Grout and sealer residue on marble tiles

Maurizio, I have someone newly installed the marble in my bathroom. However he did not clean the marble thoroughly and have a lot of grout stain left on the mable serface before he sealed it with impregnator. Now the marbles looks terribly ugly and dirty. But the guy thought that it's because the bad quality of the impregnator that caused the ugly look. Anyway, is there any suggestion that I can do it myself to solve my problem? Momo Oct 13, 2007

 

Dear Momo:

And what the alleged bad quality of an impregnator has got to do with the fact that “Michelangelo” did not remove the grout film from the surface of your tiles properly?

And again, what on earth an impregnator has got to do with being applied on polished marble?... And in a bathroom to boot?!...

 

“ Anyway, is there any suggestion that I can do it myself to solve my problem? ”

 

What follows is not to be intended as an encouragement for you to do it yourself; I consider it a full-fledged professional project and if you decide to tackle it yourself, you'll be doing it at your own peril.

 

1. The worst of the grout residue must be removed with a 3” razor-blade scraper. (If one knows how to do it right, there's no chance to scratch the marble surface; but if one doesn't...)
2. The first step should have removed most if not all the totally useless impregnator that was applied to your stone, but most likely you may still have some film residue of the grout. That has to be removed with a heavy duty-alkaline cleaner with chelates in its formula, like MB-3.
3. Rinse thoroughly. That should finish the job, but if for any instance you still have some residue of the impregnator, you're gonna have to remove that with a paint stripper based on Methylene Chloride, liquid on the floor and gel on the walls. Do follow all precautionary directions printed on the can of the product: that stuff is nasty!

 

And now remember, it's never too early to think about the proper maintenance of your stone. The issue of what you'll be doing day in and day out to your stone is – like it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable – which in your case is both) and it's all too often neglected. As you can tell by reading many of this site's postings, you're not likely to get good information about it from your dealer or installer. Don't become another statistic! By logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm, you will be able to get the short version of our maintenance guidelines at no charge. The full version of it – a 7-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay-per-download format in our Educational Literature section at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/literature.htm.  

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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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