What can I do about my Porcelain Tile Staining?

QUESTION

I recently renovated a house and chose Daltile Premium Gres Porcelain, series Avondale, West tower, which is a brown tone stone look. I had numerous conversations with my contractor about products I was choosing as I have small dogs and products needed to withstand the likely occurring accidents. Porcelain tile was represented as pretty much indestructible and easy to clean. However within a few months when one of my dogs had an accident even though I cleaned it up immediately it left a stain similar looking like a water stain when viewed in a certain light. My contractor came out and looked at the stain and he was totally surprised but upon contacting Daltile rep was given several cleaners to try, the last one being an acid based cleaner that they had to wear industrial rubber gloves to use! This product did work the best but I did not pay the money I invested in new flooring to have to maintain them in this way. When I spoke with the rep he told me that Porcelain isn’t impervious to everything and I could put a sealer on the tiles. I told him I felt their product was misrepresented because I had done extensive research on their site regarding the tiles specifications (stain percentage etc) and the only note of careful use was not to install on ramps as may be slippery. No indication that their product would not withstand every day living use as the majority of households have children and or pets and accidents of spillage and pet incidents are a common occurrence. Furthermore they did not advise contractors or users that their product should receive additional sealing. Dal Tile hasn’t even had one of their representatives come to my house to review the problem themselves. I’m sick that I have spent all the money I have on my new flooring and now I’m stuck in this situation as we know how horrible it is having to remove and reinstall another floor especially after I’ve just completed five months of construction finishing our retirement home. If I have them acid wash and seal the tiles what are Your recommendations for the optimum products to apply and will it fix the problem or is it going to be a chronic reoccurring nightmare?
I will be contacting Daltile executive offices in Texas to discuss this situation and need to know where I stand with the product.
Thank you for your consideration

ANSWER

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 porcelain tile is normally durable, but even thought technically it is impervious, it can stain.  During the manufacturing process there are out-gassing that creates microscopic pores that sometimes can trap in stains.   To remove deep stains you should  try a poultice that is normally used on natural stone to remove deep stains.

It is possible that the animal excretions were acidic and that it etched the tile surface, but again porcelain tile is very chemical resistant and I would not expect it to be affected.

Never use something acidic to remove stains unless it is a cementitious haze.  The acid can make it worst.  Applying a sealer might help even the stain out.  The sealer does help keep materials from penetrating the tile surface.  It is not only important to clean spills up right away, but you have to make sure you use the correct cleaner so no residuals of the spill remain on the tile that can penetrate the tile surface.

If you think your tile is sensitive to staining, there are laboratory tests protocols for testing tiles to determine if a tile is stain or chemical resistant.   If they are, then that might help you in your claim with the manufacturer.

12 thoughts on “What can I do about my Porcelain Tile Staining?

  1. Cleo Lowe says:

    Thank you so much for your response. What do I need to do to have a tile sample Lab tested so that we can determine the true problem with the product?

    • Donato Pompo says:

      The ASTM C650 Chemical Resistance Test and the ASTM C1378 Stain Resistance test on a porcelain tile costs about $600.00 plus the freight cost to ship the tile to the testing laboratory. You can have the testing performed at the Tile Council of North America testing laboratory. If you need an expert such as CTaSC to manage the testing process, evaluate the test results, and to prepare a brief report, it would cost about an additional $1,200.00.

  2. Paige Medina says:

    Hi there, I was hoping to get advise on sealing porcelain tile. The tile we had installed is a matte porcelain which did not require sealing per the manufacturer. To my distress, the grey matte tile shows every single footprint made by my family and our dog. I’ve read with a matte tile, the oils in our feet (and paws) are shinier that the surface of the tile so those will reflect light and be very obvious. Do I have any options for sealing porcelain tiles to add a shine or some kind of coating? I know porcelain tiles are quite impervious but daily cleaning is driving me up the wall!

  3. Alison Brown says:

    Hi, I’ve been reading all of your expert Q&As and have seen your recommendation for 511. I have the same problem as OP, with 2 very large dogs leaving their dirt footprints all over. The dirt that accumulates is terrible. My porcelain tile is very textured (like sandpaper). I’m considering just putting LVP over the tile because I can’t clean like this all of the time. Will the 511 make lifting/cleaning the dirt off easier? Can I put a clear waterbased polyurethane down on the floors?

    • Donato Pompo says:

      Miracle 511 Impregnating sealer and other types of sealers do not make the tile stain proof or waterproof. Porcelain tile is by definition impervious, but still has a slight absorption. The sealer can act as a bond breaker so things don’t as readily attach to it and it to make it easier to clean and keep the floor clean, but it doesn’t make the floor self cleaning. It still needs to be maintained. It might help keep dirt footprints from showing up, but won’t stop it completely.

