@Lynn Lou ack! Maybe @Jan Moyer knows the answer. If not, travertine flooring is looking better all the time.

You've probably already tried the web site of the manufacturer? Or contacting the manufacturer today would be my backup plan. I would have thought using the sealer as solvent would have worked. Otherwise trying different solvents on a spare piece of tile treated with the sealer.

Googled:

https://www.tileshop.com/products/superior-pro-strip-sealer-and-adhesive-remover-1-quart-220029

@kl23 My tile guy was worried about using a stripper in case it caused an issue with the grout. I will probably reach out to the manufacturer today. I have plenty of extra tiles and will smear the sealer on them tonight and try various methods of removal. It's only noticeable when you are up close to it (and know where to look). The hood should be installed today, so maybe I will luck out and it will cover the ones in that area.

Using the sealer made sense to me. I only tried it a bit last night before we headed out for the evening and then I didn't feel like messing with it when we got back home.

Sealing floor grout would be way easier than backsplash grout. I thought I was keeping up with the runs, but obviously not as well as I thought! We have travertine in our basement that was never sealed (nor was the grout!). Well, maybe the individual tiles were sealed during install, but not since. It is such a large area and the task seems overwhelming to tackle. I may just need to sub out that project!

Thanks @DeWayne! I will add that to my list!

@Lynn Lou your post is so timely. You may remember I am renovating my entire house, and the next chunk is the upstairs, changing four bedrooms and two bathrooms to three ensuites. I wanted to plan ahead this time and choose flooring for the entire house.

I want hard flooring with area rugs to keep allergies and grime down, and because changing an area rug can be such fun. And I expect to use a Roomba and Braava to clean on a schedule while I'm doing something else. And I have chosen chocolate/bark brown for the color that is all over the exterior and goes well with all my other favorite colors.

At first I wanted wood floors upstairs and porcelain tile in the bathrooms and entry/kitchen level. Pretty standard stuff. Then I realized the family room should have tile because of the fireplace. And winter came and made me think of how cold the living room floor is and how wood isn't the greatest over radiant heating. And then Jan came along on your kitchen flooring post with her comments on keeping to one flooring through the house instead of a patchwork.

I started thinking of tile all the way. I was thinking of how I could handle the stairs in tile. I started looking for a tile that had lots of finishing pieces and came in different sizes. And all that in chocolate/bark brown.

So I posted my ideas. People alerted me to solid dark brown being hard to keep clean looking and a medium brown is better. Whether it was wood or tile, the color I loved best was going to have to lighten up to a medium brown and a pattern was better. Then people warned me about patterns and told me to look for a tile that had lots of variation so the pattern repeats wouldn't be noticable.

The one that really threw me was the comment that grout has to be resealed and you can't leave the sealer on porcelain because it will discolor the tile. OMG that freaked me out. It's the same thing you are talking about in your post. Was it true? Until this post, I couldn't get anyone to confirm. I couldn't find anything on the web sites. But I was scared. And now I know from your experience it was true.

Meanwhile, I had started looking at natural stone. It seemed to solve a lot of tile problems, the most important it seemed was that I have to seal the entire floor, so I don't have to be down on hands and knees wiping it off the tile without wiping it off the grout. I also didn't have to look for one that had enough pattern repeat or came with matching trim or came with bullnose for steps and edges I have so many of.

I finally found a stone store where I could see and feel many types of stone, though not all. But I did find a chocolate brown travertine in a picture and got to see a small chunk in person. Titanium travertine from Iran. It looked like a chunk of zebra brownie. I took it home and hubby and I confessed it looks edible. I tried it against existing new stone and tile and favorite -colored paint chips. I talked with the guy about how to use it throughout the house. Finally! We found our stone! Our floor for the whole house but with shower floors we'd have the half-cut pebbles we put in our new shower downstairs and maybe even the same shower wall tile as downstairs. All our floors would be heated and we would be happy forever... Sigh.

But Jan said it would be way too much trouble and all that mopping, and I'd have to bring a pro in regularly to seal it and buff it professionally. I mean seriously NO. Go back to wood and if I have to have a stone, make it slate. But not stone all through, and if in Florida, still make it porcelain.

So depressed...

