How to clean stone stained by slate cleaner/sealer?
by
NA
+15
Three years ago we had our interior travertine and exterior slate floors cleaned, polished and sealed by a 3rd party. The visible area in the back has light stucco, so any splash stains from the cleaner, polisher or sealer used are not visible. But later we noticed in the front, in a rarely visited part of the front of our home, the stone was stained damaged with whitish, light-colored stains by these agents per the attached photo.
Would anyone know the specific cause/agents of the staining from the slate cleaning, polishing and sealing process, and how best to remove the stains from the stone?
You might first try to clean the stone by pressure washing the stained area. There are products youcould use such as KrudKutter but it will be difficult to keep it off the polished areas.
The workers should have placed protection on your stacked stone while working on the flooring.
I would call the company and ask them what they used to clean, there are a lot of options, I'd also ask them how to remove the stains from the stone. It might be something you can wash away or it might've deteriorated or bleached the stone in spots, hard to tell from the photo. If that's the case, washing it won't work.
I agree with trying to pressure wash the area first. After that you may want to consider putting a concrete sealer over the stains and seeing if that removes them.
Try the pressure washing first. Then try about 1 cup of vinegar to 2 gallons of hot water and scrub. it's possible the chemicals have eaten into the stone. if you do get it clean seal with a concrete sealer. By the way, if you wet the surface does it appear the stains are gone?! If so try some concrete sealer on a few spots and see if they "disappear".
This may help: https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/maintenance-and-repair/cleaning/how-to-clean-a-stone-fireplace
That is a slate ad it is super porous ... The only thing you can do is to use sealear stripper or simply wait till sun will do its work .. and all will dissapear
The only thing I can think of is that you are getting rain stains outside. You can try Clorox Outdoors, you can get this in Home Depot or Lowes. Use a power washer, let it dry completely. Do not try to seal until it is dry. Then go to a flooring store or HD and get concrete sealer. Good Luck
Try scrubbing it with CLR cleaner and follow directions on bottle .
Hi, If the stone was not sealed then the only way might be to scrub it!
This looks like mortar “slop” to me.
Custom Building Products makes several commercial-grade grout & mortar haze removers and several other strippers, as you’ll see on their website.
Contact their Technical Services Dept and you can send them photos, to tell you what you need and how to use it and where to buy it.
You can clean it using a gentle cleanser. Or use a cleaning product intended for natural stone, or any other cleaning solution that does not contain lemon or vinegar – most suitable are that ones that are pH neutral. Rinse with clean water and either let it air-dry or use a soft cloth.
Here's a post that might help https://ohsospotless.com/how-to-clean-slate-floors/#:~:text=Combine%20equal%20parts%20of%20water,rinse%20thoroughly%20with%20clean%20water.