[Aishah]

I have a problem with small stain/colour removed from the Jaisalmer stone floor tiles. This happened when we refill my batteries for the invertor which takes over when power cuts. The boys do this for me, and we use distilled water which has some acid in it. The first time I put nothing as a protection on the floor and a small bit dripped there, later taking out the golden colour. Yesterday, I put a sheet of plastic, we were very careful but later I noticed a small puddle that somehow had crept under the plastic... Too late! Once again the colour has come out in the shape of the puddle.
Has anyone any suggestion of how I restore the colour?? I tried veg. oil with the first time, it slightly darkened it but you can see the shape quite clearly and it is still not dark enough.

I have titled this thread, Handy Hints, because anyone with household problems like this kind of thing that are peculiar to living in India, could post and join in rather than starting lots of new threads.... thanks Janice for your reminder and giving us an awareness of this!!! I did do my HW by the way before I put this new thread!

[mira4bai4]

Distilled water does not normally contain any acid, unless it is from acid rain that is. If the liquid that you are using is purpose made for refilling batteries then it may be a blend of distilled water and acid.

Essentially there is nothing that you can do easily to bring the colour back as the acid which I think is sulphuric acid is pretty fast acting. I did find the following helpful hint for stains on marble that you could try.
Marble Stain Removal

"To remove stains from marble, make a paste of baking soda and bleach and cover the stain with the paste. Cover the paste with a damp cloth, leave overnight, then wet down and scrape off residue. Rinse thoroughly. Or, you could try a commercial marble cleaner."
www.cleaning.lifetips.com

[Nick-H]

There's a guy who's trying to get a whole site up and running for household hints in India: http://aavaas.com/ ("Home-to-Home"). Worth taking a look.

But do still ask here too!

Sounds like you've bleached the colour out of your tiles, but, if they are not glazed, you might be able to get them to take a stain. Needs expert attention!

[Nick-H]

Yes, batteries are normally topped up with just distilled water!

They should be tested with the hygro-, err, hydro-, err thingy that shows the specific gravity of the fluid to know that the acid concentration is correct.

[Aishah]

What they sell for distilled water has some acid in it as well. I know in Oz you could drink distilled water!! Certainly not here. I don't think anything with bleach would be the answer - the tiles are a golden brown colour and the bleach would probably have a similar effect to the acid.
Many thanks for link, Nick - will check that one out. When i say tiles here I mean 2ft x 2.5ft slabs of stone, cut, laid and then polished by a polishing machine. So not like ceramic tiles - there is no glazing, just a high polish on them and no sealer has been put on top. Maybe that might be a good idea? But what to use for a sealer?

[Nick-H]

I'm amazed that stone isn't acid-proof.

Didn't you build your own place? I think you should talk to the people who sold you the stone.

[Aishah]

I think Jaisalmer stone is a type of sandstone and is porous - it looks beautiful, but you have to try not to drop the wrong liquids onto it! My benchtops are red granite and this is pretty much impervious to anything. As you say, we should talk to the stone people. There may be a way to restore the colour but it could boil down to a regrinding polishing thing...

[tstan]

Aishah, many years ago when I lived in Northamptonshire, I saw a stonemason mixing up a small amount of cow s..t into a slurry with some water. He had been laying some new stones into the wall of a church and wanted his work to blend in quickly with the surrounding stones.

He applied the mixture with a stiff brush and when it dried you could not distinguish his repair work from the original. The Northants stone is a little darker than the Jaisalmer stone but just as porous - perhaps you could follow one of the camels around!

[Aishah]

tstan - that is not a bad idea! Gai goba (hindi for cow dung) is just outside my boundary fence and easily obtainable. It is copiously used for making dried patties to start a fire, and for flooring in village huts, also for rendering over rough stone walls.. The only problem will be no shine - but if i put a thin layer over the stain, let it dry then try brown boot polish it might work. Other thought is maybe directly brown wax polish which you can get here in applicator bottles... mmm, might try that first!

[iwanttogoback]

aishah, i would recommend speaking with the stone masons first. it's such a large piece of beautiful stone you might want some expert advice before trying home remedies.

[Nick-H]

Did the builders leave you any bits of left-over stone you can use to create the same problem, then experiment with the fixes.

If you use some stain that doesn't suit, and it goes deeper than the acid bleach...

However you restore the colour, I think you have to repolish

[Aishah]

Since my last post too busy to even attempt doing something about it - so lucky no drastic damage done.. good ideas guys! Will speak with stone people, and will experiment on a left over piece which we do have! OT - this Forum has saved me from 'stuffing' up my computer and possible irreversible damage to my beautiful floor!! I think I will change my signature to 'Hasten slowly'.

[Aishah]

This is a hint about what NOT to do.
Yesterday, my marmite jar which is nearly depleted of marmite, was buzzing with the tiniest ants around the top of the lid. Put that into the sink, then spread the marmite on the toast and discovered they were also 'drowned' in the marmite. In other words I had a mixture of ants and marmite on my toast.
Well.. asked a fellow sitting on the verandah with me would you eat it? Mr K said 'Good for the brain" and the fellow said, "good protein' so i ate it. Actually just a taste of marmite.
However, I thought I would 'sterilize' the remaining ants and mixture in the microwave. NEVER DO THIS!!
I set for 2 mins. (recollect a hint on sterilizing food had to be a minimum of 2 mins), screwed the cap on (another stupid thing - you must have some air vents) and zapped 2 mins. Clouds of smoke started after 1.75 mins, terrible burning smell.. I thought, ohoh, my microwave has broken down. On investigation, one extremely hot marmite jar, waited for it to cool, unscrewed lid, and inside a crematorium of black ash.....

Just posting in case anyone else has the same problem and idea as this one!!!!

[Aishah]

Update - In regard to the stone stains - the best way to correct is to do a proper re-polishing,according to stone laying people.But this is a messy, time-consuming job for such a small thing. Now that finally the cooler weather is here, I am going to first attempt a polishing with sandpaper and some grainy, damp medium that they use as well and see if that will work. Failing that, will then try some of the previous suggestions. In the meanwhile, I have still done nothing, have learned to live with it and hardly notice what was at first to me, a catastrophe! Funny how your eyes adapt to things over time...
ANOTHER HINT: Here the water is often full of sand and dirt, so all our taps have these little metal filters screwed onto the ends of them. They came with the tap sets. We regularly remove and clean them, plus our shower heads. But if you don't do this often enough they can become jammed up with calcification from water and very difficult to remove.
This was the case with the one over my kitchen sink.
I finally got it off yesterday by tapping around the edges and managed to knock it off the grooves. Not a good method, I imagine. Much sand had built up inside it - no wonder my water was the thinnest trickle!
Today I tried it, and it unscrewed easily. Thinking about this I decided a bit of vaseline around the grooves of the filter piece would be a good idea. Didn't have vaseline but a lip balm from NZ which is very 'vaseliney' so put that there. I think I shouldn't have any trouble from now on.

Khandoma had a wonderful hint for getting out of a door that has been locked on you in a thread, "Locked up in room" posted by Joph. I just don't have the skills to put her quote into here, but if some Mod happens to spot this, could you do so? It's a hint well worth knowing I thought!

[jyotirmoy]

Distilled water used for topping up of batteries does not contain any acid. Get your batteries checked, the casing might have developped a leak. Or the guy topping up the is pouring in too much water to cause over flow.