Sealers and polishes

Hello, My first question involves my granite floor in my bathroom. I have Empress Gold granite tile installed and after several coats of Aqua Mix Ultra Seal, it still goes dark when water drops fall on it.The darkness goes away after 30-40 minutes. I have been told that this is normal for light granite to darken like this. Is this true? My second question involves the marble stone in my shower stall. I have a dullness on some of the tiles basically in one area to the right wall of the shower head. I have not used any household cleaners only Aqua Mix tile cleaner, and wondered if your MB-13 would bring the shine back. Thanks, Charles York

 

Dear Charles:

 

“ I have been told that this is normal for light granite to darken like this. Is this true? ”

 

Not all light-colored mercantile granites, but for many it is true. However, it is true only if the stone is unsealed. If it is sealed properly it may still get a little darker when wet (it's referred to as surface wetting) but it should take substantilly less than 30 to 40 minutes to dry! At most it should dry in a matter of a couple of minutes, tops.

So, what happened?...

Quite simply, the product you applied is not appropriate for that particular stone.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature made stones quite different from one another and no human simplistic classification under a generic name like “granite” can change that.

While I'm not critici z ing in any way the possible good qualities of the impregnating sealer that you used, it is rather obvious that it just can't seal that particular stone one bit. Even my own impregnator – which was the best among all the formulations that we tested before putting it into production – was the “best” because it only failed (to a one extent or another) on 20 stones of the 90 plus we tested it on! Full failure occurred on only 2 stones, but the other 18 did not get sealed at the same level as the other ones the product was successful with.

 

Now to the marble question.

 

MB-13 will not work. Stone is polished mechanically by abrasion and friction, like gemstone, not by applying some polishing agent on it. MB-13 only helps enhancing the original actual polish, not to make it. Now, if you could describe in details (is it uniform, is it streaky?...) the “dullness” you're reporting for me or, better yet, send me a couple of picture, I may be able to help you.

In the meantime, may I ask you now to please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm? J

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

www.marblecleaning.org – The Only Consumers' Portal to the Stone Industry Establishment!