Exterior slate sealent

[bolst3r]

Just had my patio tiled with Brazilian Riven slate and now need to seal it before grouting and not sure what to use. Internally we have used a wax but I've been reading this isn't great and it's certainly no good for outdoors therefore I'm looking for a product that I can apply to the exterior tiles to stop them marking and that will leave them with dark wet look.

If afterwards the exterior slates look really good I would consider stripping the wax off the interior tiles and applying the substance used externally on the interior tiles to match.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[tpt]

Either lithofin MN stainstop or lithofin slate seal.

stainstop gives a natural look, slate seal adds a sheen that can be built up. For external use i'd lean toward the stainstop.

Other products from LTP also provide similar qualities.

Which wax did you use? i'm not aware of any wax thats suitable for slate?

 

[bolst3r]

Hi, thanks for the info, this is the stuff I used on the interior:

http://www.tilefixdirect.com/product/FL50800012.html

might give the lithofin slate seal a go and if it works out well remove the wax internally and do it all with this

Thanks

 

[tpt]

ahh ok. i had pictures of a hardwax, not a liquid one.

the spec sheet says 'preferably used indoors' and has a warning about moisture in the stone, so make sure its well dried out.
http://www.media.tradepricetiles.co.uk/media/reference/catalog/technical/mnslateseal.pdf

the MN stainstop is more suited to external use

 

[bolst3r]

Just had my delivery of Lithofin Slate-seal and on the packaging it says "for indoor use" so I checked the retailers site and it says 'exterior', gave them a call and they refereed me to Lithofin who said their only product suitable for exterior use is their 'Stain-stop' but this wont give me the wet finish I require. They also said non of their products are suitable for applying this time of year so I have two issues. My slates haven't been grouted yet and wondered if it was bad to leave that until the the spring/summer and what product can I get to give me the required we look?

Thanks.

 

[bolst3r]

OMG get this just spoke to Lithofin and pointed out their technical documentation states it's suitable for exterior use and they said "yeah I know that's a mistake so we're changing it" I asked how long it had been wrong for and they said "quite sometime" I asked what about people who have used it based on your technical documentation and they said "if they didn't ring us first then there will be lots of people who have used it" they were kinda light hearted about it which annoyed me as I luckily found out before using it, others might be in a different situation...

 

[bolst3r]

Spoke to LTP, very helpful. They said laying tiles with sand and cement means efflorescence will happen due to the calcium in the cement so they said it would be good to leave them for 3 months over the winter to get wet without a seal as sealing it now would trap the white film in and would look terrible. So I will leave the tiles without grout and free to nature for a few months and apply LTP Colour intensifier when the weather is better next year.

Just hope the tiles/cement survive our winter without any grout