Calcium Carbonate - South Buckinghamshire Tile Doctor

This is a great example of what we can achieve with very stained Slate Tiles so well worth sharing. The customer was from Penn in Buckinghamshire and as you can see from the photo below the Slate tiled floor in their wet room was heavily stained with thick limescale mainly around the shower trap where the water collects.

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Buckinghamshire is known for its hard water problems which basically means the water contains high levels of calcium carbonate. These deposits are carried in the water and left on the tiles after each shower resulting in Limescale. You can reduce the problem by installing a water softener and it can be dissolved using some of the strong products you find in supermarkets however these are acidic and can etch natural stone if you are not careful. Always read the label!

In this case my customer had just moved into the house and wanted to improve the look of the bathroom and then eventually they planned to change the whole bathroom itself, but in the meantime wanted it cleaned and restored.

Cleaning a Slate Tiled Shower Floor

To renovate the Slate tiles, I started with the application of a strong dilution of an alkaline product made by Tile Doctor called Pro-Clean. This is a great grout cleaner and when used as a strong dilution it will also strip off any sealer remaining on the Slate.

I used the usual method of spraying the Pro-Clean onto the tile and grout and leaving it to soak in for at least ten minutes so it can get to work. It was then scrubbed in with hand tools and an 80-grit silicon carbide brush which is a very effective combination. This gave the stone a deep clean and removed some of the thick limescale on the tiles which was rinsed off with water.

Once the floor had been cleaned and stripped back, I used another Tile Doctor product called Grout Clean-up which is an acidic cleaner and is applied in the same way. Because the build-up of Limescale was so thing I found that a lot of pressure was needed when scrubbing the tiles and, in some areas, I needed to use a scrapper to take off the top layer.

Sealing a Slate Tiled Shower Floor

After cleaning off all the limescale and giving the stone a good rinse, I dried the floor using a white rag and left it to dry off so it would dry enough for sealing. After giving the floor time to dry I used tile doctors oil-based sealer called X-Tra seal putting down a thick coat and allowing the tiles to soak up the sealer. After some time, the floor was then buffed with a cloth to remove the excess and then a second coat was applied.

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X-Tra Seal adds the oil back into the stone which restores the dark tones and bring out the natural colour in the Slate, its also rated for external use so will cope well with the damp conditions of the wet room. After that coat had dried a 6-inch -grit buffing pad was used to remove excess sealer and add a slight sheen to the floor.

The fresh sealer should make the Slate less prone to limescale deposits however its not going to prevent the problem indefinitely. Also, for the aftercare of sealed shower tiles, I recommend Aqua-Pro which is a mild cleaning product designed for regular use and won&#;t harm the sealer like many of the stronger products you find in supermarkets.

Professional Restoration of a Slate Tiled Shower in South Buckinghamshire

1. Introduction

Clays are inorganic, natural, earthy, and fine-grained materials that acquire plasticity when mixed with water [1]. For sedimentologists, a clay is a raw material whose grain size is less than 2 μm. Like clays, in turn, there are rocks made up of clay minerals and may contain other minerals such as quartz, feldspar, mica, calcite, hematite, and organic matter as accessories [2]. A clay, once ground and mixed with water, in addition to presenting excellent workability in the fresh state, after drying, becomes extremely rigid. After burning normally above 800°C, it acquires great resistance [3]. Clays are used worldwide in the ceramic industry, especially in bricks, coatings, and others. However, clays are formed from the weathering of explosion and can be contaminated with several minerals among them or carbonate, which can alter the shape that causes the following burns. Limestone may be present in colloidal form, or coarse particles. However, in all cases it is impossible to separate or calculate this. Some researchers have tried to reduce the size of the variations to improve the chemical changes. According to Barba et al. [4], calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate are the main constituents of carbonate sedimentary rocks. Anionic carbonate groups are strongly activated units and share oxygen with each other. They are responsible for the properties of these minerals. The most important anhydrous carbonates belong to three isostructural groups: the calcite group, the aragonite group, and the dolomite group. Among these, the minerals most used in the ceramic industry are calcite and dolomite, as they are low-cost raw materials, in addition to having favorable physical and chemical properties and available deposits. Second, Padoa [5] adds that when CaCO3 is small, a decomposition can be complete and the calcium oxide reaches later with other mass components forming calcium silicates and silicon aluminates (wollastonite, anortite, gehlenite etc.) during sintering. Barba et al. [4] mentioned that the raw materials of clay when burned at high temperatures produce crystal phases that influence the properties of ceramic products. Calcite exerts a bleaching action on burnt products when added to a formulated mass of clays (in proportions above 5% and less than 30%) and at the same time decreases its expansion by legislation, as it forms crystalline and liquid phases, including cycles temperature and firing adopted. Calcite and dolomite are the most important representatives of carbonates in the ceramic industry. They are used as main components in the manufacture of ceramic tiles with high water absorption. These coatings include &#;porous coatings&#; or &#;tiles.&#; These products are designed or used on walls and are not suitable for application on floors, as they have undesirable technical characteristics, such as mechanical resistance, incompatibility with use. According to Amorós [6], properties of parts of a ceramic product are registered by crystalline phases formed based on calcium and magnesium as ghelenite (SiO2&#;Al2O3&#;2CaO) and anortite (2SiO2&#;Al2O3&#;CaO). To achieve these phases, use the dolomite calcium oxide and/or magnesium reaction with a remaining clay structure proven by its thermal decomposition.

The calculation in general can affect the ceramic product in two ways: low percentages (up to 3%) and high temperature (above °C) result in flow agents, that is, materials that contribute to reduce water absorption and increase the resistance of ceramic products. Above 3%, they can act as a foundation at temperatures above °C [7].

In this chapter, we will highlight properties of limestone clays and their application in the ceramic industry.

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