Happy New Year!

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Years break and wish you all the best for 2014.

If your New Year's Resolution was to complete a rewarding challenge, why not enter in our Oxy-Klenza™ competition? You could win $250!

Congratulations to this month's winner Rodney who used Oxy-Klenza™ to clean sandstone pavers with spectacular results.  

KBIS 2014

The 2014 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada on the 4-6 of February. 

Dry-Treat will be there with Stuart who will be providing exciting and interactive demonstrations for some of our products including Vitremela™, the protective coating for marble and other acid sensitive countertops, STAIN-PROOF PLUS™, an impregnating and invisible sealer and INTENSIFIA™, for deep enhancement and stain protection. 

We will be located in the North Hall in booth N1066, so if you're attending come say hello!

Dry-Treat's Product Uses and Rates Chart

Your customer's question can now be easily answered with the new Product Uses Chart as well as an updated Porosity Chart and Rates Card.

The downloadable and printable version can be found here.

Sealing a Surface with Efflorescence

As you can probably tell from the picture above efflorescence has formed on the surface of the limestone tiles. Efflorescence is caused by water moving through the substrate of a material collecting and carrying minerals and salts. When the water reaches the surface of a material and evaporates, the minerals and salts will be left behind. These form those white marks that can be difficult to remove. At Dry-Treat we have a number of sealers that will minimise the growth of efflorescence. 

However, what if you have already treated a surface like the one above with a sealer such as STAIN-PROOF Original™ and efflorescene has occured? This doesn't necessarily mean that the surface was not sealed correctly. Unlike other sealers, Dry-Treat's STAIN-PROOF™ is a super impregnanting sealer which means its specially enginereed molecules form strong chemical bonds within the pores of the material. STAIN PROOF™ usually takes between 3-5 weeks to bond to the material. During this time substances such as salts that are present in the material will be pushed to the surface by the sealant. Provided you brush away the efflorescence before it cures, it will be removed. The superior penetration of STAIN-PROOF™ will protect your material from any new deposits of salts reaching the surface.

Scientific Stuart: Acid Etching

A number of common surface materials are "acid-sensitive", including:

• Marble
• Limestone
• Travertine
• Onyx
• Concrete

What does "acid sensitive" mean?
These materials contain calcium or lime which dissolves on contact with anything acidic such as lemon, coffee, cola, even milk, leaving physical damage called etching.

Why is this important to understand?
The common misconception is that impregnating/penetrating sealers prevent acid etching, but they do not.
So if you leave cola on a sealed marble surface, it will etch. It will etch less than untreated marble but it WILL etch.

Why don't impregnating/penetrating sealers prevent acid etching?
Impregnating sealers work by repelling water and oil. When water or oil come into contact with the sealed surface, the sealer keeps the liquid up on the surface and keeps it from absorbing into the pores where it would cause a permanent stain.

But the sealer does not prevent the liquid from touching the surface - where anything acidic touches an acid-sensitive surface, it will dissolve any calcium content, leaving a rough, dull etch mark.

So is there ANY way of preventing etching?
Yes. You need a physical barrier i.e. a coating which stops the acidic substance from making contact with the surface. Up to now, there has not been a suitable coating which is hard enough, doesn't change the look of the material, does not crack, peel or yellow, stands up to chemicals and strong acids and can withstand heat.

Enter - VITREMELA™
Over this year we are rolling out this revolutionary, new, acid-proof coating.

For more information click here.

For videos click here.

Could there be Granite on Mars?

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover has recently discovered large desposits of a mineral found in Granite in a Martian volcano. Rest assured, the first human colony on Mars will be supplied with enough STAIN-PROOF Original™. 

Click here to read the full article.