On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 22:03:16 +0100, "MrMoosehead"
wrote:

Currently have Acrylic sealant (2 coats) on the black slate floor, but it's
very dull and dusty and the grain is not showing through well in the used
areas. Doesn't seem to stand up well to toddler on trike traffic.


Can anyone advise on whether a gloss/satin varnish will be a Good Thing, or
a Bad Thing for the slate.

Before I had my floor laid, using some samples of the material, I
tried four or five different sealant and finish treatments to see what
they looked like.

The gloss ones were invariably absolutely awful - creating a very
artificial and plasticy appearance. To my mind, if you want that,
then you buy cheap vinyl floor sheet.



The best combination that I found was a set of products from Lithofin
(www.lithofin.de)

A good clean with Lithofin Power Clean is worth doing first.

I then used Lithofin MN Stainstop to seal the slate - this is a
solvent borne silicone product, and although expensive at around
£30/litre goes a long way. The Slate Seal was too glossy for my
taste.

After the Stainstop, I applied MN Colour Enhancer. This did a
brilliant job of enhancing the colours and textures (I have mainly
greys and browns from quite light to quite dark and a lot of embedded
fossils.)

For maintenance, apart from vacuum cleaning, I sometimes use a steam
cleaner and sometimes wash with a very dilute solution of Lithofin's
Easy Care cleaner.

We don't have trikes but do have animals so there is a level of mess.

I know this sounds a little like a Kleeneze commercial, but I've found
all of Lithofin's stuff that I've tried really good. Generally the
better tile stores sell most of the range.


..andy

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