Then I read a Houzz post about stone floors and their pros and cons. And as sometimes happens, the comments were treasures too. People kept mentioning how much they hated the rough texture of slate and how much they loved their travertine and how even if you never touched it after installation it hid dirt so well. And an on line video of how to fill in gaps under the travertine tiles reminded me that the stone guy said travertine is the one tile you can crack or drill holes in and fill with the same filler and it all looks beautiful again. And now YOU who I really trust with your pro experience... You say you have a travertine floor in your basement and have never resealed it even. OK, just wow...

Please tell me more about your basement floor and any advice you can think of. I am leaning back to my chocolate travertine with it's infinite pattern that will hide dust and crumbs like powdered sugar and nuts... But of course Roomba will sweep up.

I know it's a basement and you don't want to show pictures, but I could really see a closeup of the grout lines. I'd like rectified tiles and grout as small as possible, but it would be nice to see what is possible.

Now here's hoping this posts...my third try.

@kl23 Grout on the floor will be much easier to seal than on a backsplash. You can be more precise with applying it on a floor vs backsplash. On the backsplash, if you don't wipe up the dribbles quick enough it will dry and leave a haze. It didn't change the color really, but maybe it could on darker tiles. But you'll be able to see if any gets on the tiles and keep up with cleaning it off much easier than a backsplash. My tiles were white and the sealer is white, so it was a bit of a challenge keeping up with the dribbles etc. And I had lost my patience near the end so I was a bit sloppy. I knew I should have stopped and finished the next day, but wanted to get it done. And now here I am dealing with this haze.

Chocolate brown travertine that looks like a zebra brownie sounds super cool lol! We have hardwood throughout our first and second floors (except for porcelain in the foyer, laundry room and full baths) including the kitchen and powder room (which I can't imagine tile now even though we went back and forth about it!). If we were to build a new house, I would probably do hardwood floors again. I wouldn't do dark because dark shows everything. My BIL/SIL did dark hardwood floors and she hates them. For our basement, we had only lived there less than a year and had a flood :/. I have no idea why we picked travertine (nor why we picked the color...we were going through a beige/brown/orange phase I guess lol!). I just knew we didn't want carpet down there again. It happened not long before Christmas and we were supposed to host Christmas Eve for the first time in our new house. I just wanted it done and didn't give much thought as to what type of tile we did. If we had to do it again now, I'd probably just stick LVT down there. I didn't know travertine needed special care, etc. I do kind of remember it being sealed at installation, but the grout never was I don't think. We honestly don't spend a ton of time down there (except in the gym portion where there is a gym floor) so it doesn't get much traffic. It's currently a disaster since I had to haul out everything from my Christmas closet so we could run new gas line for our BBQ grill. I've noticed some pitted areas and some stains here and there (thanks to my three previous cats for puking down there!). We did spend time down there on the unfinished side of our basement over the weekend (cleaning up the mess from when sewer line backed up and we had to saw cut 10x2x2 section of concrete and finally got it filled back in and the area put back together). And the travertine floors caught my attention for whatever reason, and I thought to myself, I wonder if hubby would strangle me if I suggested we install some other floor over the travertine lol! Also funny is we have slate in the basement powder room. While it looks cool, the texture annoys me. When the sewer line backed up the plumber said he could remove the toilet to snake out the drain that way, but it would damage the floor (the toilet is grouted to the floor or something crazy) and I told him I didn't care because I hate the floor haha! Also, we had a ranch house in SW FL that had 24x24 tiles throughout. I loved it for the ease of cleaning, but hated dealing with keeping the grout clean.

Not sure I'm much help at all! If you'll have the roomba and scuba thing to help keep things clean and you love the zebra brownie travertine, then go for it! But what would you do on the stairs?

I'm going to find your post and copy this there too.

I smeared the sealer on the extra tiles last night and will attempt cleaning them hopefully tomorrow night. I have acetone and bar keepers friend to try out.

So I went a different route and grabbed a couple 3M sanding pads from the office (green and maroon). Used the green first for a bit then the red. Look pretty good. Then I tried a magic eraser and it did just as well. Neither caused any issue to the gloss finish of the tiles. So I will use the magic eraser and hit any stubborn areas with acetone.

@Lynn Lou glad to hear you found a solution that works for you. ☺️