Slate tiling...probably picked the hardest for my first tiling job! Help!!!!

About 1 week ago, we installed multi-colored 12x12 slate tiles in our kitchen that we picked up from Lowes. This past sunday, we decided to grout. Due to the tiles being a bit dirty from the tile saw, we decided not to seal the tiles before grouting thinking we'd seal in the dirt. So, onto grouting we went. After grouting the entire floor, we noticed the expected haze that is left on the floor from the grout. We let the floor set for 2 days and now are attempting to clean off the haze and once that's done, then seal the floor. Here are the issues that we're running into.

1. We can't really get all of the haze off to get the rich color of the tile that we originally had

2. Some of the colors from the tile are now bleeding into the grout, discoloring it.

Here's what we've tried to clean off the haze. We've bought a 'grout cleanup kit' from the local Lowes that consists of some nylon pads with different roughnesses to them and a handle to use with them. We've scrubbed the flooring with the most abrasive pad that comes in the kit, dry, and then vaccumed up the debris that gets left. It looked better, but still no where near what we had. Then we took a sponge and tried scrubbing/wiping the tile clean and I beleive this is were the color bleeding starts. Although I also notice that just scrubbing, dry, also fades the grout a bit with the haze residue.

What I am hoping someone can help me with is:

1. How to get the haze off and ultimately get my slate back to a beautiful rich color

2. How to clean some of the stained grout and get it back to its original color

All help is greatly apprecaited. This is my first time tiling and feel really good at what I've accomplished. These issues has just really put me down and takes away the excitement.

Did you ever get the grout problem fixed? I have the exact same problem with the slate i bought from Lowes.

Thanks,

Arnie

There is a product called grout haze remover that you can buy. http://www.nothingbuthardware.com/272840.html

I've used it before and it works... um... okay. But seriously, you really need to scrub the hell out of the floor to get the grout off if it is really hazy. And an acidic solution will help - any diluted acid should work as well as this product you can buy but do be careful working with acid.

You should get as much off as you can and then use a color enhancing sealer on it. http://www.stoneproonline.com/sealers/color_enhancer.htm This will restore those bright colors that you liked when the tile was wet or not hazy.

And finally... if none of the above works you can use Pledge spray on it and you won't see the haze and the colors will be bright, but it will be a bit slick.