What's wrong with my new kitchen tiles? - Tile Advice

[hillhead]

I know of two shops who sell the same polished porcelain and one says seal and the other say not to. lol.
I'v seen sealed and unsealed and not much difference i say.

 

[Topshop]

It sounds to me that as Dave asked - there must be excess sealer left to dry. We may need to know what sealer was applied to find out how to remove it. Sometimes you can re-activate old sealer with more of the same sealer then remove excess with a rag or buffer before it dries.

 

[Ajax123]

I've been tiling for 38years and I only listen to the WIFE!:yikes:

I was going to say the same thing but would add.........I wish I'd listened her her mother......

 

[MerryMarigold]

LOl at these answers. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Birthdays, xmas, and obviously a lot kitchen floor scrubbing. Anyway, perhaps it is excess sealer as my hubbie did the sealing. They are Kerapen porcelain tiles, made in Spain. They say frost proof so maybe they are also suitable for outdoors (though they are quite thin). They are a tiny bit abrasive. I got them from Al Murad tiles on the A12 near Redbridge. They told us to seal them as did the builder. We used HG sealer. It did make the floor look lovely, brought out more of the colour. And before, when I mopped, you could see the mop marks when the floor dried. The sealing has stopped that happening - though to be honest, mop marks are better than difficult to remove dirt.

Would this be excess sealer? I can see now (after a good few scrubbings) patches where the sealer seems to be coming off. I was worried that the sealer was completely coming off, but maybe it's just the excess. I also bought some stainguard? Haven't used it yet? Would you recommend I don't? The tiles do get a lot of dirty traffic as they come right off the garden and also the sink/ cooker area which always gets filthy.

Thanks so much for your time. And yes, always do what your wife says!!

 

[MerryMarigold]

Oh the sealer was an HG porcelain sealer

 

[Time's Ran Out]

It's great when there is a follow up as I often forget what advice I've given and in this case - None.

So if you go down the route of Dave and Topshop, reactivate the excess sealer and buff off.

I used to use HG products all the time for sealing but found an excess all the time. Still use the Golvpolish to protect Victorian tiles though.

Thanks again for the update.

John.

 

[MerryMarigold]

Thanks Timeless John. Do you think the stanguard stuff will have the same problem? Ie. if I remove the excess sealer and then stainguard it, will it happen again?

 

[AMtek]

if the mop left streaky marks this sounds like the transit wax was not cleaned off properly?

 

[MerryMarigold]

No, mop doesn't leave streaky marks, but the marks which are on the floor don't come off. Eg. a cake crumb which gets squashed onto the tile...I have to scrape it off with a knife. Day to day dirt is the same, requiring a scourer.

 

[rob4736]

It sounds to me that the tiles you have are Keraben Glazed Porcelain, not a polished porcelain. If they are a glazed spanish porcelain then there is no need to treat them with anything, you should simply fix correctly and grout.

The tiles could then be maintained using a regular household cleaner.

Check the name of the product at Keraben: Cerámica y gres para reformas, cocinas y baños

You can email them directly asking them for there fixing and maintenance specification.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

polished porcelain honded porcelain need to be sealed with inpregnater seal this must not be allowed to dry on the surface of tile must be cleaned off compltety after no more than 10 minnits if this drys on the surface it will become very hard to clean the surface i serggest you need to clean the dried seal off the surface this should solve the problem ps glazed porcelian needs no sealing