When it comes to stain removal, either you buy one of those expensive “Professional kits” (that no true professional ever uses!) at a stone retailer near you, or you can spend less money and get our comprehensive guidelines on how to remove stains by using inexpensive and far more effective means that you may already have in your household! Such impressive piece of literature will also tell you how to tell stains apart from “stains”, and what to do about the latter! It does carry a small price tag, and you can order it by logging on at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/literature.htm.   It's available in pay-per-download format and it's much cheaper than any kit on the market! Not to mention the little and much needed support you'd be giving to the cause – your cause - since every single penny of the cost of the article will be used to support it.

That being said, if your limestone has a polished or satin-finish, the wine most likely also etched the surface of the stone, making it duller than the rest. That, depending from the finish, it could be easily rectified after you remove the staining agent from the stone. Let me know.

As for the additional sealing, it's kind of difficult. First off, certain limestones require several applications of a good-quality impregnating sealer. To the best of my knowledge, only one particular limestone (honed or tumbled travertine) can get away with one application only. How many applications were made to your stone the first sealing job around?

Second, changing type/make of impregnator is always a chanchy proposition; there's no guarantee that the second impregnator will work at its best due to the presence of the first one. Third, certain makes work best with certain stones, but poorly with certain others. There's no way of saying which imprengator would be best for your particular limestone. So, as you can see, there's not much that I can tell you for sure about the sealing of your stone. I would trhy to continue with the second one until you get, hopefully, a decent result...

Finally, will you please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose by logging on at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm? By spreading the word about this valuable site among your friend & family and the stone trades' people you've been dealing with, you will be rendering everybody a valuable service!

Ciao and good luck,

Maurizio Bertoli