Polishing Marble – Tiling Tips – Tips and Information About Tiling

Polishing and Honing Marble Sealing Marble Tiles

Deep Shine Achieved on Dull Marble Flooring in Cambridge

18th May 2021 Reese Mackie 0 Comments cambridge, floor maintenance, Great Shelford, Honing Marble, Marble Floor Cleaning, Polishing Marble, sealing marble tiles

This customer from village of Great Shelford south of Cambridge was unhappy with their Marble tiled floor which lost its lustre relatively quickly quickly after being laid. Fortunately, she was given our contact details from a neighbour who we completed a Marble re-polish for a couple years ago and the floor still looks amazing. Polished Marble will loose its appearance over time, especially in a Kitchen due to abrasion it receives from foot traffic and the use of the wrong cleaning product. Because of this problem Tile Doctor now offer a maintenance program where we make an annual visit to the property to re-polish the floor and top up the sealer. After discussing the floor, I recommended we hone the Marble tiles with a set of burnishing pads which will bring back the polished appearance and then work in a crystallising powder to achieve a deep shine before applying a sealer to protect the stone going forward. This is the procedure we followed for her neighbour and she was happy to have the same. Honing Marble Floor Tiles Firstly, I removed the existing sealer and dirt with a 400-grit diamond burnishing pad which is applied with water to provide lubrication. Although this initially appears to make the floor look worse, this is only temporary and is the first step in

Polishing a Damaged Marble Bathroom Countertop in Norfolk

14th May 2021 Reese Mackie 0 Comments Acid Etching, Limelite, marble countertop, Marble Handbasin, Norwich, Polishing Marble, Removing Limescale, Resurfacing Marble, Stone Polishing, Swardeston, Viakal

My client in the village of Swardeston (just south of Norwich) had attempted to remove limescale deposits from a Marble bathroom countertop using a supermarket Limescale remover and ended up making the whole problem worse. The water in Norfolk is exceptionally hard and can quickly leave a thick build-up of limescale in kettles and bathroom fittings. This isn’t a problem to keep on top of using an acidic cleaner like Viakal or Limelite however these products are acidic and not recommended for use on or near an acid-sensitive natural stone such as Marble or Limestone. In-fact the surface of Marble and Limestone is instantly etched when they come into contact with these products thereby ruining the appearance of the stone. This is exactly what had happened to our client in Swardeston and, over time, the surface of her marble vanity unit became severely etched leaving the stone completely dull, pitted, and unattractive. She had assumed the dullness was due to limescale build-up so just kept applying the product which of course exacerbated the problem to the point where the replacement of the large and very expensive twin-basin Marble countertop seemed to be the only option. Removing Limescale and Acid Etching from a Marble Countertop Looking for a solution we were asked to visit

Marble Show House Floor Renovated in Wokingham

13th May 2021 Reese Mackie 0 Comments berkshire, Burnishing Marble, grout cleaning, kitchen floor, Marble Floor Tiles, Polishing Marble, Sealing Marble, Wokingham

I had a call out late last year to a property in the market town of Wokingham to survey a dull Marble floor which was installed throughout most of the ground floor. It turns out that the house was only built two years prior and had been the show home for a new development. The owner explained to me that to show off the potential of the new homes the developer had installed quality materials throughout, particularly the marble flooring, however the property had seen more than its fair share of foot traffic because of it. Two years of wear later and the owner was concerned with how dull the Marble floor was and the appearance of small circular stains which had appeared throughout. I explained that Marble which is made from calcium is easily etched by the use of acidic cleaning products and that most tile cleaners you purchase in supermarkets are really only for use on Ceramic or Vinyl floor tiles. I suspect any sealer used on the floor to protect the stone had also been worn away for the same reason resulting in the now dull appearance. After explaining the process, I would use for burnishing the Marble to deep clean and restore the shine I measured up and worked out a quotation. I received a message later that evening comforting they would like to go ahead, and a date was

Marble Posts

Restoring the Appearance of Polished Marble in a Cambridgeshire Bathroom

22nd November 2018 Reese Mackie 0 Comments Bathroom Tile, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, Damaged Stone, marble restoration, Marble Surround, marble tile, Polishing Marble

We were asked to visit a property in Cambourne to look at restoring the appearance of the stone in an opulent marble tiled bathroom. Cambourne is a new area of Cambridge which has been developed over recent years with the creation of many new homes. The gorgeous bathroom design and layout of this home was was a key feature of the property. The owner had employed a general cleaner to give their house a spring clean. Unfortunately, they had used inappropriate products whilst under taking the clean of the marble tiles in the bathroom which ruined its appearance. This is an easy mistake to make, people are often unaware that polished stone such as this should only be treated with specialist products. Many household cleaning products are too strong to be used on natural stone and can cause damage, so always read the label. As you can see from the pictures, the products the cleaner used etched the surface of the marble ruining the polished appearance and they were at a loss to restore it. Restoring Polish to a Marble Tiled Bathroom I wasn’t surprised to find that they couldn’t restore the polished appearance of the Marble, as a hard stone needs to be burnished to build up a polish. I suspected that the product the cleaner used on the stone much of been acid based as only an

Marble Posts

Removing Limescale from Black Marble Bathroom Tiles

17th August 2017 Reese Mackie 0 Comments Baldock, Bathroom Tiles, cleaning marble tiles, limescale removal, North Hertfordshire, Polishing, Polishing Marble, Sealing Marble

This customer in Baldock, North Hertfordshire has a beautiful Black Marble bathroom floor which unfortunately was far from looking its best due to a build-up Limescale. Normally this can be removed with an acidic cleaning product however Marble like all natural stones is acid sensitive would be damaged in the process. The only way to remove the Limescale would be to polish it off using a set of diamond pads which would also restore a high shine finish to the Marble floor tiles. Removing Limescale from Polished Black Marble The first step before starting the process was to cover the threshold edges, skirting’s and doors with tape to protect it from splashing etc. Next we used a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro Clean which is an alkaline tile and grout cleaner with hand brushes to clean-up the thin gout lines and remove any grit from the floor. The floor was then rinsed with fresh water to remove the now soiled cleaning product and also steam cleaned to neutralise floor. The water was extracted from the floor using a wet vacuum. Honing Black Marble to Restore Polish To bring back the natural shine we honed the floor using a series of diamond-encrusted burnishing pads. Firstly, I applied a Coarse 400 grit pad to strip away what remained of the old sealer and Limescale,