Sandstone staining - Sandstone

[JaynieG]

Hi

Wonder if anyone can help please, I'd be extremely grateful, I can't see how to load pics but they would probably explain a lot!

Here goes.....

I've had my garden designed and the work carried out by one company. The brief was needs to be practical and durable for 2 children and a young Labrador.

A light grey sandstone was laid (alledgedly Khandla Grey) with a honed surface. We have clay soil. The contractor pressure washed the patio off once laid. Watermarks were left, and smeared in mud remained as well as more prominent marks. They attempted to remove a leaf/fallen apple stain which left a very visible shiny/lighter patch. There were darker patches to the stone along some edges and in particular all around the 'drain lid' that's paved.

I said I was expecting it to be clean as it was brand new. The dog ran on it and we couldn't get the footprints off, kids ran on it and the mud wouldn't come off. After rain the mud is still there, if it went on dry stone it stayed if it went on wet stone it smudged in.

The contractor agreed our point and arranged for the paving to be cleaned and sealed, we tested the sample and found no difference in reaction to mud, we were told the sample was for proving no colour change or wet look rather than durability.

The sealing took place whilst we were away. The watermarks are still there, the shiny mark where some cleaner was used is still there, the marking around the drain is much darker. There are now various new marks, including a prominent ring of white right by the door, and what I think might be effervescence, white smears on some slabs. Quite a few slabs have a kind of black shade marking to them as well as some other dark marks which weren't there before.

Previously when wet the paving looked good, light grey and uniform, now it's a complete mess when wet with darker and lighter shades and the edges onto the grass are really dark when wet.

Every time the dog walks on it from the grass, muddy footprints remain, these don't wash away with rain. We've tried mopping it (it's a large area this took 2 of us 35 mins) we get rid of the prominence of the prints/marks but the marks are still there and every single slab has a mud smear or mark of some kind.

Every other aspect of the work has been great. The contractor is standing by their recommendation of the stone type as being fit for our purpose and are saying all is good with the stone.

It looks awful, it was an expensive job.

Any opinions on what might have gone wrong/our expectations/how we should try and clean it/resolve would be fabulous thank you.

Many thanks

[JaynieG]

I forgot to add, at the start we did the porous test we read about, tipped a whole cup of water on it, whole thing disappeared right in in seconds.

[seanandruby]

Hi Janie. You need to find out if the stone he sourced is not just a cheap inferior type. Some slabs are not really up to our british weather conditions and could end up failing, especially if cheap ones. Ask him for receipts where he sourced them from. You don't say how long the paving has been down because it needs to be 100 % dry before sealing. The stone doesn't seem the type for kids and dogs if so porous, especially with all that wet clay about. Photo's would be good so other brewers can advise, like Roger cleaning and sealing specialist.

[KeburDave]

In my opinion all Honed Sandstones are not fit for purpose unless they have been pre-sealed, there's just too much that can go wrong with the installation process, even some of the larger stone suppliers their honed sandstones are so porous and they should really be offering them sealed, even then they are extremely high maintenance, we've found before a product called Oxy-Klenza plus works well or Lithofin outdoor cleaner can break down and remove stubborn stains on sandstone. If not you might need to have the patio professionally cleaned with something like a Doff cleaner and then sealed with a good quality impregnating breathable sealer like Drytreat Stainproof or Lithofin Stainstop.

[lutonlagerlout]

^^ as above
honed sandstone seems to open up capillaries in the surface that you dont seem to get with riven stone
even presealed they can easily get dirty with children and dogs
Kandla grey is amongst the harder indian stones but when honed suffers from the same issues with muddy footprints etc
its a tough one
you want that contemporary look,but hard to keep it that way with a family and pets
when we work with honed stone we make sure we do not leave any marks or dirt on it,as they are hard to shift
in hindsight (always hindsight eh?) porcelain would have been a better choice, or maybe one of the smoother riven stones,slate or Jura limestone
however I have laid loads of riven kandla grey and it is easy to clean,not sure what part of the honing process makes it susceptible but it happens
cheers LLL



Edited By lutonlagerlout on 1506103345

[JaynieG]

Thank you all. Spoken to supplier, confident it's not cheap, he's sold over 8000sqm with no probs. It's sandblasted rather than homed, not sure if there's much difference but understand honed outside is not a good idea. He's sent pics of his display (he's got a dog) dirty, wet from pressure wash and dry, doesn't look like mine! He couldn't comment on sealing. He was happy that us tipping a glass of water on it and it disappearing in seconds was normal porosity (pre sealing) I'll work on getting the pics up

Thank you all

[JaynieG]

http://pin.it/cpj2S2h

Ok I've loaded some wet and dry images to Pinterest, here's a link to one!
http://pin.it/cpj2S2h

Hopefully this will lead you to the rest, will try and load showroom pics

Thank you all again😘

[PavingSuperstore]

It may be worth asking for the CE certificate and Declaration of Performance for the product as this will contain all the relevant test data to show it is fit for purpose. All the leading brands will have this and it is a legal requirement.