finishing honed and filled travertine floors

[wetdec]

I have tried a washboy but it's only does about 1.5m line then needs cleaning is this right? i have seen different sponges on them somw with slits in them my does not is this wrong? I have'n had much sucess with the washboys yet please explain?

cheers

I think maybe you should avoid chemicals and the different heads for your wash boy, your problem is your grout m8.

When you work with ceramic if your grout is a little sloppy and it streaks when cleaning off you can get it off the glazed surface easily.

Stone obviously doesnt have a glaze so if you drag the joints it streaks.

The answer.......find a grout you like and learn how to use it so you know :

What consistancy works best
How long it takes to start curing
Which grout which stone

Mapei ultracolour plus : its waterproof, flexible, fine enough to fill pores in stone, starts curing at around 20mins.

Grout your tiles with a rubber grout float working diagonally accross joints leaving the surface of the tiles clean of grout. Leave for around 20 mins or until you can leave a finger print in it. (at this point the tiles will be covered with dry dust)

Soak you wash boy float and squeeze dry the float make a pass over the tiles again across the joints diagonally washing and drying your float as you go. Al your excess grout should now be gone leave it for a while to dry off then go again. It should now be clean except for dust, when dry go over and dust off taking any bits you have missed off with a stanley blade,

I do the above with mapei but you need to get one that works for you. The majority of filled and honed trav needs no sealing before grouting its just a waste of money nothing should bind if care is taken


tiler

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[Alberta Stone]

A method I found works very well with the travertine i have worked with is to use the 3M diamond grit scuff pads.
I wash it once sparingly as I want to keep my grout flush and not washed out, Then I wipe it down once the grout has firmed enough and I use a 400 grit to deal with the epoxied/polished variety and a 100 grit followed by a 400 grit for the unpolished.

 

[Dan]

Just bumping some threads related to cleaning travertine. Not all threads will be current discussion but if you would like to reply with some information, go ahead, it may be valuable to somebody in the future. Tile Cleaning and Tile Restoration Forum