Off the bat, I'm sure the answer is no. But I wanted to open up a bit of discussion. I got a call a couple days ago from a guy who said he heard that I do excellent work (he saw a travertine cleaning that I did for his friend). He told me he has saltillo tiles. I told him I'd at least give it a look. I of course immediately came here and started reading all of the previous posts about saltillo. Seemed like there were a lot of mixed responses. One time I actually cleaned some saltillo a few years ago but I didn't make it look any better but they didn't seem to mind. Pretty sure it was sealed/coated and I didn't strip it at all, so it didn't really do much. Anyways, it looked like it didn't have any coatings on it, looked like bare tile to me. I could sort of scratch it with my fingernail. It was pretty dirty, around 700 sq ft of it on outdoor patios. When we got around to the back, I just leveled with him. In short, I essentially told him "I really am not an expert on saltillo. All I could try is a small area and maybe get some saltillo sealer for the area and see what you think of it. But I know for a fact that there are saltillo experts in this area that I can refer you to, and then you would know for sure the job gets done right". He super appreciated that. He told me that I really earned his respect by just telling him that rather than just winging it.
But this got me thinking. First of all, would I have been fine spraying it down with some neutral cleaner, scrubbing with brushpro, and rinsing with spinner? Then sealed with whatever shiny sealer home depot or my supply house has? Or would it of looked like crap or somehow gotten screwed up because I don't have my degree in saltillo cleaning? lol. Also, where does one go to learn how to properly clean or strip and seal saltillo?
The guy respected my response so he went in his house to find other stuff for me to clean. He's going to have me clean his sofa and loveseat. I told him "now this...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to melt this sofa like I would your mud tiles".
But this got me thinking. First of all, would I have been fine spraying it down with some neutral cleaner, scrubbing with brushpro, and rinsing with spinner? Then sealed with whatever shiny sealer home depot or my supply house has? Or would it of looked like crap or somehow gotten screwed up because I don't have my degree in saltillo cleaning? lol. Also, where does one go to learn how to properly clean or strip and seal saltillo?
The guy respected my response so he went in his house to find other stuff for me to clean. He's going to have me clean his sofa and loveseat. I told him "now this...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to melt this sofa like I would your mud tiles".