Sealers Anonymous

May 5, 2009

1. Impregnating sealers do have an important role in the stone industry;
2. While impregnating sealers are important, not all stones require their application! (Remember, while man was created equal, stone was not.); and
3. Regardless of a stone’s need for sealer – if a cementious grout is used, the grout will always benefit from a high-quality application of a porous-grade impregnating sealer.
Two principals come into play from that last statement. One is that, since a chain is only as good as its weakest link, a cementious grout will be a sponge and allow contaminants to stain and discolor it, even though the abutting stone may not need a sealer.
The other principal involves the mere mention of grout; in the future puzzle of the stone industry job security in the stone universe will be dependent on floors, as the countertop frenzy of the past 10 years begins to wane.
But that subject is, as Hammy Hamster used to say, “another story on the riverbank” and fodder for future discussion. The point to note here is that there’s more demand (and ergo more money, opportunity and security) for impregnating sealers on floors.
So here’s the next dilemma: How does one properly apply a quality impregnating sealer? (By quality, I mean one that actually goes into the stone and keeps staining agents and contaminants out.) Far too often I have witnessed the proverbial tile installer down on his hands and knees doing the Mr. Miyagi “wax on – wax off” routine by wiping on with the left hand and wipong ff with the right.
My first advice here: Stand up! Have some respect for yourself and your knees. Just because you can ruin your back and knees installing stone doesn’t mean you need to continue to damage bone and cartilage by protecting it. (I have also seen a better way to install … but, again, we’ll talk about that in the future. Nothing like building some job security in these times.)
Sealers work best if given dwell time. A damp rag doesn’t allow any of the good stuff to go into the floor, because the cloth is hogging it; the sealer also doesn’t stay long enough to do any good, either. You need to wet the floor and allow it time to soak in.
Hint: if you don’t see a puddle, you need more product. Think about how you’d feel on a hot, dry Texas afternoon and someone only offers you a Dixie cup of water; while it may cut the dust, it doesn’t quench your thirst. Puddling allows the stone to “drink” as much as it requires. When it’s done, it’s done; just make sure that the horse has a full trough at the start.
The next part is key: After 7-10 minutes, that stone will have had all the sealer it can take (if it’s absorbing at all). You need to take the excess away or else it will cure on the surface – and that creates a whole new set of problems.
Two factors come into play here. First, you need to have enough sealer on the stone at the start so it doesn’t dry before the stone finishes absorbing the solution. And, second, you need to remove the sealer quickly and methodically, or it’ll dry and create problems.
The best way to remove excess sealer from a floor is a moss rubber squeegee with pliable blades (not those hard cement-floor-shop ones that leave as much as they remove). The benefit of this method is that the squeegee removes the entire product from the stone (and, as stated above, not all stone needs it anyway) and pushes it into the grout joints, where it needs to be.
Time here is of the essence. You now have a very thin (and therefore fast-drying) layer on the stone where you do not want it.
We now put towels under our lightest machines (janitorial-grade swing machines -175 rpm and less than 90 lbs) and buff the excess off the surface of the stone; the towel will absorb the good stuff left on the tile and allow the chemical carrier to evaporate – leaving the tile polished (or honed, if it began that way).
Depending on the size of the tile, grout joints, lippage and the brand/grade of the sealer used, you’ll go through one towel per 25-75 ft² of buffed floor. Severe lippage will obviously consume your towels quicker than Crown Royal at a Great Northern Stone convention.
Now comes the standard question I get: “What is your favorite sealer?” My answer: Whatever someone else is paying for.
Seriously – there are many good, quality brands I can recommend without needing to annoying any one manufacturer. Also, in our business, I also need to adapt to client needs. With our clientele, we run into architect- and designer-specified brands on many commercial jobs so limiting our brand acceptance could exclude us from certain jobs (or lose future ones, if we’re caught substituting without authorization).
And, once we find a brand (or two or three) we’ll accept, it’s counterproductive to spending a lot of time testing and training on every new product that comes out.
Certain sealers can achieve greater results with certain grades and brands on various stones and surfaces. This experience comes from working with architects, designers and sealer manufacturers, instead of being rigid and thinking that I already know it all and what’s best. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.
Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone Care, a Huron Park, Ontario-based stone-cleaning and -restoration company servicing all of southern Ontario. Tom offers corporate and private consultations, serves as a trainer for the Marble Institute of America, and is also on the organization’s board of directors. He can be reached at stone_rx@earthlink.net.