Visitor Question – How Can I Remove The Greasy Waxy Coating From My Porcelain Tiles?
By Ian Taylor on Aug 1, 2008 in Porcelain, Visitor's Questions
Question – “Help, I’ve just had 30 sq. metres (open plan hall, dining room and kitchen) of 600mm x 600mm glazed porcelain tiles laid. I was told that I needed to seal them, and was supplied with LTP MPG sealer for polished wall & floor tile sealer. I followed the instructions on the bottle, put it on thinly with a small sponge roller, then 20 minutes later tried buffing it with a clean, dry cloth as instructed, working any excess into the surface (even although it wasn’t completely dry?) The bottle instructed me to apply another coat after 4 hours (which I have not done), it states to buff well between each coat, but I cannot get the first coat buffed up. No matter how much I rub and buff, I cannot get rid of what looks like a greasy, waxy coating! What can I do now?”
Our Suggested Course of Action – “I don’t suppose it is of much comfort to hear that you are not the first person to have this problem, but it is very common. A mixture of things going on here I think. First of all, can I clear something up? – You say 600×600 mm ‘glazed’ porcelain – that is entirely possible but, I suspect highly unlikely. What I suspect you have is ‘Polished Porcelain’ a material that I have written about elsewhere in the blog (and I am sure I will continue to do so). If it was glazed (which means a ceramic body with a very thin layer of glass on the surface), then you would not have needed any sealer and if you tried to apply it, it would just sit on the top.
Assuming you have a polished porcelain (very shiny, but still the same material as the body of the tile, just highly, mechanically polished to a high shine, just the same way as stone) then you may or may not have needed sealer, I am guessing though, that you do.
Here are a couple more assumptions: The tiles were reasonably priced and they were made in China. Not that there is anything wrong if they were but it leads me to one last assumption: There is a factory-applied, wax coating on the tiles.
The sealer you purchased is an impregnating type. I do not know for certain but I imagine it is a solvent-based one. It needs to be allowed to penetrate the surface of the polished porcelain (there are tiny micro-pores that the polishing process has opened up) but the protective wax needed removing first. What you have got is a combination of sealer residue (sealer that was left behind once the carrier fluid evaporated) mixed up with the wax. To make it worse, if, as I suspect, the sealer was solvent-based (did it smell?) then it will have partially dissolved the wax, enough to re-emulsify it a bit and mix it with the polymer of the sealer, then as the solvent flashed off, it ‘set’ again leaving the semi-solid, greasy, cloudy mess on the surface. If it was not a solvent, then you still have sealer left on top of the wax, unable to penetrate – basically a similar result.
Needless to say it all now needs removing, the best way is to use Nanoscrub, either on its own (with just a little water and a white scrub pad) or, if the wax is particularly stubborn, you may need a stripper like Sealer and Coating Remover in conjunction with Nanoscrub. In the latter case, you would apply the Sealer and Coating Remover neat, leave it to dwell for 30 to 40 minutes, then add a blob of Nanoscrub and scrub. Then remove the slurry and rinse well. Once absolutely clean and dry you can seal again. I would not leave the sealer 20 minutes before you buff it though – you need to buff dry any remaining (in other words un-needed) sealer BEFORE it dries normally within 10 minutes – yes that advice was correct – if you are thirsty, you pour a glass of water, do you drink every last drop, or only what you need to quench your thirst? – bit of a stretch that analogy but hopefully you see what I mean. If you leave it to dry on the surface, then that is exactly where the surplus sealer will remain – on the surface – it is mean to be in the surface. For more information sealing porcelain go to this article.
For a more detailed description of Nanoscrub click here. Hope that helps, let us know if you have any more problems.”
Tina | Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Q I seemto have layed the same tiles as the gentleman above, cheap china porcelain tiles, I have sealed them and experienced the same problem with the smeary finish, i left it 3 days before i washed it and then grouted my tiles, the black grout has penetrated my cream tiles. Can you recomment a cleaner, stripper which will lift all of the black marks on my tiles. I have washed the floor loads of times but no luck. i am gutted, what can i do, it looks awful
Ian Taylor | Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Hi Tina,
This is a common problem I am afraid. The smeary finish was the factory wax/coating that is supposed to help protect the tile but this really needs removing, and the tile sealing before grouting.
