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Removing sealer from Honister green Slate

Asked by Gary from Cumbria: I have bought a house that has Honister Green rough/riven slate on the floors. I am having real problems removing the existing sealer and getting the tiles fully clean. Using a rotary floor cleaning machine has helped remove the old sealer from the higher parts of the tiles where the machine pad reaches, but on the lower areas and pocketed areas where it hasn't reached the slate looks dirty and the remaining sealer has a yellow tint that doesn't look well. I have tried a scrubbing brush too but this has not been very effective. It appears to me the machine I am using is removing more of the sealer than the chemical I am using. 1. Can you suggest any extremely powerful chemical cleaner that will break down the old sealer effectively? 2. Can you suggest the best machine to tackle this job? 3. Also, what is the best sealer to reseal the floor when I eventually get it clean. Thanks, Gary

TileProf says: Hi Gary, we get this problem all the time what we use is a mix of 2 products one is called Remove and Go and the other Nnao-tech Ultra-clean, see links below, mix the two together 50/50 then leave to dwell for an hour, scrub and rinse with a hand held brush after this time, use a wet vac to suck up the solution, you wont get a result with out a wet vac so dont bother using a sponge or mop or anything like that, they dont work well on these Tiles for heavy cleaning. then rinse and vac again but just water this time. Allow to dry overnight then if fully dry apply your sealer, we find Sela and Go works very well on Slate. Regards Russell at Tile Doctor http://www.tiledoctor.co.uk/Remover.html http://www.tiledoctor.co.uk/Nanotech-UltraClean.html

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