sealing shower tiles?

Jayne

Jayne

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Our shower has 4"x8" stone like looking tiles that are very porous. Water collects in the little holes and eventually gets moldy/gross and is really hard to clean.

The wife wants to spend $$$ to have the entire shower removed and replaced with something else.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of clear sealant that would solve this? I can't believe someone would pay to install a shower that is this damn hard to keep clean.
 
Jayne said:
Our shower has 4"x8" stone like looking tiles that are very porous. Water collects in the little holes and eventually gets moldy/gross and is really hard to clean.

The wife wants to spend $$$ to have the entire shower removed and replaced with something else.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of clear sealant that would solve this? I can't believe someone would pay to install a shower that is this damn hard to keep clean.
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have you tried grout sealer?
 
Natural Stone sucks for showers....

Anything you seal it with that fills the voids will be slick...


Wait, 4x8? Are these wall tiles?
 
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Cowboy said:
have you tried grout sealer?
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Haven't tried anything yet, the wife said that some tile guy told her it's not solvable without replacement so I want to see if the collective wisdom here can give me other ideas besides "replace the shower".
 
hang a shower curtain on the wall , keep it dry. too many designers are clueless to the function of certain tile designs. you can use grout sealer but I t will not fill the voids or prevent collection of water and soap scum in the crannies. there is a reason shower tiles are slick and shiny. good luck
 
Jayne said:
Yes, the floor is fine and is made of smaller more normal non-porous seeming tiles.

I've added a picture to help clarify.
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Yeah. Saw that. You're pretty much done at this point. It's a terrible material for showers/wet areas. Way too porous and soft. If it's honed/filled/properly sealed when installed, it can be fine with constant maintenance...

Once compromised, not much you can do to save it...
 
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Travertine is naturally full of holes, but it is commonly filled for making countertops. The filler is a 2 part epoxy kinda stuff that I swear is tinted bondo. Search for Tenax Travertine Filler.
 
Get some of this .

image.jpeg


And a deck brush.

Mix 1-1 with water. Use a pump sprayer.
Wait 30 seconds, scrub with brush, rinse.
Wear clothes you don't mine being tie dyed.
Oh, open the window/ run the fan. Not caustic, just bleach smell.
 
I would try the suggested cleaners first.
If that doesn't work, try the suggested Travertine Bondo.
If that doesn't work, go spend an hour at your Yelling Tree.
Then, see if you can tile right over the Travertine.
 
I wouldn't recommend tiling over this stuff. Unless you can clean all the mold and mildew from it first then you may have a situation where it just continues to grow under the new tile. Might not but I wouldn't chance it.

I just had both of my bathrooms done ($$$$$) and one word of advice I would give is make sure who ever does the demolition cleans up with a vacuum that has a good filter on it. The guy that did mine didn't have one and the whole house got filled with the dust from the clean up even with the door closed. It was a mess.
 
Sorry, Tenax won’t clean the stuff. If it was me I’d bleach it, rinse it good, dry it with forced air, apply the Tenax, wet sand the whole wall down to 400 grit, then seal with 2 applications of a premium penetrating sealer. You’ll like the result. Reapply the sealer annually.

the next issue is the cleaner, you can’t just spray this stiff with harsh chemicals, they cause portions of the stone to dissolve. Do some research on cleaning travertine, but start by using a squeegee to remove the water every day.

it’s beautiful stuff, but you can’t treat natural stone like fired porcelain.
 
I've seen travertine where all the depressions were filled, looked nice. So clean it well, get some contrasting color tile grout and fill the tiles. Then seal everything with a good grout sealer.
 
I'm really not liking how the wife is walking around saying "see, even the crazies on your forum think I'm right". I'll give her the crazies part, I mean, come on, look around this place. But right about the shower tiles? Ugh.

I realize this is the DIY corner, but is the "tavertine bondo" the stuff the professional 'shower restoration' people would use?
 
Jayne said:
I'm really not liking how the wife is walking around saying "see, even the crazies on your forum think I'm right". I'll give her the crazies part, I mean, come on, look around this place. But right about the shower tiles? Ugh.

I realize this is the DIY corner, but is the "tavertine bondo" the stuff the professional 'shower restoration' people would use?
Click to expand...

No. Not for that application. It's for filling holes in floor tile before honing/polishing. You won't get good adhesion and it will fail again... It's not an appropriate tile for wet areas, period. Good opportunity to make the wifey happy and update your system...
 
If you really want to get out of replacing it, you can try glassing it. Might seal it up for awhile and make it look passible. You'll have to let it completely dry out after getting any mold/ efflorescence off first... Google water glass. Sodium Silicate. Someone mentioned earlier. It's nasty stuff. Don't get it on your skin. But I don't recommend it. If moisture gets behind it(and it will) you'll just have more problems...
 
Should really have it removed and redone. That travertine is holding in bacteria from every shower you have taken since it was new due to not being sealed. Just need to go down to the studs and redo the whole thing.
 
If you were able to block the shower door, fill the entire enclosure with straight bleach, let it sit a month.... there would *still* be mildew in those tiles. Let her win this one.
 
You could epoxy over it but it will not last over time and will be a ugly mess. Do the tile yourself. It is not complicated. Just time consuming. Save half the cost.
 
She's got new tile picked out from two years ago when she originally wanted to redo this shower, and has re-asserted that "you guys" agree with her.

Now i'm trying to figure out if I want to try it myself. My sole tile experience is putting some additional backsplash above the stove when we redid the vent hood in the kitchen. That turned out well, but it's like 3 sq. ft. worth of tile. I just know if I try the tile I'm going to damage the sheetrock around it, and dad said that smoothwall sheetrock work is a pain in the ass.

I need to find a contractor that will do the work and let me be the helper monkey so I learn.
 
Catfish said:
That cost extra ya know.
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Yea, it's probably on the price list along with "homeowner tried to DIY and screwed up and now needs to be bailed out".

With so much work going on around here I assuming this will end up like the pond project, no one will want the work and we'll just wait until the next recession hits and then get it done.
 
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