have great technical people on the end of the phone if required.

 

[Old Mod]

Can’t think for one minute why anyone would sell you a natural product for tha kind of application, and wouldn’t be surprised if you were on a hiding to nothing.
However, I could also be talking utter jibberish, this sounds like a perfect scenario for our resident mad scientist Uncle Bob!
I’m sure he’ll be along presently.
@Lithofin BOB

 

[Lithofin BOB]

hi , topical sealers can generally be affected (whiten) by water,moisture and acidic contamination if splashed on these areas. i would strip these back , after this 4-5 days minimum to dry the area ( how long did you wait after stripping last time ,before re application, this can determine the resistance of the new sealer/impregnator if moisture present on application.)

i would seal (as tile seller ) with a quality impregnating sealer or colour enhancing impregnator if you want depth of colour, this will not whiten with moisture if correctly applied and maintained. ensure water and oil reppelance when purchasing- some will be only hydrophobic water repelling and oil will bleed.
then comes the maintenance, ensure you use a suitable cleaning product specific to which ever impregnator you choose, as this will look after this product.

be aware , even if you impregnate the stone, oils can still sit in the micro pores of the sealed stone and show a mark- with this high maintenance stone for a splash back , you may need to use a slightly stronger alkaline cleaner ( recommended by the impregnator manufacture)once in a while to clean these marks away, they will only be sitting in the surface and should remove.

 

[Lizd]

Thankyou! Will start by looking at cleaners before I go though the whole stripping/resealing thing. Hopefully you've saved me hours of mess.