Posted on 23-5-2022 by Fieke
Cement tiles are handmade tiles that are made of colour and cement powder. This makes them somewhat porous and you have to impregnate them as soon as they are placed. Despite the good Azule impregnation products that we have developed for this purpose, there is still a chance that acids, juices or strong dirt will be able to infiltrate the tile.
An example of this was a customer with an outdoor terrace decorated with the Rosso 01 tile. During the renovation of the house, the contractor had cut the wooden floor on the terrace. Amongst all the waste and splinters, the (acidic) juices from the wood started to soak into the floor, resulting in a dirty brown stain on the, otherwise so colourful, tiles.
Pollution in cement tiles
If a cement tile becomes dirty through daily use or if you spill something on it in the kitchen, the impregnation layer will always prevent this from happening. You can, of course, simply clean the tile with green soap or Azule Tile Soap, but if it is an acid, it will bite through the impregnation layer and sometimes even through the colour layer. We always recommend sanding the tile with a very light sandpaper, which will remove the top layer of colour and, if the acid has not been in the tile for too long, there is a good chance that you will not see anything after that.
We also gave this advice to the customer with an outdoor terrace. Together with the sanding, we recommend using Superboen, so that you sand the surface wet. The Degreaser will remove all the dirt from the tile at the same time. After a good scrubbing, it looks great again!
Re-impragnate
Unfortunately, once the dirt has been removed from the tile, the impregnation layer has also been sanded away. It is therefore very important that you re-impregnate the tiles immediately. We have different products for this, depending on the area where the tiles are placed. (For this outdoor patio, we recommend Azule Tile Sealant. You can apply it using the impregnation pad specially developed for this purpose, which ensures that the impregnation agent is well spread.
As good as new!
After impregnation twice (to be sure), the floor is fresh and clean again, and this beautiful terrace can be enjoyed again!
