Is this haze normal on these tiles?

[Joe Fixit]

Bought these porcelain tiles from Wickes and have given them a good scrub with scourer and HG intensive cleaner and warm water to try and get rid of any transport wax.

Every time it dries, it still looks a little hazy/dusty. Looks nice and rich in colour when wet.

Is this normal and only way to keep it rich in colour to use colour enhancing sealer? Or am I not cleaning it enough?

Photo shows one half dry and one half wet

 

[foxhole]

Haze needs a course dry cloth to buff off ( bit like car polish).

 

[Joe Fixit]

Haze needs a course dry cloth to buff off ( bit like car polish).

I've used a cloth, scraper and now going to try using a stiff brush this afternoon. Take it this is not normal then?

For info, these are the tiles:

Wickes Amaro™ Charcoal Porcelain Wall & Floor Tile - 615 x 308mm | Wickes.co.uk

Wickes Amaro™ Charcoal Porcelain Wall & Floor Tile - 615 x 308mm

www.wickes.co.uk

 

[foxhole]

From feedback the worst problem is they vary by 5-6mm in size.

 

[simplesteve]

To answer the original post : No, haze is not normal on new tiles. You have to be very careful when using a sealer that if the tiles are not clean first that 1. You may seal any dirt/dust/minor imperfections in, then you're never getting them off, and 2. You can't take them back.
I've been a tiler for 20+ years, and Wickes is the only ' supplier ' I refuse to use. If the customer has supplied them i won't quote, and if not bought yet i tell them to not buy. Not only is the size variation enormous and impossible to work with, they can also be slightly curved, meaning a brickbond pattern is impossible to lay.
Check all your batch numbers on the boxes; as the staff in there are merely shopassistants, they don't appreciate that buying tiles is like buying wallpaper - the batch number on them all has to be the same. If it's a delivered order, that they have ' picked', then they'll just lift the closest e.g. 15 boxes at the front of the shelf. If they are 3 different batch numbers, then that's 3 different manufacturing/firing times in the factory, potentially meaning 3 sets of different sizes, and 3 different sets of colour pigments.
( and maybe one batch hazed, and two matches not ? )

 

[Joe Fixit]

To answer the original post : No, haze is not normal on new tiles. You have to be very careful when using a sealer that if the tiles are not clean first that 1. You may seal any dirt/dust/minor imperfections in, then you're never getting them off, and 2. You can't take them back.
I've been a tiler for 20+ years, and Wickes is the only ' supplier ' I refuse to use. If the customer has supplied them i won't quote, and if not bought yet i tell them to not buy. Not only is the size variation enormous and impossible to work with, they can also be slightly curved, meaning a brickbond pattern is impossible to lay.
Check all your batch numbers on the boxes; as the staff in there are merely shopassistants, they don't appreciate that buying tiles is like buying wallpaper - the batch number on them all has to be the same. If it's a delivered order, that they have ' picked', then they'll just lift the closest e.g. 15 boxes at the front of the shelf. If they are 3 different batch numbers, then that's 3 different manufacturing/firing times in the factory, potentially meaning 3 sets of different sizes, and 3 different sets of colour pigments.
( and maybe one batch hazed, and two matches not ? )

Luckily my tiles have been fine in terms of size and consistency. It's just this bloody haze