Riverstone Pebble Tiles are a composite material made up of marble pebbles or pieces of natural stone in different sizes, bound together with a transparent white or coloured resin.Manufacture

The material is made by adding resin to marble or stone pebbles laid down on a moulding measuring 83cm x 223cm. One side is polished and the other side is cut. As a result, the polished side becomes slightly undulating, where the resin is lower than the pebbles that come to the surface. This characteristic makes Riverstone an aesthetically pleasant floor and wall covering and substantially improves its functionality and resistance to abrasion.

The surface of the stones is completely free of paints or resins and it is treated with a waxy water-repellent that protects the material from stains and makes it easy to maintain.

Properties

Riverstone has technical characteristics similar to those of marble and should be treated like marble when cutting, drilling or polishing it. However it can be purchased as slabs or tiles in a variety of different sizes.

Uses

Natural stones absorb very little liquid and the resin is virtually impervious to liquids therefore Riverstone is suitable for any kind of wall and floor covering (including heated flooring) as well as kitchen worktops.

Although Riverstone is an extremely versatile material its peculiar look and its high cost makes it an exclusive yet sought after material by architect and designers alike.

Glass tiles are pieces of glass formed into consistent shapes. Glass was used in mosaics as early as 2500 BC, but it took until the 3rd Century BC before innovative artisans in Greece, Persia and India created glass tiles.Whereas clay tiles are dated as early as 8,000 BC, there were significant barriers to the development of glass tiles, included the high temperatures required to melt glass, and the complexities of mastering various annealing curves for glass.

In recent years, glass tiles have become a popular field and accent tiles. This trend can be attributed to recent technological breakthroughs, as well as the tiles’ inherent properties, in particular their potential to impart intense color and reflect light, and their imperviousness to water.

Glass in tile introduces complexities to the installer, as glass is more rigid than ceramic or porcelain tile, so glass tiles break more readily under the duress of substrate shifts.

Smalti tile, sometimes referred to as Byzantine glass mosaic tile, are typically opaque glass tiles that were originally developed for use in mosaics created during the time of the Byzantine empire.

Smalti is made by mixing molten glass with metal oxides for color; the result is a cloudy mixture that is poured into flat slabs that are cooled and broken into individual pieces. The molten mixture can also be topped with gold leaf, followed by a thin glass film to protect against tarnishing. During the Byzantine era, Constantinople became the center of the mosaic craft, and the use of gold leaf glass mosaic reached perhaps it greatest artistic expression in the former seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia.

Traditional smalti tiles are still found today in many European churches and ornamental objects; the method is also used by some present-day artisans. In the 1920, mass production methods were applied to Smalti tile manufacturing, which enabled these tiles to find their way into many middle class homes. Instead of the old method of rolling the colored glass mixture out, cooling and cutting, the new method called for molten liquid to be poured and cooled in trays, usually resulting in 3/4 inch chicklet-type pieces. [1]

Since the 1990’s a variety of modern glass tile technologies, including methods to take used glass and recreate it as ‘green’ tiles, has resulted in a resurgence of interest in glass tile as a floor and wall cladding. It is now commonly used in kitchens, spas and bathrooms. And while smalti tiles are still popular, small and large format glass products are now commonly formed using cast and fused glass methods. The plasticity of these last two methods has resulted in a wide variety of looks and applications, including floor tiles

In the late 1990s, special glass tiles have been coated on the back side with a receptive white coating. This has allowed impregnation of heat-transfer dyes by a printing process reproducing high resolution pictures and designs. Custom printed glass tile and glass tile murals exhibit the toughness of glass on the wearing surface with photo-like pictures. These are especially practical in kitchens and showers, where cleanser and moisture resistance are important.

Right now we’re receiving a fair bit of email relating to the cloudy haze and appearance of porcelain tiles, especially those sourced from countries like China. Here’s one of the latest:

Question: “We have had porcelain tiles laid and there is a very distinctive cloudy appearance all over the tiles. We have tried many tile shops and tried their residue removers but with no luck. We have had a tile company come and look at our tiles and tried there solution but still no luck. We’re beginning to wonder if the tiles are faulty as we purchased them from a Chinese warehouse.  Please can you help as very disappointed with them?”

Our Answer: “Hi, sorry to say that this sounds like yet another example of what is
becoming a classic problem with imported modern porcelain from certain sources. The distinctive cloudy appearance you report, is most like a grout haze.

This type of porcelain tile can have many microscopic holes (like tiny gas
bubbles - think of the holes in a loaf of bread) in the body. The polishing process removes a fine layer of the tile’s surface, just as using sand paper on wood does. This process can take the tops off some of those holes, thus exposing them, we cannot see them too easily as they are so small.

However, the grout is smeared all over the surface and some of the liquid containing cement, water, polymers and pigments) can be forced into these holes any sand in the grout would be too big). When the tiles are washed to remove the surplus grout, it can be very difficult to remove the coloured ‘grout water’ from those tiny holes.

So, it remains there and is allowed to dry. There are so many of them that when you look at the tile they all appear to merge into one - like pixels in a TV image giving an all-over cloudy or hazy appearance.

These tiles would have benefited from sealing prior to grouting but there are a number of things you can try. Given that you have tried several cleaners already, I can be fairly safe to assume you have tried a proprietary grout haze remover (acid based) so I would try one other thing, before moving on to a last-chance, combination approach.

First I would try Grout Haze Clean Up - this is actually designed to be used at the time of grouting but it can sometimes be useful at this stage also. Apply the GHCU neat and leave for about 30 minutes, scrub and rinse. This product seems to work, in gentle way, on both cement and polymers and can give surprisingly good results.

If that fails, go for the combined approach:

First apply Sealer and Coating Remover, neat spread over the affected area and leave for 30 to 40 minutes, Then, without removing the SCR, now add to the floor, some diluted Phosphoric Acid Cleaner, leave the two chemicals for another few minutes (the first product is attempting to break down any polymers present, this takes time, once it has done this there is more chance that an acid can now work on any cement present).

At this point, add some Nanoscrub - just a couple of blobs, mix it into the solution and leave again for a few more minutes (the nano particles in the product help to allow the chemicals to ‘go deeper’). Now scrub, with a white nylon pad and really try to work the mixture into the tile. Clean up the slurry and rinse well with clean water.

I hope this improves the situation, more often than not it does, but there are some situations that cannot be saved; sometimes it is not so much the grout haze, but a waxy coating (a very stubborn one) that gives this appearance (the above procedure may well help with that anyway). Other times there can be a polishing fault in the tile, in that the tile has not been correctly finished at the factory - this cannot easily be rectified.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have no joy, perhaps you could send us a picture?

We’ve talked about this wonder-product NanoScrub before but we thought it would be helpful to literally see it in action with a series of pictures. So, the following shows how it can successfully remove protective wax coatings from porcelain tiles - an increasingly common problem: Read the rest »