A terracotta nightmare

[tiletrouble]

Help please. I have an internal terracotta floor that has been badly damaged by an underfloor leak in an area which is rented as a holiday rental - the water has been absorbed by the tiles and pulled all sorts of salts up on to the surface of the tiles - the tiles are also stained with water marks - this is the second year running - it happened last year, wasn't so bad as this time, plumber thought he had repaired leak and then, towards the end of last summer, it became apparent that it was happening again. The floor has been left now for four months to dry out and it is horrible to look at.

Last year, I scraped off all the lose salts and went over the floor with a fairly harsh scourer and hydrochloric acid - the results were not fantastic but I was very short of time to get the place open for the summer season. Now the plumber thinks we have isolated the leak mad2 I would like to do as good a job as I can to the floor - obviously it is never going to be good as new but do you have any suggestions as to what I should be doing that would be better than I did last year?

Thanks.

 

[Rich]

Finding another plumber? :smilewinkgrin:

 

[DHTiling]

The salts would more than likely be Effloresence and the tiles are either still wet or stained as you say..

Can you post some pics and what are the tiles sealed with..?

 

[tiletrouble]

Don't start me on the plumber......

I shall take piccies and post tomorrow - thank you.

 

[DHTiling]

Look forward to them..

 

[tiletrouble]

As promised - here are a couple of photos of the problem.

Thanks for your help on this.

 

[DHTiling]

Pics are too small to see stains...but does look like efflorescence salts on the surface.

 

[tiletrouble]

Hopefully this might be a little better?

Any thoughts as to what can be done?

 

[DHTiling]

Thats a better pic... Any idea what substrate it is underneath.

 

[CJ]

Once the leak is sorted, I would be tempted to beg or borrow a de-humidifier.