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Discuss Porcelaine water staining before grouting in the UK Tiling Forum area at TilersForums.com.

O

ORTiling

Hi everyone, first post an just wondering if anyone has had the same problems.

Over the last year Ive tiled several new builds with a 600x600 cream/beige polished porcelaine (Eagle Brand Holdings), when the builder first started using these I told him to check wether they needed to be sealed with the supplier, he did and came back with they dont need to be sealed.
I tiled 4 houses with these tiles and no problems at all, buffed up nicely and no staining.

On the latest build, they have used a 600x300 for the bathroom walls, I tilled as before but after grouting, loads of cloudyness and smudges.
It has been a nighmare to say the least but have found that HG grout and residue remover seemed to restore the shine. With alot of elbow grease and work they are nearly there.

After checking with the suplier it seems they do now need to be sealed, god knows who the builder spoke to at the supplier originaly but they were wrong about the sealing.

I still had 24m2 of 600x600 to tile on the kitchen floor so didnt think anything of tiling first and then sealing before grouting, wrong! Even though I had worked very clean, change the washing down water and giving another wash down with clean water at the end of the day they have still dried cloudy and smeary even before sealing and grouting.
Fingers burnt and lessons learned indeed.

On all the jobs I used the same adhesive, Dunlop set fast plus and C2 with admix.

Now my question is, could this be a bad batch of tiles, more porous than previous batchs or could it be the hardness of the water?

On future jobs I plan to seal before laying the tiles and after grouting.

Ive only had this problem on one other job and they were cheap 600x600 printed patern pre sealed poceliane.

Any ideas or advise?

Many thanks
 
S

Scott

I havent fitted any polished porcelain that hasnt needed sealing. I test mine with a pencil, draw a line then wipe it off. If it come off clean, which it never has, then i seal them before grouting.
 
D

doug boardley

I seal polished porc prior to grouting to seal all the micro pores that occur during polishing process
 
P

peckers

are these the same tiles from the same manufacturer? have they stopped pre-sealing them now?
 
O

ORTiling

Cheers guys, Ill be sealing all polished pocelain from now on to be on the safe side, I wish I had become a furum member sooner.

As far as I know these tiles were not sealed in maufacturing on any of the batch's, they are from the same suplier and manufacturer, same packaging anyway.
Just seem strange that its only the current batch that have been a problem.

Whats anoying is the kitchen floor i tiled have water stained before sealing ant then grouting.


On the next build Ill deffo be sealing as soon as they come out of the box!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
S

Scott

They are a pain to seal as they dont absorb the sealer like travertine and other stones do. If i could devise a way of putting the sealer on really thin i think it would help a lot with the polishing off.
 
D

DHTiling

Make sure the sealer you use is a penetrating sealer designed for high surface tension on tiles like these polished ones..

LTP MPG is a great one..:thumbsup:
 

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