Saltillo floors are very common in the southwest so needless to say, I do a lot of them. Test test and test. The 1st test would be applying a alkiline based stripper on tile and grout. If the sealer breaks and I see or feel the clay absorbing moisture within 10 min then I will use that stripper. After this test goes well The second test would be on the Clean ability of the grout and how well it comes clean. If I find my self over working the the tile and grout with brushes then I will go to the other stripper, jasco. Apply jasco with a chip brush on another tile. Let it dry and scrub dry with a large wire brush. The wire brush is used to break the Jasco away from the tile, much like you would with a broom. Test for absorption and if there is more coating to be removed then apply a second time over your tile and grout. Repeat this process until you see all coatings have been removed. Also be sure to check the grout and making sure that all of the sealer comes off the grout as well. After the Jasco sample is done I would apply a alkaline base stripper to the floor and use a orange degreaser with it to do my detail work. Please keep in mind that all this would need to be done by hand including your detail work. I use grill screens to lightly sand the top of the Saltillo And a light bristle brush to scrub the grout joints and tile. I would forget about using floor machines to do the bulk of the work. Floor machines make too much of a mess and will cause bigger problems. When doing a Saltillo the biggest mistake that people make is using aggressive floor machine brushes and high-pressure machines to clean the floor. You have to rely on your chemicals 100% to do the job. 

When it comes to sealing the floor I like to use Sparks product's. I'll apply two coats of their sealer two coats of dress-up and four coats of International finish. Applying the sealer Can also affect the final finish. I use the rolomech  mops to apply my dress-up and international. There Sigma product works really well if the customer wants to enhance the color and when that is being used I follow the sigma up with 3 to 4 coats of international. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 18, 2013, at 2:51 PM, Baird Standish <bairdstandish@gmail.com> wrote:

We have done quite a lot of these floors.  I would agree that testing is really important.  The most difficult job is stripping.  If it is a really tough urethane coating you need to strip by hand, and wear gloves and goggles.  WE have used Aldon's premium stripper on these surfaces and it works very well, but it is pretty caustic.  The flip side is that, sometimes you will get a floor that was coated with just an acrylic sealer and sometimes these are fairly easy to remove.
Next, you have to decide what you are going to recoat with.  The traditional look is a heavy glaze on mexican tiles.  We have used Aldon Mexiglaze often, with their topcoat protection as a final application.  Have also gone the rough stone look and treated the floor with a color enhancing impregnating sealer, which is easy to maintain and looks very nice, although not glossy.  Aldon also makes some less odiferous water based coatings.  I like the mexiglaze or the rough look because both are very durable.  the thinner sealers tend to flake off.  In any event, applying the sealer is the easy part.  The stripping is just a lot of hard work.
B


________________________________________
From the desk of
Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists, LLC
15 West Highland Ave.
Suite E
Philadelphia, PA 19118
Phone: 215-732-7505
Fax: 215-546-9160
www.facspecs.com


On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Bill Selik <billselik@yahoo.com> wrote:
    A couple of things I have not seen mentioned.  When you are doing heavy stripping it is very difficult and most time impossible to protect all surrounding area's such as baseboards or cabinets. Expect some damage to paint, stain and warped MDF baseboards.  Also when stripping sattillos there is a very wide range od guality and if you are not carefull and use machines with abrasive pads or brushes you may remove the hard surface and the pavers will be very sandy and pourous and over time they will turn to sand.   After stipping you need to acid wash with Stone Care Pro Heavy Durt Tile & grout cleaner then rince the floor with distilled water to neutralize.  The stone should dry a minimum 72 hours.
   These are not easy jobs and no matter how good a job you do there are always some inconsistancies that the customers see and wants to know what you can do to fix them and the problem is just that the pavers are inconsistant in nature to start with.

Good Luck, Bill Selik
Gourmet Stone Care

From: John Freitag <jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com>
To: Stone and Tile PROS Technical Support <sccpartners@stoneandtilepros.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 9:01 AM
Subject: RE: [sccpartners] saltillo tile, terra-cotta tile

Micah,

Working on this type of materials requires testing! You first must determine
what product is going to strip off the coating that on the surface.  There
could be more than one type of coating on the surface. You may find a wax
coating; you may find an epoxy coating you may find both.
As you strip the surface most of this material is very pores and will soak
up moisture into the material. Working small sections is the key and the use
of brushes and pads and the combination will work best to remove the
coating. Make sure all coating are removed from not only the tiles but the
grout.
Once the floor is stripped before any coating can be  reapplied the tiles
MUST be dry. This could take some time depending upon the moisture that has
soaked into the material. Check the material with a moisture meter and make
sure the surface is dry then apply the new coating.
Price tis job high! There will be a lot of detail work around the edges and
corners.


John E Freitag
Director
The Stone & Tile School
Office 407-567-7652
Cell 407-615-0134
jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com



www.thestoneandtileschool.com

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Micah [mailto:micahgautier@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 7:42 PM
To: Stone and Tile PROS Technical Support
Subject: [sccpartners] saltillo tile, terra-cotta tile

Can anyone explain the process of stripping/cleaning/resealing this type of
tile and the products you use on it? I have a client begging me to restore
her's and is willing to let me experiment on it, so some direction on this
would be appreciated

Thx

Micah
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