Need Some Help Restoring Damaged Marble Floors in Your Home?

 

Marble floors in any home represent one of the most desirable stone on the market, due to its look and its supreme resilience. However, they’re not invulnerable to damage and when it occurs, it’s time to turn to professional marble restoration services like ours. 

At Tile Cleaning Agents, we have years of experience in marble tile restoration and so we know a thing or two about how to approach the repair process. As we aspire to be a helpful team, we thought we would provide you with some advice on what to do when your marble flooring needs some TLC. 

In many cases, there may be a way for you to prevent or manage any damage that occurs, and even if you can’t, our professional marble repair team is always there for you. So don’t panic or do anything that might make the problem worse.

 

Removing Scratches from Marble

 Scratches on marble can easily happen, for example if your grandchildren come around for tea, and instead of using crayons on paper they decide to draw with little sharp objects into the soft stone. In this instance, it’s best to call the experts, as our marble repair services team can deal with scratches in within an hour and have the surface re-polished for you.

 This particular black marble was very tough and because the tiles were small we had to deal with a lot of grout and lippage challenges (explained below). Because of the lippage these scratches had to be removed by hand before bringing the larger machine. 

Vinegar Stain on Marble

 You should avoid spilling anything acidic on your marble floor, as by the time it hits the surface it’s already too late, regardless of how soon you clean it up. The marble restoration technique we use for vinegar stains is to sand and polish, a technique that can only be possible due to the thickness and durability of the stone tile. It is possible to restore stone tiles with hand-tools but this could cause the targeted area to become deeper than the surrounding stone, so it’s best to use a larger floor-rotary machine so that the repaired marble can be blended in to the surrounding tiles. This technique is called “feathering in”.

This picture shows a large spillage on a limestone floor. This particular limestone is quite compact and smooth with similar characteristics to marble. You can't always see the spillage stain when standing above it but it's visible when the light reflects across the surface. Restoring this floor produced the most beautiful shine and you would never have known there was a spillage there. 

Efflorescence in Stone Floors

  Efflorescence is caused by the movement of salt within marble and it is characterised by a white hue on the surface of the tile. This phenomenon is typical in newly-laid limestone and marble tiles, where the tiler perhaps forgot to use an impermeable glue that would otherwise separate the underlying cement, which contains the salts, from the permeable stone above.

Cement can take a very long time to cure, months or even years. During this time there may be slight movement in the tiles as the cement dehydrates, potentially causing the stone to crack and at the time releasing its efflorescent chemicals to the surface. Efflorescence itself isn’t a problem, it’s just an eyesore that requires regular removal until the salts are eventually depleted.

In order to keep it under control before your next marble repair appointment, we’d recommend scrubbing the floor with a medium-strength brush (not too hard) with a neutral pH stone cleaning solution. It might come back, which would lead you to repeating the same measure again.

This picture was taken of a patio that had no barrier between the cement and the stone. It clearly shows the underlying cement been squeezed to the outer edge of the patio floor. 

 

Re-grouting Stone Floors

 Marble can be almost as hard as concrete, making it nearly impossible to sand with our machines. In this project, the old floor previously had a carpet glued on top of it and the new owners of the house wanted to restore the blocks of stone rather than cover or replace them. 

At first, the tiles seemed to be made of concrete because it had a perfect man-made pattern on the surface which turned out to be glue spots. Who would’ve guessed that as the tiles were cleaned, little fossils started to appear below the dirt! 

The surface was sealed, with the dirty old grey grout and mud being replaced with a lighter “praline” colour before the tiles were sealed again. Today the floor feels much more inviting, like a home. Certainly, a job for professional marble repair specialists rather than one you can tackle yourself.

 

Correcting Lippage in Marble Floors

 Something else that’s regularly encountered by our marblerestoration team is lippage, which is caused when tiles are installed within one or more tiles being laid higher than the neighbouring tiles. While it might only be a small amount of protrusion, it can ruin materials used during a tile polishing service.

The diamond pads that marble repair professionals use to restore the shine to stone floors are usually stiff discs made of resin that cannot bend, and lippage can cause these discs could crack during the service. If we’re lucky enough to be able to restore this type of floor without damaging our discs, the overall appearance of the marble floor could result in what’s known as the picture-framing effect. This is because the discs were not able to reach the lower portion of the tiles around the edges. 

Here’s an example of a picture frame effect. For this reason many suppliers have started to manufacture softer sponge-type pads that are more flexible and can reach these lower sections of the tiles. However these types of pads produce a surface with an orange-peel effect that has low clarity of reflections, rather than a super-flat mirror finish.

It’s still a beautiful shiny result, but the clarity is not as vivid and the tile starts to feel a little lumpy. This is because the sponge gently knocks out small particles of softer stone, leaving behind the harder material. In some limestone tiles, which consist of bumpy little particles, it’s not a very attractive result. On the other hand, the denser Carrera marble stone with wavy patterns can produce the most beautiful leather-like surface that’s very interesting look at and feel as it reveals the natural curves of the stone’s formation.

 

Need Help with Marble Repair Issues? Call Us Today!

 We’ve looked at a few common marble restoration topics and you may have noticed that on many occasions, it’s best left alone until professional marble repair services like ours can provide assistance. The last thing you want to do is exacerbate the problem by trying your own restoration methods which could cause further damage.

 At Tile Cleaning Agents, we’ve done extensive research into marble repair techniques and been trained by a variety of nationally renowned experts. This means that we have discovered ways to overcome these challenges in a safe manner.

 Not only can we offer that mirror finish regardless of damage caused by spillages or lippage, we can do it so much faster than other specialists in our industry. So, if you’ve wondered why our prices are competitive, it’s not because we forfeit quality, but rather because we’ve learned how to be efficient!

 

If you’d like a free quote for your marble restoring needs, all you need to do is enter your details into our contact form on our website here: https://www.tilecleaningagents.co.uk/ and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, if you’d like to speak to us directly, give us a call today on 01344 374671 or send us a text at 07919 624005.