Is it a stupid choice

[Bryce C]

to put slate tiles in a shower? What do you guys think? Acid, dwell and scrub, dry it fast, and use a super sealer? Or just tell her the efflorescence is likely a permanent/recurring problem?

 

[Dwain Ray]

to put slate tiles in a shower? What do you guys think? Acid, dwell and scrub, dry it fast, and use a super sealer? Or just tell her the efflorescence is likely a permanent/recurring problem?

View attachment 134162

I can't tell ya what to do to clean/ correct this problem/situation because im new at this also. But i can recommend this, whatever you decide to do, before you do it, pre-qualified the f#@k outa it

 

[Mikey P]

Bryce, that's not Slate

Limestone or marble on the walls, hard to say for sure from that small photo but the pebble mosaic floor can take what ever you need to scrub the mineral build up off them.

Floor looks ultra matt so acids splashing ( probably ) wont hurt

Can you get better and bigger photos?

 

[Bryce C]

Bryce, that's not Slate

Limestone or marble on the walls, hard to say for sure from that small photo but the pebble mosaic floor can take what ever you need to scrub the mineral build up off them.

Floor looks ultra matt so acids splashing ( probably ) wont hurt

Can you get better and bigger photos?

Oh snap, shows what I know. All I can do is zoom in and crop for now. I'll get more pics later today. Thanks for the tips so far.

How quickly will acids dwelling and being scrubbed begin to remove grout when I am doing this? Does that depend on the cleaning agent and abrasion of what I am scrubbing with? What should I scrub it with? I have an acidic tile cleaner called Fizzle from a local supplier, I read some folks uses muriatic acid.

Is the weird shape to the efflorescence just the way water pools in the shower pan?

 

[Bryce C]

I'm scheduled to do this job later this morning. I can postpone the shower though if need be. I already told her the efflorescence is difficult to remove and likely to reappear.

If I am successful at removing it, should I apply an impregnating sealer?

 

[Bryce C]

m

 

[Mikey P]

Call me in 30 minutes


775-552-5529

 

[hogjowl]

The number I have for you is one digit off from that.

 

[Mikey P]

Woops

5429


I called Bryce on my to the airport.

 

[hogjowl]

I thought maybe I had a preferred customer number.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Free!

 

[Bryce C]

Thanks for the ace advice Mike! The rest of the shower cleaned up nicely, even the glass, but that floor was tough. At first I used a high alkaline cleaner with a nylon brush on the walls, and a brass brush on the floor. Then I used an acidic cleaner around 2 pH or a little less on the floor with more scrubbing and rinsing, and I repeated everything on the floor several times, lots of dwelling, scrubbing, and rinsing. And this is what I ended up with

It looked better immediately after I finished, but the minerals wicked up to the surface in just a few minutes. I set the customers expectations well beforehand so they were happy with it all. I was in that shower for way too long. I'm going up on my shower prices. They didn't opt for an enhancing sealer to temporarily hide the whitish remains in the grout. This is what it looked like before I worked on it.

 

[Bryce C]

I don't know if it is just efflorescence, or if it is also soap scum, but the whitish remains in the grout seem to be spread throughout the grout as if it is woven through it. Whats up with that? Is it just the soluble minerals following the path of the water as it is moving through the grout?