Kandla grey lacquer help - Removal of lacquer from kandla paving

[Staceydaisy]

Hi everyone. Apologies if this has been asked before.. I did search and couldn’t find anything as specific as I required.
Basically we’ve had our garden paved using sawn and honed Kandla grey paving slabs (Indian sandstone).
When discussing with our landscaper we said the wet look when it rains looks amazing on them so he suggested using a lacquer as it’ll have that effect 24/7. Being a total novice and trusting his advice we said yes we’d like to do that. He laid the paving and on the final day he touched up the joints and then went ahead with the lacquer (Thompson’s one coat) but when it dried it left the slabs looking horrendous. They were no longer smooth and have a very rough/gritty texture and left horrible white marks around the outside and across the top of the slabs.
I knew something wasn’t right so I called Thompson’s to ask how to remove the product. They advised using white spirit and then washing with detergent and finally power washing. I told the landscaper this (as he realised there was a problem) but he first came out with a power washer which lifted the lacquer slightly but not very much. They’ve been here for the past few days scrubbing each slab with white spirit but even after this, they don’t look like how they were when they were first laid. They look smudged and just not quite “right�
Although the white spirit has removed most of the lacquer I’m worried it may have damaged the paving itself.
I told him not to use brick acid which was his first idea as it’d leave rusty burns in the stone and he tried a small 300x300 slab and it did just that but now I have no idea what else we can try.
He’s going to bring an industrial buffer next week but after that he said he considers the job complete but it’s a total mess. Unfortunately we made the mistake of paying him whilst the lacquer was wet.
There’s also a dark border around the slabs which he said was the fact we used sand/cement to join which was wet and has absorbed into the slabs but that wasn’t there before he put the lacquer on it.
Funnily enough - it’s just rained and the slabs look amazing but they look awful when dry
If there was a lacquer that made them genuinely look proper wet 24/7 we’d be more than happy.
I have pictures but can’t see how to upload them.
Has anyone got anything they can suggest or help with?
Thanks in advance

[Tony McC]

"Lacquer"? ? ? Anyone with a grain of professional experience would have used the term "sealant", so my alarm bells were ringing about this "landscaper" straight away, and then came the words no-one with a shred of integrity ever wants to hear: Thompsons Patio Ruiner. Oh F***!!!

And then *you* had to tell this bollockbrain not to use acid??? FFS! Again: any professional would know that.

There are sealant removers which genuine, skilled professionals would know about, and one of them *might* just salvage this complete bollix of a job, but it's probably 50/50. You won't want to hear this but the real fix may well be complete replacement of the flagstones *by someone who knows what they are doing* (ie: not the clown you've had up until now!).