      Polyurethane coatings are not easy to maintain if they wear. Not sure how it will bond to a porcelain tile. Better to go with a wax coating over the floor. You will need to strip it every now and then and reapply. You can polish if you want more of sheen.

  4. Louisa says:

    Hi we recently have had a new patio laid with porcelain tiles. We researched and were led to believe they were pretty much stain free. The patio is very large and the tiles are light grey. It has been down for 4 months and has stains everywhere! We have jet washed it several times – the stains are predominantly from mud but the jet washer does not remove them. We opted for porcelain tiles as we believed they would be most hard wearing and have spent an awful lot of money. Its so frustrating and disappointing – is there any options for cleaning or do we need to seal them? Thank you

    • Donato Pompo says:

      Porcelain tile per the USA industry standards must have an absorption of 0.5% or less, so it is considered impervious. Although unglazed/throughbody porcelain tiles can have micro pores from off-gassing during the firing in a kiln. In some cases contaminates can get trapped into those pores and it can be difficult to clean.

      I would expect that power washing the tile should clean the mud off. You might need to soak the floor with detergent in water for 10 minutes or so and then scrub with a scrub brush on an extended handle. Then use the power washer to clean the tile.

      Once the tile is cleaned to your satisfaction, then you can seal the tile with a penetrating type tile sealer for porcelain tiles. Be sure to buff the tile dry with a lint-free cloth right after sealing to remove the excess as it will not absorb much. There are a list of sealers on our website with links to the manufacturer’s website at https://ctasc.com/category/resources/cleaners-sealers/.

  5. Maria L Van Warner says:

    We had Egeseramik glazed porcelain tile put in our home recently and the contractors didn’t cover it when they painted and did dry wall mudding. The flooring has absorbed it and I can’t get it out. I have even tried acetone. Thoughts?

    • Donato Pompo says:

      Glazed porcelain tiles are impervious so the dry wall mud should come off without too much work. Acetone isn’t what should be used. The dry wall mud is basically gypsum, so it should dissolve with water if in fact it is dry wall mud. I would get a liquid detergent for floors and add to your water. Apply the solution on the areas where you have the residuals. Wait about 10 minutes then with a scrub brush by hand or on an extended handle scrub it clean. Use a wet vacuum to pick up the dirty water. Rinse with clean water and pick it up with the we vacuum.

  6. Natalee says:

    are in the process of remodeling our master bathroom. Two week ago we had our bathroom floors professionally installed with 160 sq with Bedrosians Nomade 24 x 48 porcelain tile. The manufacturer instructions are to seal before grouting. The tile was not sealed prior to grouting. Once the floor was complete we noticed it looked dirty and there was various types of residue on the floor. Our tile contractor assure us that once our project was complete he would come back and clean up the residue on the floors.
    Fast-forward two weeks later. Our tile contractor comes back to finish up tile work and clean the floors. He tired removing and scrubbing the dried Schluter All Set, white Prism grout, and dried water spills from the Nomade tile. Our contractor used several different non acidic grout and thinset solution to remove the residue and nothing worked for him. He then decided to seal the tile with 511 impregnator sealer.

    We did contact Bedrosians and they just suggested glaze haze removers.

    Do you offer virtual consultation ?

    • Donato Pompo says:

      Normally glazed porcelain tiles are very impervious and do not stain. If it has a texture on the surface I can see material getting trapped on the surface. It is possible that the glaze might have micropores, but that isn’t considered normal for a floor tile. It might be a typo, but the Bedrosian website shows that the absorption of the tile body is less than or equal to 5% absorption. To be a porcelain tile it can’t be more than 1/2 of 1% (0.5%).

      The installer should not have sealed the floor if it hadn’t been fully cleaned as it somewhat further traps the stains on the floor. Acid only works on cementitious residue and you can’t use strong acids. It has to be greatly diluted or it can cause other problems. The installation products may be polymer modified/latex so there are special cleaners for removing latex residues.

      You probably need to contact Miracle Sealants and ask how to remove their 511 Impregnator sealer. It might require using some sort of solvent. You can try a latex remover but test it out on a small spot first before applying overall. Afterwards get a liquid floor cleaning detergent and add to water. Apply the solution to the floor and let sit for 10 minutes. Then use a scrub brush on an extended handle that won’t harm the tile surface. Scrub the floor. Then pick up dirty water with a wet vacuum. Maybe do a second cleaning and pick up with the wet vacuum. Then rinse with clean water and pick up with the wet vacuum. Best to test out a small area to see what works before applying to the entire floor.

      We do site inspections around the country, but considering our costs it might not be practical to hire a company of our caliber.

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