[derek west]

had a bad day today, stripped the colour out of 2 slate tiles using an acid. yeah idiot i know.

can i redye the tiles?

any advice before i have to do the honourable thing and replace the floor,

[terrazzoman]

yes I have a product that will hopefully resolve this.......please call tomorrow

[Kev Martin]

had a bad day today, stripped the colour out of 2 slate tiles using an acid. yeah idiot i know.

can i redye the tiles?

any advice before i have to do the honourable thing and replace the floor,

Derek
Can't happen mate Slate is not acid sensitive. So either the Colour had been applied topically or enhanced with a PS one or the other and both fixable. Give Mike Philbin a call he will tell you how to sort it.

Kev Martin
Tiling Logistics

[derek west]

cheers terrazoman, can you email me your contact details info@arcadiacleaners.co.uk

edit, been googling and it could be black limestone which i'm guessing is limestone thats been dyed

[Kev Martin]

cheers terrazoman, can you email me your contact details info@arcadiacleaners.co.uk

edit, been googling and it could be black limestone which i'm guessing is limestone thats been dyed
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Derek

If it's Limestone and you used an acidic cleaner then that explains it.You have acid etched it. However, and don't take this the wrong way it confounds me how you mixed the two up?  On the bright side though a fiddle to sort

Kev Martin
Tiling Logistics Ltd

[derek west]

cheers terrazoman, got your details and sent you a picture.

[SteveAllan]

Must be a limestone Derek. I used phosphoric acid on a slate floor on Sat to remove some grout haze with no problem. Didn't you perform an acid test when ID'ing it.

[derek west]

you'd think wouldnt you steve, schoolboy error mate. feel like an idiot now. won't be so presumptuous next time, the stress i'm feeling now is starting to hurt. horrible feeling when you mess up.

[SteveAllan]

Easy done mate, hope you get it sorted.
Going forward try a bottle of Aquamix heavy duty tile and grout cleaner, this can be used on both acid sensitive and non you will find you won't need anything else unless you have some of the problem slate sealers which might need some SCR.

[derek west]

a cleaner is not going to work, the colour has been stripped out with the acid. i need to dye it i think.

[SteveAllan]

Yes mate i know, i mean going forward when you are cleaning etc.

[derek west]

been told it could be basalt

[Jamie Pearson]

Do you have any pics Derek. Depending on the stone it could well have dye in it.

These dyes can be purchased. They are used a lot by countertop fabricators.

[derek west]

all sorted, well i know how to sort it, just need a more aggressive grit to speed the job up. its a black limestone, slate imitation. i'm just grinding it back to its original colour, its working but i have to grind past all the pitting to get a uniform look and thats taking time.
thanks for all those that contacted me via email to help, really appreciate it. will try and up load a picture of the mess i made and the progress so far in case (and i very much doubt anyone on here is as stupid as what ive been) anyone needs some info.

great learning curve though and i'm sort of glad its happened as ive learnt a lot, not just how to sort this problem but a good reminder to test test test. 

[derek west]

[Kev Martin]

Derek

To be fair to you there is already a lot of acid etching damage around the wc bowl that you haven't been anywhere near yet. Flick over it all with 220,400 & 800 Grit hand diamonds and then seal it with a penetrating enhancing sealer.  The great news is that it is only a WC area to deal with and by leaving it honed it will not show the future acid etching that is going to happen again.

Kev Martin
Tiling Logistics

[Chip Ward]

Hi Derek,

I've used Idea Black successfully from Bellinzoni for this issue in the past. It's an impregnator with the addition of a black pigmented dye.

Once cured you can if needed apply a couple of coats of acrylic floor finish to enhance the effect further.

The problem is that manufacturers of slate and other natural stones are enhancing their products with dyes.

Cheers

Chip

[derek west]

cheers chip, i did do a test with a granite dye but it was too dark so gonna grind it and then polish till i get the colour back, as you can see from the second photo, the colour comes back once you get rid of the acid burn, just need to grind a little deeper so the pits in the stone disappear. going back saturday all kitted up so fingers crossed it will be sorted.

[mark_roberts]

Hi Derek

This is interesting so thanks for making a mistake and sharing!!

But how and with what are you grinding and polishing a small area?

Thanks
Mark

[derek west]

the second picture is my first attempt and was done with a makita 5 inch orbital sander with 60 grit, then 80,120,180,320,400, and i may have gone higher cant remember now, basically as you go through the grits the floor gets darker each time, really good when you're doing it seeing the colour come back to the stone. problem is the acid has made small holes that are deeper than the 60 grit sandpaper will get too, i'd be there all day trying to get to the bottom of the pit holes so ive borrowed a flex polisher and some diamond pads, will use a 60 grit diamond pad to take a good layer off the stone then either go through the diamond grits or once i'm deep enough, will go back to the orbital and go through the sandpaper grit. going back on saturday to see if the diamonds will do the job. will post piccies of the final result.

enjoying my mistake alot.