Things to know before getting your stone floor cleaned or polished.

Facts about getting your Marble, Limestone, Terrazzo or Travertine floor looking nice a shiny and how to get it professionally re-polished again can be a daunting prospect.

Our aim is to help you understand the facts so you can make an informed decision to ask potential contractors the right questions.

Let's start by understanding the different types of stone:

Marble is a metamorphic rock. This means it over many years and due to high pressure and heat deep underground it turned into a stone known as marble.

Travertine is a stone that is characterised by all the tiny (and sometimes bigger) holes. It is formed in water springs where water flows through it. When the stone is cut, the holes in the stone can be filled using a resin. This is known as filled Travertine. Unfilled Travertine is also available.

Limestone is formed in the sea where all sea creatures and sand collects over many years and this is why you find fossils in the stone.

Terrazzo is part natural and part man made. Pieces of marble or other natural stone and mix with a resin to form a new block of stone this is then carved up and polished.
Why should you restore your stone floor?

Stone floors are many times sold as low maintenance floors. Sadly this is not the case. Stone floors require ongoing care.

Over time the surface of the stone floor start to wear out and more dirt stick to it easier. It's somewhat like a smooth piece of glass that eventually turn into a rough piece of sandpaper. All this happens on a microscopic level on the floor.

Over time the stone absorb more of the dirt and acids in the water and cleaning solutions start breaking the stone down faster.

If the stone is left untreated for extended periods of time the restoration that it will require will be extensive.

What happens during restoration?

In the case of professional stone floor cleaning and polishing - even if it is only to get a sheen on the stone and not a high shine the following steps should be taken:

Just like sanding a piece of wood down you will use a special diamond disc. Usually at around 60 grit. This is the size of the diamond particles in the disc.

This is then followed using a finer and finer grit until about 3000 grit if a glass like finish is required. Lower if only a sheen is required.

During this process a special stone soap is used that will give the stone the ability to repel dirt and liquids. The machines that are used to grind or polish stone can vary from one contractor to another.

Many smaller stone floor restorers will use a standard rotary machine.

Some more advanced cleaners or stone floor restorers will use heavy rotary machines claiming they are specialist machines. The problem with these are that they are mono disc machines - this means that there is a single disc below the machine that turns only in one direction. In most cases this will not remove un-evenness also known as lippage between stone tiles. The finished result will be good but not great.

The best way to fully restore a natural stone floor will be to use a Levigator.

This is a specialist multi head stone polishing machine and here is how it works. Like before industrial diamonds are used starting at about 60 grit. The main differences are:

- The Levigator is extremely heavy - this means a better result is achieved as the floor will be much flatter afterwards, the machine has multiple heads fitted with diamond bonded discs. These heads turns in a planetary motion. With this you get a much flatter floor with a much finer finish.

- The work is also faster with a planetary machine as it will be much more efficient than a mono disc rotary due to 3 cutting heads.

The final step in the stone floor restoration process will be to polish the floor using special polishing powder. This close the stone up and greatly reduce its ability to absorb liquids

Art of Clean has been cleaning and polishing stone floors in Cambridge and surrounding towns and villages for many years now. Our mission is to provide the most outstanding service experience. To deliver you with the best possible finish on your Marble, Travertine, Limestone or Terrazzo stone floor we have invested in the most state of the art stone restoration equipment and the best training for our team we could find.

For advice on stone floor restoration in Cambridge please give us a call on 01223 863 632