hard water in marble shower grout lines

We tiled our shower w/ Emperador Dark 12x12 polished on the walls, and 4x4 honed on the floor. Cleaning w/ "granite/marble cleaner" isn't seeming to help w/ the hard water (white) marks on both the walls or floor/grout. Suggestions??? thanks- Jamie

 

Dear James:

Could you please give me a sensible definition of the expression, “granite/marble cleaner”? Does the product say that's formulated to remove hard-water and soap scum, or just to clean marble/granite (whatever that means)?

Duly said that, doesn't it strike you funny that you have hard-water deposits only in the grout lines?... Are you suggesting that the hard water in your area is kinda selective and doesn't like depositing its residue on the surface of the stone but only on the grout lines?... J

How about (and I'm just making a theoretical assumption here) if you don't have any grout in your grout lines, because, perhaps, your setter installed the tiles butt-joint in your shower stall?

You see, if somehow water found its way behind and under the marble tiles of your stall, it will try to evaporate through the core of the stone and the grout lines. The by-product of such migration will result in efflorescence, which sometimes it manifests itself in the form of what appears to be hard-water deposits, while in reality they're nothing but. Some stones will bleed efflorescence themselves, while some other ones will not. Brown Emperador belongs to the later group, being a compact fractured dolostone (bordering the breccias group because of its structure).

Due to the fact that by the way I read your query the “hard water” is forming only in the grout lines, I'm afraid that my theoretical assumption may not be so theoretical after all, and that, consequently, you will never find the solution to your problem inside a bottle of marble/granite cleaner (whatever that means, again), even if it is a cleaner that's designed to actually remove soap and hard-water deposits.

But why keeping on guessing?

Why don't send me a couple of pictures, so that I can actually see what the real problem is? Give me an overall and a couple of close-ups.

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?

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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