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Fine Stone Sealer - Troubleshooting:

The first step is always to test the product in another application other than your project. The purpose of doing this is to get over your natural reaction that something might be wrong with the product. This will aid in determining what is really happening and why.

If, after testing as described and reviewing the information on this page, you do not have an answer and do not know what to do - contact us for assistance as something is certainly different than you think.

Before emailing for assistance - do the following tests so you can give us the results in the your email. If you contact us before doing the testing and reviewing the information, there will be delays in assisting you because we must still ask you for these test results. We cannot be of assistance by guessing.

(It is important to do all 3 tests)

  1. Apply a small amount to a piece of flat, clean glass per the label directions. The glass gives you a clear view of what the product looks like when dry. With sealers or coatings, this will show you the degree of toughness and adhesion. With cleaners and other products, this will show you the what it looks like when dry.

  2. Apply a small amount to an uninstalled piece of the same surfacing per the label directions. The uninstalled piece of the same surfacing takes away anything that occurred during and after installation.

  3. Apply a small amount per the label directions to a different type of surfacing with a similar absorption. This takes the surfacing itself out of the equation to show if there is something unusual about that particular batch of surfacing.
Now that you see what the product does and how it looks - let's examine the job conditions and determine what is different. The conclusion to be verified is that something has occurred during the installation, or in the time span after installation, to interfere with performance. You do not want to do anything else (reapply product, strip, etc.) that will complicate identifying the issues.

Here are the things to look for:

  • Final water rinse was not done, or not done sufficiently?
  • Temperatures at the surface (not air) significantly above or below the label recommendation?
  • Not applied in sufficient quantity to reach the level at which water drops bead and do not darken or absorb.
  • Some cleaner component, cleaning water component, previous coating, etc. is interfering with spread and flow of sealer?
  • Streaks? This product does not leave streaks. Any sealer residue rinses or buffs off easily. Check your applicating tool for its ability to leave residue of something else.

  • Streaks, marks, lines, etc. seen immediately on applying or other results that are not what you expect - read again the label instructions about how the product is applied. Dealers selling polished marble and honed limestone will often provide an opinion about what kind of sealer should be used and how it should be applied. They can be wrong, although well meaning! This can create misconceptions about application procedures.

    Here is an example:

    Customer is told: use a "penetrating sealer" on polished marble.

    Put a water drop on "raw, unsealed" polished marble. You will see extremely little, and probably no darkening under the water drop. This means water cannot penetrate into such a "tight" surface. Although a solvent based sealer penetrates better than a water based sealer, this is a surface that allows little or no penetration of either type sealer.

    Therefore, a sealer for polished marble must function with whatever penetration takes place and then function as a coating beyond that point. Aldon "Fine Stone Sealer" does exactly that. No need to overapply sealer to achieve penetration that does not exist. Do the water drop test first.

  • You have sealed polished marble or granite and a water drop will darken the surface after 5 minutes.
    1. Possibility #1 is the application directions were not followed.
    2. Possibility #2 is if the marble or granite has microfissures (see discussion on granite page in Surface Types). Typically, these highly polished stones have little or no absorption at the polished surface. But, light colored stones can give the appearance of absorbing a liquid if the liquid is migrating down very, very tiny natural fissures in the surface. In this case, the best way to plug those microfissures is by using Aldon S-B-S Sealer.

  • Haziness, spots, splotches noticed after a week or two? It is not from the sealer. A sealer is like a piece of glass in that any liquid landing on it will evaporate and dry without penetrating. Any minerals or chemicals in the water are left behind as spots. They are usually white or gray in color. The sealer has kept these minerals on the surface where they are much easier to clean off.

    Indoors: Usually from mop water.

    • If you are not using Aldon "Maintain", it could be residue from your cleaning products. This has frequently been reported from using supermarket floor cleaners.
    • There could be minerals in your mop water, even if you have a water softener. Let a 1/4" of water from the same tap evaporate from a glass to see if residue is left behind. See Problem Solving for "mineral deposits" for cleaning.

    Outdoors: This can be from sprinkler water containing minerals, rain water picking up minerals during runoff from planters, roofs, etc. See Problem Solving for "mineral deposits" for cleaning.

    If this does not answer your situation - something is very different and unusual. You should be able to discover why by looking for the issue in  "Problem Solving"