Marble, travertine, limestone & onyx are all soft materials which are prone to marking as a consequence of their calcium carbonate structure. Acidic liquids react with calcium carbonate and literally eat away a tiny piece of the polished/honed surface, creating...
Understanding Colour in Stone By Scott Worthington The simple answer is that some natural stone does fade especially varieties like the well documented water sensitive verde (or green marble – serpentine). The reasons for fading are varied however it is important to...
Aqua Mix Eff-Ex® By Scott Worthington Since the introduction of Aqua Mix® Eff-Ex® I have had numerous questions regarding the ability of this product to clean and inhibit efflorescence on cement mortars, grouts and renders. More importantly if it would be prudent to...
Understanding Enhancing Sealers By Scott Worthington In relatively recent times the market has seen the introduction of enhancing penetrating sealers. People had got used to invisible penetrating materials but also require sealers that highlighted the stone. Tumbled...
How Dry is Dry for Sealer Application? By Scott Worthington When I first entered the world of tile and stone sealers, water based sealers were in their infancy with Aqua Mix® at the forefront of their development and promotion. One of the purported advantages of the...
The “expected wear” or life of a sealer By Scott Worthington When Aqua Mix® Sealers Choice® Gold, one of the first, if not the first, premium sealer in the world proclaimed a life of up to 15 years, many in the industry wondered how this could be substantiated. As the...
VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) are the talk of our industry with manufacturers such as Aqua Mix® producing mostly either low or no VOC formulas. However many manufacturers internationally still offer products with very high VOC’s so why is this such a potential...
Phosphoric Acid: Why it should no longer be a “preferred” acid in our industry By Scott Worthington For a number of years phosphoric acid has been marketed as a safer alternative to the historically “common” hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid is an extremely...
Microban® – Built In MicroBan® is the global leader in anti-microbial technology and is built into the manufacturing process. MicroBan® anti-microbial acts to inhibit micro-organisms, providing another level of protection against damaging microbes, such as bacteria,...
For as long as I can remember there have been a number of stock questions asked about sealers. How long do they last, will they change the colour of the tile or stone? One of the most common is, will your Aqua Mix® penetrating sealer make the sealed surface more...
Stone installations suffering from problems such as picture framing, mineral stains (for example from soluble pyrite, iron sulphide), water marking and even primary and some secondary efflorescence are well known to those who work in the stone industry. Although not...
Six sided sealing has long been touted as an important part of a water management installation system for managing soluble mineral contamination in stone. However the problem has often been that using such products creates a potential compromise with the adhesive. Specialist contemporary sealer technology now offers sealers that can be applied to all six surfaces without compromising adhesive performance.
It is understandable that stone products expand, and sometimes warp, during installation due to the moisture present in the substrate and installation materials. Warping can occur with a moisture sensitive stone when the rate of expansion and contraction between the bonded, wet side of the stone, is significantly lower than that of the exposed top surface. This differential creates dimensional instability, manifesting itself as warping. Traditional concerns of warping are generally associated with certain types of green marble and slate, some Serpentines and some of the artificial stones that use, especially, polyester resin binders.
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