Resealing stone
by Jeff Tisdale
(Atlanta, GA. USA)
Shower is about 1.5year old. Do i need to take old sealer off or just reseal over old?
Jeff,
Before sealing again, you want to make sure you clean the stone very thoroughly with a natural stone cleaner that is safe for marble, travertine, and limestone.
You don't want to use anything acidic as any acid will etch your natural stone. What you're trying to achieve with the cleaning is to remove all the soap scum from the stone, so that when you seal, the seal can penetrate into the stone.
If your cleaner is not removing the soap scum, try using a 3" razor blade and scrape the soap scum off. This work really well. Just be very careful not to scratch the stone.
You don't have to worry about removing the old sealer unless you have some sort of coating on the stone. If you have a coating then you may want to re-apply the coating after the cleaning.
I hope this helps.
Pedro