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Slate tiles and limescale

5 replies

JessieMcJessie · 12/08/2016 17:26

We recently had a fab new wet room done but we're rapidly regretting having chosen slate tiles for the floor because they have got limescale D very quickly- White marks showing within about 6 weeks of installation and instead of lovely dark grey they are now all chalky.

The texture of the natural slate is lovely underfoot but the problem is that (according to the company that sold them to us -" Mrs Stone" - you can't use anti limescale cleaners like Viakal on them as it will damage them.) We've been using a specialist LTP slate cleaning product but it doesn't shift it at all.

I called Mrs Stone and was advised to use the LTP anti limescale spot cleaner, which is not actually recommended for slate, very sparingly, but that the only real solution is to squeegee away all water after every shower- not going to happen on busy mornings in this house.

We're now looking into getting a water softening system for the whole house. It's all a bit frustrating, so I guess the purpose of this post is firstly to ask if anyone else has found a better solution to this problem and secondly to advise anyone doing a bathroom in a hard water area (we are in N London so not excessively hard, but hard enough) to steer clear of slate and go for "slate-look" that can be cleaned with anti limescale products, or to choose light coloured floor tiles.

The walls, which have the same slate, seem OK thanks goodness.

Slate tiles and limescale
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Idefix · 12/08/2016 17:51

Can you use natural products? Vinegar or lemon juice?

JessieMcJessie · 12/08/2016 18:15

A lot of commentary online says anything acidic is a total no-no as it literally eats the slate. However the LTP stuff has been an abject failure so I might renew my research. I am starting to think that the impregnating sealant may not have been done properly by the builders and the limescale has sort of pervaded the porous stone.

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Idefix · 12/08/2016 18:25

Garhh! So frustrating when you have something like this happen. Live somewhere with really bad water scale so can sympathise. I would see if the builders have anything to say...

JessieMcJessie · 12/08/2016 18:32

I know, it has put me in a disproportionately bad mood now! I at least thought we'd be able to remove the existing white even if we then had to spend a grand on central water softening to stop it happening again (fortunately I can see lots of other benefits of the centralised softening too). The builders were quite good explaining the whole sealant thing, but I am not sure what they could realistically do without ripping up the entire floor and replacing it, which would also destroy the underfloor heating Sad

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JessieMcJessie · 12/08/2016 18:33

Thanks for empathising!

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