Opinions please - Mortar removal

[butski99]

Hi there. I need some advise on how to proceed, as part of my garden refurb I had a patio and path laid using some black limestone slabs. They were laid and I was pretty pleased with them, a couple of days later they were grouted or whatever it's called on slabs while I was at work when I came home it had been finished but there was yellow Mortar in the joints when we asked for grey and worse still they had left all the Mortar all over the slabs especially around the edges, when I mentioned this to the contractor the next day he told me not too worry as he would brick acid it all at the end and this would clean them up. While I was online looking up a wet look sealer I came across your website which also mentioned to never use acid on them as it bleaches them, I sent a message to the contractor telling him not to use acid, he came the next day with some acid to test on an offcut which went white within 10 mins. He then said he would clean it off with a power washer and wire brush!!!:he spent 2 hours on his hands and knees and managed to clean 3 slabs and even then there was still small bits left which show up being yellow!! My wife has found a Mortar tinting kit to tint it grey but I can't see it coming off the slabs satisfactory. Is there a way to clean this off or is it all buggered!! Sorry for the long first post
Thanks
Lee

[Tony McC]

The short answer is that the paving is buggered.

And those mortar tinting kits are a bit too hit-and-miss for me. They are, in effect, glorified paints and tend not to fare well on a trafficked surface. They are really intened for vertical brickwork rather than horizontal paving.

Your contractor has disregarded instruction and must accept liability. The fact that he wasn't aware of the way acids affects a black limestone is worrying, and that he thought it would scrub off shows them to be chancers.

I'd be expecting them to replace all of the damaged paving at their own expense, and with the jointing mortar of your choice.

[Azpects]

Hi there. I need some advise on how to proceed, as part of my garden refurb I had a patio and path laid using some black limestone slabs. They were laid and I was pretty pleased with them, a couple of days later they were grouted or whatever it's called on slabs while I was at work when I came home it had been finished but there was yellow Mortar in the joints when we asked for grey and worse still they had left all the Mortar all over the slabs especially around the edges, when I mentioned this to the contractor the next day he told me not too worry as he would brick acid it all at the end and this would clean them up. While I was online looking up a wet look sealer I came across your website which also mentioned to never use acid on them as it bleaches them, I sent a message to the contractor telling him not to use acid, he came the next day with some acid to test on an offcut which went white within 10 mins. He then said he would clean it off with a power washer and wire brush!!!:he spent 2 hours on his hands and knees and managed to clean 3 slabs and even then there was still small bits left which show up being yellow!! My wife has found a Mortar tinting kit to tint it grey but I can't see it coming off the slabs satisfactory. Is there a way to clean this off or is it all buggered!! Sorry for the long first post
Thanks
Lee

Not that this will help you now but this is exactly why we have product just for this called EASY Mortar Stain and Calcium Remover

Unlike Brick Acid it is designed to be friendly to Sensitive Stone

http://www.azpects.co.uk/products/easy-mortar-stain-remover.aspx

[RAPressureWashing]

Hi there. I need some advise on how to proceed, as part of my garden refurb I had a patio and path laid using some black limestone slabs. They were laid and I was pretty pleased with them, a couple of days later they were grouted or whatever it's called on slabs while I was at work when I came home it had been finished but there was yellow Mortar in the joints when we asked for grey and worse still they had left all the Mortar all over the slabs especially around the edges, when I mentioned this to the contractor the next day he told me not too worry as he would brick acid it all at the end and this would clean them up. While I was online looking up a wet look sealer I came across your website which also mentioned to never use acid on them as it bleaches them, I sent a message to the contractor telling him not to use acid, he came the next day with some acid to test on an offcut which went white within 10 mins. He then said he would clean it off with a power washer and wire brush!!!:he spent 2 hours on his hands and knees and managed to clean 3 slabs and even then there was still small bits left which show up being yellow!! My wife has found a Mortar tinting kit to tint it grey but I can't see it coming off the slabs satisfactory. Is there a way to clean this off or is it all buggered!! Sorry for the long first post
Thanks
Lee

Not that this will help you now but this is exactly why we have product just for this called EASY Mortar Stain and Calcium Remover

Unlike Brick Acid it is designed to be friendly to Sensitive Stone

http://www.azpects.co.uk/products/easy-mortar-stain-remover.aspx

Phosphoric acid substitute maybe?

[Azpects]

Hi there. I need some advise on how to proceed, as part of my garden refurb I had a patio and path laid using some black limestone slabs. They were laid and I was pretty pleased with them, a couple of days later they were grouted or whatever it's called on slabs while I was at work when I came home it had been finished but there was yellow Mortar in the joints when we asked for grey and worse still they had left all the Mortar all over the slabs especially around the edges, when I mentioned this to the contractor the next day he told me not too worry as he would brick acid it all at the end and this would clean them up. While I was online looking up a wet look sealer I came across your website which also mentioned to never use acid on them as it bleaches them, I sent a message to the contractor telling him not to use acid, he came the next day with some acid to test on an offcut which went white within 10 mins. He then said he would clean it off with a power washer and wire brush!!!:he spent 2 hours on his hands and knees and managed to clean 3 slabs and even then there was still small bits left which show up being yellow!! My wife has found a Mortar tinting kit to tint it grey but I can't see it coming off the slabs satisfactory. Is there a way to clean this off or is it all buggered!! Sorry for the long first post
Thanks
Lee

Not that this will help you now but this is exactly why we have product just for this called EASY Mortar Stain and Calcium Remover

Unlike Brick Acid it is designed to be friendly to Sensitive Stone

http://www.azpects.co.uk/products/easy-mortar-stain-remover.aspx

Phosphoric acid substitute maybe?

possibly, what do you use your phosphoric acid for?

This will remove mortar and limescale which can sometimes masquerade as efflorescence. If you wet the area and it disappears it's salt, if it doesn't disappear it should be calcium based.

We always recommend using a small test area before proceeding.

You may find you could get a sample off our stockists for you to test. It's a concentrate so you can dilute it as per your requirements.