Expert Answers in Maintenance

ANSWER - You didn't mention what kind of tile you had.  Natural stone of various types are known to contain ferrous oxide that can lead to staining in the tile or the adjacent grout. Since…

ANSWER - The best way to clean a ceramic tile floor is to purchase a neutral based cleaner/detergent and apply it to the floor.  Let it sit for 10 minutes or so.  Then use a…

ANSWER - The trade-off of etching a tile floor to make it more slip resistant is that it will alter the appearance of the tile and the tile can be come more difficult to clean…

ANSWER - Severe efflorescence is a symptom of an excessive moisture problem.  Removing the efflorescence stain is treating the symptom rather than the problem. Efflorescence is a mineral stain.  Minerals are forms of salts that…

ANSWER - Refinishing or restoration of stone floors is a common maintenance process.  There are many levels and degrees of what that might involve. Typically the stone floor will be cleaned with cleaning solutions and…

ANSWER -  The Daltile Avondale West Tower product looks to be an unglazed/through-body porcelain tile.  It comes in polished and unpolished.  I am assuming you have the unpolished material.  Porcelain tile is very durable.  Unglazed…

ANSWER - I am guessing that you had a through-body/unglazed porcelain tile since you said it was a matte finished porcelain tile and you said that the installers were able to grind the surface to…

ANSWER - Limestone is commonly used in shower applications.  Not all limestone are the same.  There are ASTM material standards for each geological classification of natural stone that lists what the maximum or minimum physical…

Answer - We have seen and investigated commercial projects where there was a glazed porcelain tile floor and  some tiles got dirty easy and others didn’t.  We were able to evaluate the tiles with a microscope…

ANSWER - There must have been a sealer or some other coating on the tile for it to become sticky.  There are sealer strippers that can be purchased that should be able remove coatings that…