Hi, My contractor and I neglected to seal my travertine tile floor before we grouted it. As a result there is a reddish brown haze staining the cream colored tile. Can you suggest a product and method to remove this and restore the original color? Thanks for your help, Victor

 

Dear Victor:

Are you sure that this haze is deeply imbedded in the stone, rather than sitting on its surface?

Travertine is not easy to stain.

And besides, why do you have a reddish brown haze?

I hope you won't tell me that you grouted your stone with a much darker grout… L

Darker grout can always create serious and all too many times irreversible problems on natural stone, whether sealed or not.

If your travertine is hone-finished I would try to remove that haze using sandpaper (hoping that's only sitting on the surface of the stone).

If that won't work… I can't think of anything else that would.

If your travertine tiles are polished instead, re-polishing the entire floor with a professional polishing powder might work if, once again, the haze is just sitting on the surface of the stone. But please, don't try this at home!

Polishing stone is not for DIY or tile setters. You would need to hire a proven stone restoration professional.

 

If everything will work out fine, 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.mbstone.com/HH_promo/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 10-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay-per-download format in our Educational Literature section at:   http://www.mbstone.com/literature/literature.htm .   Among a well of valuable information, in there you will also find priceless tips on how to properly install stone in a bathroom.

And remember, every single penny of the cost of the literature will be used to support this site and its cause: your cause.

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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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