Acid Cleaning On Your Project
Muriatic Acid - The Death of a Finished Project
At the very end of a project, after all the furniture was unboxed and moved in, a subcontractor opened and used muriatic acid inside the building. The fumes from the muriatic acid rusted and pitted the stainless steel fixtures and dividers. The damage to fix or replace will be in excess of $30,000.
Muriatic acid is a diluted solution of hydrochloric acid. The acid can be purchased at most home improvement stores and is used for a variety of heavy-duty tasks, much to do with "removing" such as removing “efflorescence” (salt deposits on rock or stucco), rust and stain from concrete and brick and etch the concrete for proper adhesion of a new coating. Despite its effectiveness, muriatic acid should be used on concrete stains only if tried gentler alternatives have been tried to no avail.
Notice all the examples are for outside work, not for enclosed area with all the stainless steel finishes installed. Just the fumes from an open container of Muriatic Acid will cause damage to finishes, not to mention our skin, nasal passages and soft tissues.
There are products out today to make grout cleaning easier such as grout release for rough surface tile products where grout Release is needed to make cleanup easier. There are a few manufactures we recommend that make a grout release such as Laticrete, Mapei, Tec, Custom, and other major manufactures. For more thorough brick cleaning the use of Sulfamic Acid also known as Cleaning Crystals is a mild crystal cleaner that helps loosen up grout haze and mortar; read the directions carefully as rinsing often is part of the process. A few go to manufactures are Custom, Aqua Mix, Tile Lab, and Mapei.
This message we have given to all our crews: Be Alert - if you see muriatic acid on the inside of a project G2 is working on, contact G2 management immediately so we might help stop a catastrophic situation before it starts. G2 personnel should also notify the GC or owner immediately. Do take pictures, keep date and time of siting.
At NO time EVER should anyone associated with G2 obtain or hold in possession Muriatic Acid on any project G2 is working. Muriatic Acid is not needed or used as common practice in any form of the flooring business.
