I recently has contactors put slate on my exterior patio. Several of the tiles are "leaching" a yellowish color from the tile and staining the grout after rains. How do I stop or resolve this situation?

 

Dear Ken:

There are only two types of stone for outdoors: the good ones and the bad ones.

You say that you have slate, but by saying slate you're saying very little – if anything at all. There are many different (and I do mean different) kinds of slate that span from dense and acceptable rocks, to slate that will actually fall apart under running water or turn into mud, and everything in between.

So which slate do you have?

And please, don't tell me some fancy name and country of origin: I need a technical sheet of your stone (which most likely doesn't even exist) with its mineralogy analysis, and all that kind of goodies.

While there are quite a few slates that are very good for outdoors applications, there are also many that are a total disaster.

 

I don't think that there's any remedy to your problem, but I can't be sure without an actual physical inspection of your installation followed by appropriate tests.

 

All I can anticipate to you, is that if for any chance I'm on the money with my (educated) guess, a jackhammer is what crosses my mind as the only solution.

 

Needless to say, if marblecleaning.org could have its ways, situations like this one would not exist. But we can't do anything by ourselves. We need the support of the consumers to succeed. On that spirit…

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

 

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