I got in the door of a major hotel the other day in my city (I do the carpets at the one next door to them. They are both high class hotels, I won't mess with the Patels) thanks to the Chamber of Commerce. For those of you who aren't Chamber members, I highly recommend it. Anyway, they want a demo on carpet, but they also have a slate floor that is--ugh--waxed! They cannot find anyone to provide the proper care for this floor. In 2001, I attended a stone care course at VIC International in Knoxville TN. Unfortunately, in my neck of the woods, everybody waxes their stone. I tried for awhile to get people away from this practice, but obviously had no luck. Now, I see this as a great opportunity. I learned from VIC to use a low ph stripper on stone and the proper way to polish stone. Is a low ph strippe the case for slate? I truly don't remember. I know someone from Raleigh came in and attempted to strip it on a trial basis in a bathroom. It is a green slate with pits in it. The pits turned white, so I assume they probably used a wax designed for VCT, but will defer to your expertise on the matter. Any suggestions you have will definitely be appreciated and your name will be mentioned as "my master". lol
On a second note, I attended SFS with you last year in Atlanta; I finally convinced my wife to go this year. She will be attending in Dallas.
I also hope to attend Connections this year in Clearwater and attend Rick's Encapfest. I'm still not sure about that one. If so, I'd love to see ya, since I missed ya when Melinda and I were in Tampa last August. BTW...Rick...thanks for the lunch that day!
Thanks in advance for any advice you can supply, David.

You are apparently speaking of efflorescence. I've done a handful of slate jobs in the last few months and experienced this. Personally, I started using a product from Aldon Chemical that is quite effective. You may want to check them out: http://www.aldonchem.com/mt-slate.htm The efflorescence can cause you to to go bald from pulling your hair out if not handled properly. Lol. I'm sure David will likewise have some great experience to share with you too.

Ken A

The issue you described can be caused by stripper or acid causing a finish to break down. This can be a floor wax or an acrylic finish that may have been applied by the manufacture.

The correction is the same. Strip & Rinse, Strip & Rinse, Strip & Rinse, Strip & Rinse, Strip & Rinse, and then clean it. Brushes work better then pads for getting the pits and crevasses in shape.

The last one I had was a beautiful Indian slate with vivid greens, purples, and gold. It was newly installed and sealed by the installer. THEN they try to remove the grout haze with acid. It didn't hurt the slate but it etched the acrylic sealer. This was a week before the home was to be part of the parade of homes. 3 guys 8 hours for 1900'. We went home whooped tired with a $3850 check and a very happy builder. It was a battle of will there for a while. Acrylic sealer can be a real pain to remove.

Man I love natural stone, terrazzo, and grout....real dirty grout. So much better then carpet or furniture. I guess because I can't clean the wear out of carpet but I can make any stone or grout look like new.

Tom Workman
Floor Cleaning Experts
www.floorcleaningexperts.com
727-399-8803

Excellent info. Thanks. Tom, luckily in my neck of the woods, installers don't seal the floors. I don't know why, but they don't. When I went to the stone maintenance school in '01, I came back and offered this service to several contractors. They laughed and told me they were not gonna pay extra to have the stone sealed, the home or business owner could do that! So, to the best of my knowledge, there is no sealer on the floor.

Aound here no one seals either. They leave it to the owner to seal their granite counters and for stone floors they say sealing is just a waste of time and offers no value. We live in an area that just reached metropolitan status and we found two people that offer sealing for tile and grout. there are probably others but we couldn't find them while doing some reasearch for a customer of ours.