Efflorescent anyone???

[lka674]

My natural stone tiles under my pool coping have some pretty ugly looking efflorescent build up...just the powdery mess that disappears as soon as water hits it, but then comes right back as soon as it's dry. I've tried very diluted muriatic acid followed by quick scrub and fresh water rinse, but didn't help much if at all.

Has anyone here tried any of the products out there that "claim" to get rid of efflorescent off of stone tiles by penetrating the stone and creating a barrier to prevent the salt from getting back out??? (at least I think that's how it works)

 

[JasonLion]

The only reliable solution is to block the water from getting behind the stone in the first place. The water carrying the efflorescence is passing through from the back, which is how it picks up the salts/minerals that leave the "marks". That requires tracking where the water carrying the efflorescence is coming from, which is sometimes easy and sometimes extremely difficult. The sealers that try to treat it from the outside tend to not work well, though now and then they work out. There has to be water back behind the stone and it needs to come out somewhere, so the front side sealers usually just move the affected areas around.