The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 9:41 am**

Right, I know what I'm about to say will make everyone call me names but here goes;
Been doing a split level Patio for a client in Black Limestone(65m2), and at the quoting stage I warned the clients of the perils of Black Limestone, but told them we could seal/colour enhance it. Finally settled on Dry Treat "Enhance Plus".
Here's where it goes bad. On the recommendation of the supplier we pre-treated the stone with a single (alleged) thin coat, which was done in my absence, by 2 of the guys using a roller. Now they assured me they'd read the instructions, although in their attempts to let the stone dry they'd managed to kill parts of the clients Lawn and colour enhanced parts of their Block drive!!!
Anyhow, we laid all the stone, cleaning as we went, then came to pointing. This were it's all gone bad. We use Flowpoint, which we applied as normal, and we've used it with Kadaph before, no problems. This time it's made a right mess. It's left a dirty haze all over the stone, added to by our feet marks and general dust/debris from the surrounding area. The Lawn I can sort but I'm panicking about the Stone. I think the Lads applied it too heavily, didn't allow it time too dry out (24hrs it states) and never wiped of the residue properly. All of which has caused the surface to remain slightly sticky/absorbant. Does anyone have any guesses to my next move. I'm thinking of cleaning with something like Meths or maybe Lithofin stone Clean up solution and then re-applying a final coat, or throwing myself on the ground at the clients feet and crying for mercy, anyone got any answers PLeeeease

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 9:43 am**

P.S I do realise what an eejit I've been, and never allow labourer's to say they will follow instructions to the letter, but I'll crappily say that we're really busy and I just couldn't be there(crap excuse I know)

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 10:42 am**

Phone up dry treat direct, see what they recommend. Steve could probably give you the reps number.

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 5:37 pm**

ahh man feeling your pain, you have to trust your guys sometimes, it sometimes bites you in the arris rail.

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 6:48 pm**

have few i cant trust, but these things happen.

Roger at R&A might have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 7:50 pm**

feel for you mick
read the post at work and showed it to the 2 lads working with me
they both laughed although the pair of them can do silly things like that at any time
TBH I dont like sealanst after seeing so many go tits up
the only one i will use is lithofin MN stainstop
LLL

Posted: **Mon May 06, 2013 8:23 pm**

Mick

You going to need a limestone restorer for this by the sounds of it, basically strip the sealer off along with any other marks, then re-seal with a colour enhancer sealer again once thoroughly dried out to bring it back to black. You will turn the Limestone grey in the stripping process. If you want to give me a call tomorrow on my mobile number I can give you details of where to get the restorer from, it isn't a cheap chemical around Â£150.00 for 25lts and they don't do smaller size containers unfortunately.

Posted: **Tue May 07, 2013 6:39 am**

Cheers Roger, I'll call you later, going to assess the damage again this morning, may not of been as bad as it looked Saturday. The surface may just need a good scrub and blast with a washer, but I'm fearing the worst.

Posted: **Tue May 07, 2013 10:46 pm**

Mick,
Sorry mate didn't get a chance to call you back today, just manic at the moment, if you want to give me a call tomorrow (Wednesday) I'll get back to you straight away if it goes to voice mail etc.

Posted: **Wed May 08, 2013 7:14 am**

Cheers Roger, but hopefully we managed to sort it. I spoke to a Dry treat Rep, and got his advice. We cleaned off as much residue using rags soaked in the Enhance, and used stripper from a Tile Dealers to move the heavy stuff. It was looking a whole lot better last night when we left, but this rain will obviously delay finishing it. I'll let you know the final outcome once we can get back at it.
Oh and we repaired the lawn as well. All done very quietly by the lad's as I'd threatened armaggedon!!;)

Posted: **Wed May 08, 2013 4:46 pm**

Did you speak to Gary in the end Mick?

Posted: **Wed May 08, 2013 8:16 pm**

Yeah cheers Steve, sound guy. The clients love it, and the Stone looks fine. From now on I'm selling Black limestone as you gets what you pay for, and if they want it dark, they need to buy Slate or Basalt. By the time you've factored in the treatments you may as well buy a dearer stone.

Posted: **Wed May 08, 2013 9:57 pm**

after all the troubles with black limestone I am surprised that anyone still lays it
i did a heart in slate 5 years ago for a fella in hitchin
I was back recently and noticed the off cut still lying in his garden (he didnt want to throw it)
still as black as a black cat in a coal cellar on a dark moonless night
:;):
LLL

Posted: **Wed May 08, 2013 11:58 pm**

Glad you got it sorted Mick, just manic with work this end so sorry I didn't get to speak to you and hence the time of reply of this thread just getting to todays emails etc.

Posted: **Thu May 09, 2013 6:15 am**

The client wanted the BLACK limestone to match the 30's BLUE Staff's Bricks in her walls!!!!! We had gently argued that she was perhaps colour blind, but she was convinced she was going to break her neck slipping on the slate and that it would simply peel apart in layers as her original Slate roof was beginning to do(after 80 odd years). That's what we're up against. She's a prof of some kind at the University of Birmingham.:p

The Brew Cabin

Bad mistake/emergency - Black limestone