In my last article I mentioned the coatings that certain factories are applying to their porcelain tiles. In truth there are lots of different types of coating being used. Their purpose is to afford some protection to the tiles during transport, handling and of course, installation. Why are they doing this? Well, many newer porcelain tiles are not being manufactured to quite the same exacting standards that they once were, particularly, those emanating from the Far East.
They are intended to be removed before, during or after grouting. Many of them use standard, paraffin-type waxes which are relatively easy to remove but others however use more modern, polymers that can be much harder to remove and each can require a different chemical.
For standard waxes, the easiest and safest way to remove them would be to use a product designed specifically for this job, such as MicroscrubTM by All for Stone. We have talked about this product (and its many other uses) before, but this is the task it was actually designed for. The process is simple; just pour some MicroscrubTM onto the tiles, add a little water and scrub with a white nylon emulsifying pad, rinse and you’re done.
For the more difficult types, it could involve a bit of trial an error I am afraid. Some respond well to strong alkaline cleaners, while others really require a solvent-type product. You have to be careful with solvents not just for the obvious reasons but also, because some of them can darken the tiles or leave behind an oily residue themselves. You may be forgiven for thinking, “well I will go straight to the solvent, just in case the alkaline does not work” but it does not always work like that; coatings that respond to alkaline cleaners do not always necessarily respond to solvents, and visa-versa. A useful tip is that MicroscrubTM can be added to either to boost its performance.
The last type of coating issue I am going to discuss is the new wave of so-called nano-sealers that are also factory applied. The word nano is being used a lot these days; – all that the ‘nano’ technology is doing (both in these sealers and also in MicroscrubTM) is reducing surface-tension, this allows for a greater and easier penetration of both the cleaner and in this case sealers, into the small (but very problematical) pores of many polished Porcelain tiles. It does not indicate if the sealer is good, poor or mediocre. The problem we have seen is that the factories, due to the speed of production and less than scrupulous quality control, do not always remove the sealer residue, this then dries to form a haze. Some of these sealer residues can be removed with one or a combination of the types of product we have talked about, but for some, unfortunately, at this point there would appear to be no effective solution – it is still a work in progress!
Copyright Ian Taylor and The Tile and Stone Blog.co.uk, 2013. See copyright notice above.
Hi Chris,
OK, they do sound bad, usually most issues of this type are not apparent until after fixing – making remedial actions very difficult – the fact that you have not installed them yet is a blessing, as at this stage you can still take them back – I know you don’t want to, but with all the symptoms you describe, and the fact that you have tried to clean them and the issues are very resolute, I can pretty much guarantee that they will only look even worse installed.
My advice – take them back and get a refund – you will not get that opportunity after installation
Hope this helps
Ian
We are dealing with a similar issue. Had 2500 sq ft of 12×48 glazed porcelain tile laid. After grouting with Fusion pro (single component) grout there is a shine all over the floors. After mopping for several months ( with water & vinegar) floors became blotchy and inconsistent looking. We had a company come out to clean one room, they used an abrasive powder cleaner and stripper… floors are now super inconsistent. Shiny, dull, shiny ,dull. Does not look good. We placed a new tile from the box near it and sure enough it has that same “blotchy” pattern… not as noticeable, but still there. Trying to get to the bottom of this nightmare for 6 mos! Another company came and sampled an area to clean with nanoscrub, which removed the shiny residue but those “blotches” are still there! Is this just part of the tile?? It is Castelvetro Tile from Italy, A+!rating, quality control. I’m confused!! Assuming it’s not a nano seal on the tile, any ideas what’s going on?? Thanks, Stephanie
I can email pics if you’d like
Hi Stephanie,
Sorry to hear your woes. First of all, you say glazed porcelain; forgive me but I have a lot of people make this assumption, but there is often some confusion between glazed and polished porcelain, they are quite different. If you do indeed have a glazed tile then any dull/shiny and blotchy effects will most likely be residue and so, in theory, should be removable. If it is polished then there could be other things going on.
