In case you’re thinking about having natural stone tiles installed in your home, you may have heard or found out about both stone sealers and stone enhancers. Basically, a stone sealer gives a stain-safe hindrance, while a stone enhancer draws out the natural shades of certain stones.
What is a Stone Sealer?
Sealing adds a hindrance or cover to the stone, which prevents staining by giving you an additional opportunity to clean up spills that would otherwise soak into the stone right away. While no stone sealer is entirely stain proof, some high-grade sealers give stain resistance by increasing the time of response of the contaminant on the stone. As such, a stone that has not been appropriately sealed by dry treat stone sealer products, will be stained substantially faster than a stone that has been sealed.
The sealer should be reapplied every 1-3 years for ideal viability, with most varieties of stone tile, Different factors that influence this period include:
ü The type of sealer previously used
ü The frequency of cleaning of the area
ü The level of traffic on the area
ü The density of pores on the particular type of stone
There are two types of natural stone sealers: topical and impregnator.
- Topical: A topical sealer is a covering, or a film intended to secure the outside of the stone against water, oil, and other different contaminants. Most of the time, you need to strip and re-apply topical sealers, which makes it an inconvenient choice for the house owners.
- Impregnator: The impregnating dry treat stone
sealer products are normally water-based solutions that fights back
oil and water by entering underneath the surface. Impregnating sealers
are “breathable”; which means, that even though they keep water and oil
out, , they don’t however, allow the inner moisture to escape. .
What Type of Natural Stone Sealer should you Use?
The more popular Nano sealers , are a type of impregnating sealer that consist of tiny particles that can enter and fill in more pores in the stone, resulting in a stone that is increasingly impervious to stains. make sure you talk to your fabricator and check all the fine prints and guarantees before choosing the best sealer for you.
How often do you Need to Reseal your Natural Stone?
To ensure you don’t miss out on the warranty your sealer sometime can come with, the first thing you should do is to talk to the fabricator about it. Different stones come with different porosity and therefore different stain resistance as well. Educate yourself about the properties of your stone. If water spots or anything strange is visible, call your fabricator to help and restore. Depending on the type and the finish of the stone, requirement of maintenance can be yearly or once in 5 years.
How to Apply Sealant?
Though its recommended that you contact an expert in this field to do the job, it can be done by anyone with proper basic knowledge about sealants.
You can refer to the following steps to get your task done with perfection.
ü Pick the best dry treat stone sealer products that enters into the pores of natural stones to avoid staining, etching, and soil gathering.
ü Work in 3-foot areas. The aim is to not enable the sealer to dry superficially since this can leave a hazy blurred film.
ü The sealant ought to be rubbed into the stone until you see it being assimilated.
Use a lint-free material in a buffing movement to achieve this Allow
the sealer 24 hours to restore and create a protective film before
cleaning your stone.
To conclude, you should consider having your precious stones sealer to protect it from any stains and minor damages like scratches and spills. You will be judged by how your home looks, so it’s always a better option to make it look as beautiful as possible.
