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LImestone - Mildew issue

From reading your aricles, I may be out of luck but we had Durango honed limestone installed in our bathroom shower floors, walls, bench and ceiling 2.5 yrs ago and have continual mildew problems - on the tile itself and along the grout (which a contractor has covered over with caulking along the base as the grout cracked). We live on the water in a humid area and already keep the fan/ AC on, clean weekly, and even leave the lights on to try reduce mildew growth. I have read that vinegar, bleach, grout cleaners,and scrubbers should not be used - any advice on what we can do for the mildew problem without damaging the limestone? Also, we have used bleach in the past and now have large spots that are no longer smooth/ shiny - do we need to reseal? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...we wish we would have come accross you website years ago.
 
Dear Denise:
Let's start by saying the the more you will seal that stone, the worse the situation is going to become.
No matter how you slice it, you have water - and a lot of it - behind those tiles. What your setter did (just slapping some caulk over the open grout lines without allowing the water behind the tiles to dry) is the worst thing that he could have ever done.
I do believe that by your description of the current situation, it is terminal and you're facing a total installation failure.
Durango is a tough stone; if it reached the point that it reached now, you must have had water behind those tiles for a very long time.
It is funny how often inquirers chime in with questions about the suitability of a stone over another in a shower stall, but then they neglect to shop in the right way for the most important factor of the entire equation: the tile setter. Even the best material will fail miserably if it's installed wrong.
Sorry, but it looks like it's jack-hammer time... :-(
 

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,

Maurizio Bertoli

 

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