Hiya,
I'm in the process of stripping my first saltillo floor. Needless to say,
it isn't going all that well.
I've been using a stripper by Sparks that supposedly is pretty good. I've
also tried a product from
Jasco whose main ingredient is methylene chloride. Anyway, I put the
stripper down, leave for 10-15 minutes
and then hit it with a scotchbrite pad. I add a bit of water to keep a
slurry and continue scrubbing. Then
I'm wiping off with some paper towels and giving the whole thing a wash with
water. Needless to say, there
are spots of dark red that don't appear to have sealer on them but just
won't dry. I've tried doing a lacquer thinner
wash thinking maybe the tile soaked up a bunch of the stripper in places and
that doesn't seem to help either. I've tried
sanding with 220 grit on the dark spots and nothing. I've also tried
restripping the tile again (as many as 5x) and yet the spots
remain. The spots weren't there before I started this fiasco.Just how do I
do this? Has anyone else experienced this frustration and what was the
solution?
Thanks for any advice,
cc

James "Cubby" Culbertson wrote:
Hiya,
I'm in the process of stripping my first saltillo floor. Needless to say,
it isn't going all that well.


When I've done this I used the Glaze'N Seal or Aqua Mixproducts. I
can't speak for your stuff, but you may want to call a pro, or at least
consult a tile store. Sounds like you may be missing a 'neutralizer'
application in your process.

There may be help on the net as well. http://tinyurl.com/6byaj

James "Cubby" Culbertson wrote:
Needless to say, there
are spots of dark red that don't appear to have sealer on them but
just won't dry.

Won't dry in how long? Gotta remember that Saltillo is very
porous...one tile can suck up a pint of liquid.

I grouted some last Thursday or Friday, had a fan on it 24 hours a day
and it is just now (Monday evening) almost dry. I won't reseal and
finish it for another couple of days. Took extra long because the tile
was sealed after laying but before grouting and the only way for
moisture to escape was through the grout lines. However, I lay it
unsealed and that also takes days to dry from the moisture in the
thinset.

I've never tried stripping any of the Saltillo I laid in my house, never
would, no idea what would happen with the residual stripper soaked into
it. Not to mention the original sealer and topcoat which I kinda doubt
can ever be totally removed.

After laying, I seal it with a locally made acrylic sealer (SealCrete)
then topcoat (3-4 coats) with oil poly. I use the sealer because it is
only $12/gallon, the tile dries with nearly the natural color and the
oil poly doesn't darken it as it would if the tile weren't already
sealed (one could get the same color results using just water poly but
the tile would suck up a lot if not already sealed). When it wears, I
do the same thing in the worn areas. Works well for me, been doing it
for ten years.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:zsm4e.24076$k66.12579@trnddc03...

Won't dry in how long? Gotta remember that Saltillo is very
porous...one tile can suck up a pint of liquid.

I have to admit, I'm pretty impatient with the drying. I was only giving it
a couple of hours.
Trouble is, part of the tile was dry pretty quickly and the rest of it
(spotty areas) wouldn't dry.
I headed out for a couple of hours and when I came back they had dried. I'm
in NM where water
doesn't stand a chance just sitting around

I've never tried stripping any of the Saltillo I laid in my house, never
would, no idea what would happen with the residual stripper soaked into
it. Not to mention the original sealer and topcoat which I kinda doubt
can ever be totally removed.

Saltillo stripping is pretty common here given the sheer amount of the
stuff.
I suspect you're right that you'll never get all the sealer off but now that
I've got
a system down, you really wouldn't know the stripped tiles ever had a sealer
on them. They suck up water just like raw ones.

After laying, I seal it with a locally made acrylic sealer (SealCrete)
then topcoat (3-4 coats) with oil poly. I use the sealer because it is
only $12/gallon, the tile dries with nearly the natural color and the
oil poly doesn't darken it as it would if the tile weren't already
sealed (one could get the same color results using just water poly but
the tile would suck up a lot if not already sealed). When it wears, I
do the same thing in the worn areas. Works well for me, been doing it
for ten years.


I'm using the HD off the shelf stuff, Miracle Sealants Penetrating finish
followed by
their High Gloss Sealer. I just finished laying 150 sf of the stuff and
finished this way.
Trouble is, their new stuff contains a color enhancer. I put down 400 sf of
the stuff
last summer and it didn't contain this. So now I have a serious mismatch
going on so hence
all the stripping (not to mention, a lot of sf worth of 12 year old stuff
that was never
maintained). So my work is cut out for me for the next several weekends!
I intend to then
go back and put on a few coats of MexSeal which seems to be the best stuff
around these
parts anyway.

Cheers and thanks for the inputs!
cc

Years ago when I lived in Arizona I had Saltillo tile installed. The
installer used boiled linseed oil followed by applications of "Tree" wax.
First coats of the colored "Tree" was followed by a clear coat. Seemed to
hold up quitye well.

Dave


"James "Cubby" Culbertson" wrote in message
news

"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:zsm4e.24076$k66.12579@trnddc03...

Won't dry in how long? Gotta remember that Saltillo is very
porous...one tile can suck up a pint of liquid.

I have to admit, I'm pretty impatient with the drying. I was only giving
it
a couple of hours.
Trouble is, part of the tile was dry pretty quickly and the rest of it
(spotty areas) wouldn't dry.
I headed out for a couple of hours and when I came back they had dried.
I'm
in NM where water
doesn't stand a chance just sitting around

I've never tried stripping any of the Saltillo I laid in my house, never
would, no idea what would happen with the residual stripper soaked into
it. Not to mention the original sealer and topcoat which I kinda doubt
can ever be totally removed.

Saltillo stripping is pretty common here given the sheer amount of the
stuff.
I suspect you're right that you'll never get all the sealer off but now
that
I've got
a system down, you really wouldn't know the stripped tiles ever had a
sealer
on them. They suck up water just like raw ones.

After laying, I seal it with a locally made acrylic sealer (SealCrete)
then topcoat (3-4 coats) with oil poly. I use the sealer because it is
only $12/gallon, the tile dries with nearly the natural color and the
oil poly doesn't darken it as it would if the tile weren't already
sealed (one could get the same color results using just water poly but
the tile would suck up a lot if not already sealed). When it wears, I
do the same thing in the worn areas. Works well for me, been doing it
for ten years.


I'm using the HD off the shelf stuff, Miracle Sealants Penetrating finish
followed by
their High Gloss Sealer. I just finished laying 150 sf of the stuff and
finished this way.
Trouble is, their new stuff contains a color enhancer. I put down 400 sf
of
the stuff
last summer and it didn't contain this. So now I have a serious mismatch
going on so hence
all the stripping (not to mention, a lot of sf worth of 12 year old stuff
that was never
maintained). So my work is cut out for me for the next several weekends!
I intend to then
go back and put on a few coats of MexSeal which seems to be the best stuff
around these
parts anyway.

Cheers and thanks for the inputs!
cc