www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi, I was hoping I could find some advice on how to clean and potentially re-polish travertine stone tiles on the floor and walls of our bathroom. The bathroom was installed recently and the ignorant prat who did the tiling didn't clean the grout of the tile surface properly which has left us with lumps and huge smears of grout practically welded to tile surfaces. We've spent two weeks trying different scrapers, scrubbing brushes, scouring pads (DON'T use these) and "stone safe" cleaning products and it has done very little. We really need some mechanical way of doing this as it is impossible by hand (2 weeks and barely a 1/4 done). Also some of our attempts to clean the tiles have been too abrasive and have resulted in the polished surface being damaged, which really will need fixing.

We are looking for either a known working way of sorting this out or some contacts to people who can fix this for us. Any help would be appreciated.

The stone tiles are the following:

Prestige-Stone-Radiant-Travertine-305x305cm
Prestige-Stone-Radiant-Travertine-Mosaic5x10cm

The grout is ivory BAL Superflex.

The tiles are unsealed as apparently "polished travertine doesn't need sealing", so I was told.

Edit: I'm in Oxfordshire.

I'd get the tiler back and tell him to finish the job properly. Alternatively, you could try a fine grade wet and dry with plenty of water. All natural stone, including polished travertine, requires sealing despite what he told you. I bet he didnt back skim the floor tiles either.

Try the technical dept at BAL, they should be able to advise best solution for removing there grout.

You will get loads of ideas offered ranging from above through baking soda and ending with (a Mapei solution) nitromores.

So I would just ring BAL, if it were me.

Hi, sorry I've not replied earlier. Many thanks for the suggestions. I just found out the guy who did our tiling has been sacked for causing his company endless trouble and they have agreed to come back and sort it out. If they can't repair it to a standard I'm happy with they have said they will re-tile it from scratch at no cost to me. Hopefully that'll be the end of it!

Thanks again.

that sounds like a good company...where are you in the UK? As I am about to have my kitchen floor tiled after xmas. Thanks...