As some of you know, I have been associated with the Aqua Mix brand of stone care products in the UK for the last 10 years. Sadly, all good things must come to an end it seems, and as of December 31st. 2010, Aqua Mix are no longer present in the market. It is a shame as their products were really top class and I have really enjoyed working with them and their customers over the years.

However, whilst no more stock will come to the UK, there is still plenty of stock here with a couple of distributors. For Example, All For Stone in Solihull, have ample stocks of many products including the best selling water based sealer; Sealer’s Choice Gold and Grout Colorant (as well as many other useful products).

Ok, so I thought a sponge was a sponge, but of course I should have known better. For some years now we in the tiling world have had hydrophilic sponges – sponges designed to be highly absorbent for maximum clean-up performance when grouting. They are a little more dense than a standard sponge, such as you may use for washing a car for example. But they do not make good applicators for sealers. The reason is each squeeze of the sponge causes sealers to foam up and this should be avoided. Also, most normal sponges will not hold the sealer and therefore drip it out all over the floor as soon as you lift it out of the sealer container (assuming you are using a paint tray of course), so you have no control of the flow. The hydro sponges on the other hand don’t let enough sealer out.

So I have never been a fan of using a sponge to apply sealers in general (save the sponge brushes which can be useful for grout sealing). Similarly, I tend not to recommend the use of rollers (whether sponge or fleece), but this has as much to do with the way that rollers can put too much product down and also of course there is the rolling action itself which can cause unwanted splashes.

My preferred method for the application of most sealers is a good quality paint pad, they seem to hold just the right amount of product and let it out evenly. However, I have just discovered these sealer sponges, designed to hold sealer and let it out when you want it to. I have tried them and have to say I am quite impressed. I would still use paint pads for larger jobs but these are great for the little jobs. They are especially good for applying coating sealers with nice, flat even coats.

There is a new name in the UK stone market – www.allforstone.co.uk – a new online store for all things stone. All for Stone has been established by stone industry professionals to serve both the trade and retail customer. One of the things that sets them apart is that fact that the folks behind it are in the restoration business themselves and are caring for and restoring stone on a daily basis.

One of the founding principles of All for Stone is that they are selling only products that they use themselves, or have at least tried and tested. They will be adding new products all the time, so check them out!

Hi All, here’s to a happy and prosperous 2011 for us all. This time last year I made myself a promise that I would try to post more often in 2010 – I think I did do that, just. Certainly during the year the blog received more and more traffic and with this came two things, a large number of emails and personal messages, plus an increase in the number of comments (including, unfortunately, a large increase in spam).

Answering all the questions and comments has been both enjoyable but also time consuming – and this has inevitably slowed down the posts – but if I am helping people then I am not too worried how I do it. The increase in spam (which I take as a compliment, as they just want their URL to appear on the site) means I am spending more time screening the comments and this can also mean I am a bit slower in my response to them – so bear with me if I don’t get to answer you straight away.

Anyway, I am looking forward to 2011, there are some exciting things on the horizon and I hope to keep you all posted. In the mean time, and a bit off-topic, I want to mention a friend of mine, Helen Jennings and the service that she offers through Purple Prose . Although I am confident in my specialist knowledge, I always struggle when it comes to writing, stressing out over my grammar and spelling, worrying about whether I am trying to be too clever or too simplistic etc.  Whilst my style on this blog has always been conversational, (and that means I can get away with quite a bit) I have also written articles for magazines and other publications and that can require a greater degree of professionalism. If you are involved any professional writing, then a good copy editor can be essential. Helen, a writer herself, is one of those people to whom (did I get that right?) the English language comes easy, so if you are looking to ‘get it right’  – whatever it is you are writing – check out Helen’s site, and check out her blog for some insights too.