However that does not help you. It can be tricky at this stage to fix this problem; the colour staining is from grout which contains cement, a pigment and some polymers. Cleaning it out successfully can depend on exactly how much of each of these components are now in the microscopic pores of the tile.
First thing to try is to target the cement as this is often the easiest method. Just use a mild acidic cleaner, designed for the job – such as Phosphoric Acid Substitute by Aqua Mix. Try it dilute at first, apply the solution to the tiles and leave for a couple of minutes, before scrubbing lightly with a white nylon scouring pad. Rinse and inspect.
If the main content of the stain is cement, and if the cleaner can get access to the cement, then it may well do the job. If you see an improvement, but not 100% success, then repeat the process one or two times more.
If however, the main constituent of the stain is polymer, then you would need to try a stripper, such as Sealer and Coating Remover, as described in the article. This would have to be left on the tile for at least 30 minutes, and kept wet in that time. Then scrub as for the cement. If you have some clear nail-varnish remover to hand, you could do a little test first. The varnish remover will most likely contain acetone, a solvent, and whilst I would not advocate trying to clean the whole floor this way, it is good for a quick test: if you rub some of it on a cotton pad around the tile – look to see if there is any transfer of colour from the black stain, if so, keep going to see if you reduce or remove the problem. If you do, then this will indicate that a stripper such as the Sealer & Coating Remover could work.
If not then you may have a compound problem. That is to say, there are both cement and polymer particles in the pores. If you try the first method (acid) you may not get access to the cement (protected by the polymer) if you go for the polymer alone, you may soften the polymer but do nothing to the cement, as it dries the polymer will re-set to some degree.
In this case, apply the SCR as above for the polymer (leave it to dwell for 30 to 40 minutes) then ADD some dilute Phosphoric Acid Substitute to the SCR on the floor (in other words, do not remove the SCR first) – the idea is that whilst the SCR is working on the polymer, the acid can now be added to work on the hopefully, now more exposed cement. Rub a white nylon pad around working both chemicals into the tile. At this point (after agitating the mixture for several minutes) you could now add some Nanoscrub – to add both a safe abrasive but also some nanotechnology – that basically helps the chemicals already there, work a little deeper.
Scrub, mop up and rinse with fresh water and see if it has done anything. If it has, repeat the process. Hopefully this will help restore the tiles to an acceptable look. Please be aware that this clean up process is highly likley to lighten the shade or black or grey of the grout in the joints. This is unavoidable when using acids although there is a rememdy via colouring the grout later if required
Always conduct a small test first, to deteimine the restults before proceding
Let me know how you get on
Ian
Aga | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Hi, I have just bought a lovely glossy porcelain Barrie Beige tiles from Halcon. If fact they were made in China but not so cheap. The tiles are NANOPOLISHED. The salesman told me, that I shouldn’t coat it with any protective layers because they are nanoprotected. What do you think? The tiles are fabricaly coated with a wax (probably). Should I rub away it after the grounting? I was told so. Many thanks!
Ian Taylor | Feb 16, 2010 | Reply
Hi
There are more and more porcelain tiles coming with a factory applied ‘nanosealer’. The problem is that some of these sealers are not very good as sealers, in that they are not as good as sealers that are on the market, in terms of protecting the tile from all kinds of contaminants. However they can be very hard to remove, if not impossible. So as you cannot remove them easily, you won’t be able to put a better sealer into them.
I would say, if you can grout them without staining them then no problem, go ahead. Normally I advise to strip the wax before grouting, but that is because we want to get a good sealer in. As you won’t be able to remove the sealer, there is no need, may as well leave the wax until after grouting. When the grout has cured, use a high alkaline cleaner such as Heavy Duty Tile and Grout Cleaner, to remove the wax.
Hope that helps
Ian
jane | Jun 23, 2010 | Reply
We have 300 sq. ft. of porcelain tile (mat finish) in our family room. We used a haze remover to cleanup grout residue and then noticed how nice the tile looked dark. It was suggested we use an “enhancer” sealer, so we purchased it and applied it. We ended up with a greasy residue and placed a call to the supplier. He told us porcelain is not a porous material and the tile does not accept sealer … only the grout requires sealing. Now what do we do? We have tried towelling up the area, using dish soap and then using clean water to remove it. Nothing has worked so far. Any suggestions??
Ian Taylor | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
Hi Jane, can you give me some more details on the sealer? – what was it and how long has it been down?
