DIYbanter - View Single Post

The Natural Philosopher

wrote:
On 25 Aug, 13:48, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
I hope I haven't ruined my slate floor! I've just laid about 25m2 of
slate floor. I followed all the instructions on all the packets, and
am now left with a floor with quite a lot of grout smeared around,
particularly in the riven bits. Trying to clean the (flexible) grout
off is turning out to be more work than laying the slabs!
I was probably a bit of a prat trying to grout the floor a couple of
days after knee surgery. Due to my lack of mobility, I don't think I
cleaned the grout off soon enough, or particularly well. I did however
seal the slate before grouting.
Any tips on how to clean th grout off would be much appreciated!
Been there, done that.

Brick (patio) acid and a sponge. Use old jeans, rubber gloves and knee
pads. The acid should not attack the sealer, and doesn't attack the
slate at all. It will of course start to dissolve grout in the grooves,
but that can always be carefully put back if needs be.

In the end you will have loads of calcium chloride and sand everywere,
but that is washable off.

Its murder doing the grouting: If you had posted earlier I would have
told you how I evolved a system...that works.

Just be ultra happy it was slate, not limestone. That etches faster with
the acid than the grout does...

T

The tiling shop where I bought the adhesive/grout/tools etc. told me
that under no circumstances was I to use brick cleaning acid on my
slate floor as it would totally ruin it.

Oh dear. I must have totally ruined mine then ;-)

Utter ********. Slate is acid proof.

I popped round to Wickes,
which don't sell it. That's 2 fairly common items you might need when
building a wall they don't sell - lime and cleaning acid!

B+Q thankfully sell Feb acid based cleaner (I think it's got detergent
in it too), which my wife has been applying neat to the floor. (I
still would have to scuttle around on my backside after my knee op.).

The floor is cleaning up very well - thanks for the tip!

Thats brick acid anyway, is feb..check the details.. bet you its
actually HCl. Or it MIGHT be sulphamic or formic acid...

T.