granite tiles darkening-help!

Dear Maurizio- My tile installer just last night installed 12" granite tile ("golden leaf" from Home Depot at $3.99 per 12" tile). He installed them on a cement backerboard using white mortar ("for marble and granite") from Custom Building Products. After about an hour some tiles started to darken. At first I thought it was becasue he wiped them clean using a damp sponge (which he says won't harm them because they've gotten wet over hundreds of years from being outside). Now I think the darkening is coming from the moisture of the mortar. I am very upset because I loved the warm gold color and the uniformity of color and now some are much darker. Some of the darkened tiles went back to their original color while others have not. Help! Will the darkening go away? Should we wait to grout? What about sealing? Thank you in advance for your help! Kind regards- Colleen

 

Dear Colleen:

In a matter of a week or two everything will be back to normal. You can grout right now if you so wish.

If your stone needs to be sealed, do not apply any impregnator to it before it's fully back to normal!

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 – as it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable) 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 routine care 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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Ciao and good luck,

Maurizio Bertoli

 

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