Should I Pay To Seal my Natural Stone or Tile in Vancouver?
There’s a couple variables here, so let’s dive in. TLDR if you’re a commercial operator, the answer is always yes to sealer.
What type of sealer are we talking about?
There’s two key types of sealer, there’s acrylic sealer which is the high shine plastic-ish looking coating type of sealer that you’ve probably seen on stamped concrete pool decks, or the paver driveway of the person on your street with the meticulous striped lawn (you know the one.)
Then, there is another class of sealer referred to as “impregnating” or “saturating” or “natural look” depending on the brand and vendor you’re looking to purchase your sealer from. All of these types of sealer use microscopic pieces of clear quartz (also called Si02, like what they use for ceramic coating cars.) All that microquartz is suspended in a carrier, and when applied to your natural stone like marble, granite, or limestone, the quartz fills up the pores and slowly forms an invisible piece of glass inside your stone deep in the pores which goes hard as the carrier evaporates.
Which sealer is better?
Both have their pro’s and con’s, acrylic sealer is going to be cheaper to buy but will only last a year or two before you need to strip the top layer and reapply another coat of sealer because the original coat is flaking away or going cloudy and holding dirt. Impregnating natural look sealers while more expensive, can come with a 15+ year warranty if you choose to get a quality product like Stain-Proof and get it installed by one of their accredited applicators.
In our professional opinion, we only recommend impregnating sealer to our clients, it’s much more forgiving to install, has a timeless classy look with no type of shine or sheen, is easier to maintain, and will last far longer with no annual maintenance intervention other than a quality cleaning. We will install acrylic, but only when that is what was previously installed on a surface and we suggest you stick to this same type of rule when sealing your natural stone in Canada.
How do I pick which impregnating sealer to buy for my stone or concrete?
If you’re not sure where to start, we suggest going to a quality retailer like StoneSealer Canada and asking them for their professional advice on which sealer will work best for your specific stone. Then, if the whole task still seems to overwhelming consider having your sealer applied by an accredited and licensed applicator like Craig and Company Contracting in Vancouver or consult the Stain-Proof Website for an accredited installer near you; this also gets the added benefit of the option for a performance warranty which you cannot get from a self install.
Why do we recommend Stain-Proof so heavily for natural stone and concrete in Canada? Well that’s pretty simple, it has the highest suspended solids count of any impregnating sealer available in the Canadian market, while also having the finest molecule size of the microquartz suspended in the sealer. This means you get the deepest, most complete, and longest lasting seal; all while being inside the surface not on top of the surface so there’s no risk of the sealer flaking off like cheaper acrylic sealers.
You could choose one of the cheaper impregnating sealer brands, but I will tell you from experience of coming behind lower quality installers to fix their work, who use those brands, that most of those sealing molecules are so large they’re trapped at the surface of denser stones like marble and granite, and the sealer was easily removed with some 100% isopropyl alcohol or acetone. After 3 generations in the stone business, we’ve seen the beginning of the impregnating sealer market all the way till now and there’s a reason we only install Stain-Proof Sealer bought from our friends at StoneSealer Canada.
How hard is it to install the sealer you recommend on my stone or concrete at home?
Surprisingly easy, but we still recommend choosing the most user friendly option to be safe as there are a few mistakes that can be made along the way if you’re not careful. The biggest step is a lot like painting, protect all the other surfaces extremely well. We suggest using the yellow ScotchTape exterior painters tape as it has a good resistance to fine liquids, with this tape go all the way around the edge of the surface you intend to seal making sure you get your edge as tight as possible. If you have a large area and are going to roll or spray the sealer on rather than wipe it on like you will with a small area, we recommend taping down some painters plastic to the line of tape you’ve just made. if the plastic is going up a wall, make sure the bottom edge is fully taped, then while pulling the plastic tight up the wall place a small piece of tape every couple feet to hold it up on the wall.
Get your supplies ready, you’ll want your sealer of choice, a plastic paint tray, and an applicator. For large areas, we recommend rolling with a 10mm lint free microfiber roller on a poll. For small areas like countertops, use a lambswool applicator pad in a proper pad holder from a professional paint store, they’ll be with the wood stain supplies.
Get your applicator good and saturated, then remove the excess to the point where it’s just not dripping anymore, sealer is very fine so try to hold as much in the roller or pad as you can without making a mess. If you do drip on the surface you intend to seal, not a big deal, just wipe up any excess the rest will blend in when you roll or wipe it with a full coat.
Apply the sealer so that each area you seal with 1 roller full stays evenly dark wet looking for at least 10 seconds. If you do not get 10 seconds of visibly wet from an area, apply more sealer to achieve the desired result either immediately or in another coat later on.
let the area soak for 15-30 mins, then, wipe up any puddles / shiny excess areas; now apply a second coat just like the first.
Wait 25-30 mins, now wipe up any areas which are still wet, shiny, or “sticky feeling” using a clean and dry terry towel. If you can’t remove the sticky feeling with just a rag, apply a very small amount of the sealer to your rag and wipe the area with that fresh sealer, then immediately wipe with a new clean and dry terry towel.
Congratulations, you did it, now make sure the surface stays fully dry for 24 hours and no chemical cleaning for at least 7 days, continue to wipe up any spills / dirtyness immediately but enjoy how easy your stone is to clean now for years to come.