QUESTION

I have an issue with my polished porcelain tile on my wall in the Master Bath. It is mostly outside of the shower area and serves as an accent wall primarily. The tile is made by Tilecrest/Runway Glazed Porcelain Polished. It has a haze on it in various areas and most noticeably a dulled finish at the grout lines. It was installed just a year ago and I am looking for a local company to give me some guidance on cause/solutions.

ANSWER

ANSWER - CTaSC has inspectors throughout North America.  This sounds like a relatively small application of tile, so it might not be practical for you to hire an expert forensic company like us even though we are experts at tile and stone applications.

You might have a cementitious grout haze over the tile or a latex residual haze from the grout or thin-set adhesive.  There are products for removing those types of conditions.

Some polished tiles can etch from being subjected to some acidic cleaning solution and that isn’t something you can clean off because it altered the surface of the tile.  If it is a polished tile it can be repolished to remove it.  You can look for qualified stone restoration companies to do that work.

There is also a condition called optical haze that can occur on a polished tile.  This optical haze is a condition that is only noticeable when light is shining on it giving it sort of a cloudy look.   It is normally the result of tiles that were not polished as well as they could have.  In theory they can be repolished to remove the haze.