Thompsons one coat water sealer - Need to remove from sandstone slabs

[shopkins]

I'm after a little advice if possible. I've laid an Autumn Brown Indian Sandstone patio and sealed it with Thompsons One Coat Water Seal (sawn and honed) which upon calling Thompsons to find out if I can go over it with another product to enhance the colour, I subsequently discovered that the Water Seal is more for vertical surfaces. The Thompsons Tech advice I received was to leave it to wear for a year or so and then use their paver/patio sealer. I'm concerned that with 3 small kids, the Water Seal will not stop a years with of potential staining. Plus I've read some pretty poor reviews on the paver/patio seal so my question is two fold;
1. How can I remove the One Coat Water Seal, and
2. What is the best sealer to then use that will bring out the colour more.

[RAPressureWashing]

Thompsons sealers are a complete joke, and the water seal as said is not for paving it's for brick walls!!!
The sealer needs to be stripped off before you even think about putting another sealer on, and doing this is not really something I recommend for a home owner to do.
If you want to email me some photos of the patio in it's current condition, I can put you in touch with some one who could undertake this for you, as I don't cover your area.
My email is in the signature below.

[shopkins]

Thompsons sealers are a complete joke, and the water seal as said is not for paving it's for brick walls!!!
The sealer needs to be stripped off before you even think about putting another sealer on, and doing this is not really something I recommend for a home owner to do.
If you want to email me some photos of the patio in it's current condition, I can put you in touch with some one who could undertake this for you, as I don't cover your area.
My email is in the signature below.

Yes, I should have known better than to listen to the old fella at B&Q..... I have scrubbed the whole area using rotary floor scrubber with a FILA Grout residue remover bought from Topps Tiles and to be honest, there is little evidence that the flags are even sealed. There is no beading, the stone darkens with applied water and gets darker the longer the water is left so do you think that the sealer may have inadvertently been removed? I sealed the slabs before pointing so that I'd not have grout staining but it still occurred, hence the scrubbing. Is there a definitive way I can test if the Thompsons product is actually still present? Thanks

[RAPressureWashing]

With the floor scrubber, what did you use a brush or a pad?
If a pad? what colour pad?

[shopkins]

With the floor scrubber, what did you use a brush or a pad?
If a pad? what colour pad?

Used brown pads. Applied the grout residue remover with a mop at the strongest ratio noted on the bottle (5:1) and left it for 10min before scrubbing thoroughly. Then wet the surface and went over again twice before washing down.

[shopkins]

Just to add, there is very little if any evidence of water beading but I don't want to apply an appropriate sealer to then have it not take because the water seal is still present. thanks

[RAPressureWashing]

Okay from the info you have given, it does sound like you have removed the water seal with the grout remover & brown stripping pad, easiest thing to do is, seeing as you are going to re-seal the stone, get the impregnating colour enhancing sealer that you are going to use, when the paving is totally dry etc and no rain forecasted, seal a stone or couple of stones, give it say 2-3 days if all still looks okay, then I'd say seal the rest, if any faults do show up as in blooming, sealer sitting on the surface etc, when yes it will need another strip with a sealer stripper. This is the easiest way to start with, and saves you money etc without going down the re-stripping route

[shopkins]

Thanks for the advice Roger. I've ordered some Lithofin Stain Stop Plus based on the Sealer Trial results page on this site. It's expensive but so is the patio I've just laid. I found a site selling 5L for c.£130 which was as cheap as I could find. I'll give the Lithofin a go on a couple of slabs when it arrives.

This is a really helpful page and definitely worth reviewing if anyone reading this is tying to decide on a sealer. Some seemed to do very little.
http://www.pavingexpert.com/sealant_trials.htm