Assuming it is glazed then remember also that the single component grout is likely to be loaded with polymers as well as cement. This makes traditional methods like acidic cleaners much less effective. The all-over shine seems consistent to me with a thin film of polymer (synthetic latex); think of it like a thin, plastic varnish. (Had it been a standard cement based grout the film would have been matt/dull/dusty instead).
Consider now that an acidic cleaner will have some effect, but not as much as if it were a non-polymer film. The reason is that the acid in the cleaner works on cement, but not the polymer, and much of the cement in this residue is protected by a polymer coat. But, some cement will be degraded. So, over the course of several months of you washing with Vinegar (an acid) and no doubt some elbow grease, slowly, wash by wash, a little bit of the residue is attacked each time, and each time more of the cement becomes exposed for next time etc. The effect of the acid on the cement and polymer film is to dull it down, to etch it, so you are slowly damaging the residue (not the tile surface beneath it). Whilst I appreciate a lot of people swear by home remedies such as vinegar, vinegar belongs on food, not floors, (sure it is doing something but you are digging a tunnel with a spoon). It would have been better to use a proprietary grout haze cleaner based on Phosphoric Acid or similar alternative (NOT HCL/MURIATIC). Having said that, the polymer would have made it hard work even for this type of product.
You then had someone attempt an abrasive cleaner with a stripper – OK, this is good, the stripper will soften the polymer and the abrasive will then help remove it. However, the opposite effect happens here in that the stripper works on the polymer, but not the cement. If your residue is a good mix of both then you may need to try a more intensive approach. You then had someone else use Nanoscrub – this is just an abrasive cleaner and it will rub away anything on the surface that is soft enough. You say it has removed the shine, well that sounds fair, it will dull down a shiny coating by virtue of it being abrasive, but it has not 100% removed the residue – just taken the shine off it, which is why you have an increasingly blotchy floor. So: the various attempts have each taken some / more of the residue away but not all of it.
I would persevere, but consider trying to hit a test area with a combination of 3 product types as follows:
1) apply a stripper and leave it to dwell for 30 minutes or longer if you can without it drying; keep it wet with more stripper (the strippers formulated for long dwell time are best here)
2) without removing the stripper from the floor/test area – add an acidic cleaning solution – so a proprietary cement haze remover based on phos acid or similar, diluted as directed but say 1 part acid to 4 parts water, ADD this TO the stripper on the floor/test area and now scrub with white pads (take note to make sure you are wearing suitable protective clothing/gloves/goggles etc). The idea is that while the polymer is soft/ you can scrub it away, but at the same time the cement is now exposed and so the acidic cleaner can act on that at the same time. If you just attempt to clean the polymer, the cement remains, and any traces of polymer not yet removed set again and hinder further attempts to clean way the cement. If at this stage you still need some help, try adding some of the nano scrub or similar – (NOTE: we would not normally mix an acid cleaner with this type of product, as it contains a lot of calcium carbonate, and the acid would just react with that which means you are diverting any cleaning power of the acid away from the residue and effectively wasting it, and creating more mess/residue in the process, but we do it now, at this stage, AFTER the acidic cleaner has had a chance to act and is most likely exhausted anyway). By doing this you are adding some mechanical scrubbing power at the end when both the polymer and cement have bee weakened and hopefully broken down.
Now, the all-important rinse – pick up the dirty solution/slurry before it dries, with a mop and or paper towels etc. (a wet vac is a great help here). Then, apply fresh clean rinsing water, agitate it around with a deck brush if you can, then wet vac/mop that up to, repeat this rinse process with fresh clean water again if need be.
Now, take an old terry towel, wrap it around a broom and buff the floor dry. Inspect what you have done, if it has taken all the residue away, great, if not then even if it looks worse, this is progress, it means more of the residue has been damaged and partially remove – time to repeat the above.
Hope this helps
Ian