The supplier’s comment about porcelain not needing to be sealed is not strictly accurate, not these days anyway (such a statement 15 or 20 years ago I would probably agree). Fact is, not all porcelain is as good as it should be, many porcelain tiles now do benefit from sealing, although they are certainly not likely to be highly porous, they can have micro pores in the surface which can and do accept a sealer. So, it depends on the porcelain.
Ok, depending on how long the sealer has been left to cure/dry and depending on what it is, there are a couple of things to try: as you have tried soapy water, if the residue is still ‘greasy’ try using a white nylon pad (emulsifying pad/ 3m Scotch pad), wet the floor then add some Nanoscrub (By Aqua Mix) to the floor. Scrub and then rinse well with water, dry the area with a towel.
If this does not work, then try a high alkaline detergent (like Heavy Duty Tile and Grout Cleaner) wth some Nanoscrub and the white pad – same prcedure.
Failing that, you will have to resort to a stripper such as Sealer and Coating Remover.
hope tis helps
Ian
matthew | Mar 26, 2011 | Reply
Hi,
I have just had 14 sq foot of polished porcelain tiles layed and i cant remove the wax coating at all,(i have tried everything) i need to remove quick so they can be grouted and sealed.
Do you have any suggestions please.
Thank you
Ian Taylor | Mar 29, 2011 | Reply
Hi Matt,
When you say you have tried everything, have you tried the following:
Warm/Hot water + scrub pad
Alkaline degreaser +warm water + scub pad
Solvent stripper + scrub pad
Abrasive cleaner + such as nanoscrub
Try each of those first, are you absolutely sure the issue is a wax and not some other coating, a factory pre-seal for example?- this can be harder to remove.
hope this helps
Ian
michael | May 5, 2011 | Reply
Hi Ian.
I purchased porcelain tiles in east london south africa at tile africa 600 x 600 25 square meters my tiles leave marks all over for example if a drop of water falls on the tile it leaves a mark the tiles also seem to have a hazy cover over them when i wash the tiles with a mop the whole tile does not get wet,it seems like when you rub water over oil marks there are patches on the tiles that are not wet.the tile is a mat finish I think it is polished porcelan tiles Dont know where the tiles come from on the boxes just tile africa porcelan printed.would really appreciate some help.
Thanks a lot.
Michael
Ian Taylor | May 6, 2011 | Reply
Hi Michael,
You have a residual coating of some kind on your tiles. This has been partially removed (or not evenly applied in the first instance) possibly by the tiling, grouting and clean-up process.
The coating could be either a transit wax or some kind of factory-applied sealer. Let’s hope it is the wax as it is easier to resolve usually. Obviously a wax or sealer would act just as you have said, and prevent water from getting in and ‘wetting out’ the tile surface. I the parts of the tile that do wet out are anything to go by, then the tile most certainly requires sealing for stain protection, but you will have to remove all trace of the transit wax first.
These waxes can respond to different types of treatment but most will be removed quite easily with a high alkaline cleaner/detergent (degreaser) so try that first. Failing that, you may try a scouring creme or even a solvent (like acetone). Do some tests and see if it comes off.
Once you have removed the wax, the tiles will need a good quality, (probably solvent based due to the surface tension of the tile) impregnating sealer.
Try this first and come back to us if you have a problem.
Hope that helps
Ian
Tabish Ahmed | Jan 23, 2012 | Reply
Hi,
I have been told i need to remove the wax coating from the porcelain tiles i have bought (60x60x10mm), i have also been told they are sealed and i dont need to seal them.
My question is what to use to get the best results in removing the wax but also to ensure i dont remove the sealer (i dont even know if that s possible) any advice appreciated.
Ian Taylor | Jan 23, 2012 | Reply
Hi Tabish,
First of all there is a lot of nonsense spoken about porcelains, yours may or may not be sealed, sometomes the shops selling them do not really know, butlet us assume that youare correct:
OK, start with the least aggressive, try a mild cleaner with warm water, somthing like Concentrated Tile and Stone Cleaner. Scrub with a white pad, rinse and dry.
Another route would be to try somehing like Microscrub (http://www.allforstone.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=417) try this on its own or in conjunction with the mild cleaner. Neither of the se should harm any sealer.
if you have to go stronger them use a high alkaline cleaner but this may remove some sealer.
Hope this helps
Ian
if that does not work, then try a high ph/alkaline cleaner -