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Frequently we are asked to apply urethane or acrylic coatings to a natural stone. Anyone that knows anything about natural stone will tell you these products should never be applied to a stone surface. Stone is porous and proper sealers are resins dispersed in either solvents or water that penetrate the stone and are invisible on the stone surface. Topical finishes, like urethane or epoxy are best used on wood or vinyl, but have no role in natural stone. The reason is that these finishes penetrate the stone and cannot be removed by normal means, as you would vinyl with a simple water based stripper. Stone on the other hand is porous and will not respond to strippers, but will have to be ground out with expensive and labor intensive procedures.

We also find these types of topical finishes applied to tile and grout as a sealer or to just grout as a sealer. We would especially include the consumer product Mop N Glow, a finish suited for vinyl floor finishes. These products are neither appropriate for porcelain, ceramic or stone tiles. Due to the porosity of these materials, topical finishes penetrate deeply and are sometimes impossible to remove – short of grinding or stripping with heavy paint strippers.

Needless to say these are projects that are labor intensive as well as inconvenient to the owners. Heavy paint strippers and solvents are necessary to break down these sealers. They require careful handling due to chemical odors and difficulty of slurry recovery.

Remaining slurry have to be removed with great effort. These processes are time consuming and expensive. Stone floors on occasion have to be ground if acrylic penetrates deep into the product. For these reasons we strongly recommend against application of any acrylic floor finish (intended for use on vinyl flooring) to grouted product.

If you find yourself confronted with a topical sealer applied to your stone, you can try a simple test to remove the sealer. Many floor strippers are based on a glycol ether solvent. Find one of these and apply it to the stone in a small area and see if it loosens the topical sealer. If so you will need a wet vac, or some other manner to remove the accumulated slurry for disposal.

This counter top was coated with a urethane coating. Removal required using a paint stripper.

Before

After

Urethane removal from a limestone floor –
This is a limestone that was coated with a topical sealer. After removal the stone was honed and polished.

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This blog is a resource for customers, friends in the business, and anyone generally interested in fabrics such as draperies, carpeting and upholstery — How to clean them, and what to expect from a cleaning process.

We also mention tile and grout here — Cleaning, sealing, regrouting, repairs, and solutions to use to keep them look great.

Stone counters, and flooring are covered because we refinish and restore them.

Water damage and mold removal is covered in detail. Our company, Restoration by Fabric & Tile Masters, is fully trained, certified and insured to help with any insurance loss.