Why Water-Based Impregnators Leave a Remove Rainbow-Colored Film If your idea of fun as a kid was going outside with a bottle of bubble solution and a wand, it probably wasn’t long before you noticed a weird phenomenon where a swirling rainbow... Read More

Certain brands of polishing powders contain shellac. If the powder has a yellow to gold tint to it, then it may contain shellac. The rainbow appearance and film is the shellac. Chances are you are using too much powder. Try repolishing the marble... Read More

Try using a solution of stone soap and warm water. Rinse several times and wipe dry with a terry cloth towel. This should remove the film. This procedure also works well on wood and Formica surfaces. CAUTION Many metal surfaces contain a lacquered... Read More

The best cleaner to use for removing grout residue from a granite floor is sulfamic acid. Sulfamic acid is sold as a grout cleaner and works well on granite surfaces. Do not use on marble or limestone since the acid will etch these surfaces. Sulfamic... Read More

Q.  I have Ubatuba granite & it is filmy, looks dull & leaves water spots on it when I wipe it. How can I fix this?A. It is not the stone itself that is the problem but something on the surface of the stone. It may be a dish soap residue... Read More

The sealer has left a hard silicone residue on the tile’s surface. To remove the excess silicone, the tile will have to be scrubbed with an abrasive cleaner. Several kitchen-type abrasive cleaners are available which will remove this film. If... Read More

Q. We are building a new house in South Louisiana. We have a 4-inch concrete slab on the ground. Because we are in a flood zone, we had to build up. So, we have concrete piers and wooden beams that our house actually sits on. We then have 1 1/4"... Read More

Q: We are building a new house in South Louisiana. We have a concrete slab with concrete piers on top. My tile installer used a polyethylene membrane with thinset directly over the plywood subfloor. We installed a honed limestone tile. Now that... Read More

Q: I had my ceramic tiles acid washed with a mix of 2 parts muriatic acid and 2 parts water. It cleaned up heavy  clacification but tiles remain  smokey  and cloudy. Do I have options to improve the finish other than polishing? Would a... Read More

Q. We just sealed our marble tile with a water-based sealer. There is now a light, rainbow-like film on the surface of the tile. I have used every cleaner I could purchase to try get it off, but it won’t budge. Any suggestions?   A. Sealing... Read More