Marble Tile Cleaning

Welcome to my Work History archive where you will find detailed examples of the cleaning and renovation of Marble tiles carried out in South West London

Cleaning and Polishing Marble tiles

Marble is reputed in the international market for its premium quality, toughness and durability. It is often the preferred choice for interior and exterior in both commercial and domestic situations for flooring, wall cladding, paving, facades of buildings, pavements and landscaping.

One of the main issues with polished Marble is the polish starts to wear down with use and eventually becomes dull. Another issue we see is acid etching where strong unsuitable cleaning products used on the stone etch the surface and ruin its appearance. To resolve both these problems the stone needs to be re-polished with diamond encrusted burnishing pads of different grits to hone the stone and bring back that deep shine. If this sounds familiar you should talk to us about our annual maintenance program where we visit you once a year to clean, polish and seal your floor thus keeping it in top condition.

Below you will find detailed examples of work we have carried out in the past, it should give you some idea of what’s involved and what can be achieved with the right techniques and products.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Restoration Twickenham

Mould-stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Restoration in Twickenham

1 Comment / Grout Cleaning, Marble Tile Cleaning, Twickenham Tile Cleaning /

As you can see from the photographs below this Marble tiled bathroom at a property in Twickenham had a very bad case severe case of mould staining. The client was trying to decide if the tiles were too far gone for restoration after letting a property for the past 4 years, the tenants unfortunately didn’t let him know the state of things.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Before Cleaning Twickenham

Keen to have the problem resolved quickly I managed to move some things around called into the property the following day. I was confident that the mould could be removed however you do need to be careful with Marble as its acid sensitive, also I could see the tiles had a factory seal so proceeded with caution and was able to demonstrate that the problems could be rectified.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Before Cleaning Twickenham

Happy with the proposed solution and keen to get the property back on the rental market I was immediately booked to return the following week.

Cleaning Mould from Marble Bathroom Tiles

Day one for this job was to remove all mould from the tiles. To do this I lightly rubbed Tile Doctor Acid-Gel into small sections of the tiles until I could see the clean surface and then immediately washed off with clean water, making sure I got every part of the tiles to avoid any runoff.

Work proceeded in this manner until all the tiles free of mould and dirt. With the mould staining removed I noticed some of the tiles were effected by grout haze which happens when the tiler fails to polish off all the grout during installation. It wasn’t part of the initial quote however I felt obliged to deal with it so more Acid Gel and elbow grease was applied until that was removed allowing the details of the Marble tiling to come through.

Next step was to treat the grout lines using a similar process with Acid Gel but for this I used a wire brush to remove surface staining leaving the grout clean and returning the grout lines to their original colour.

To bring up the appearance of the Marble tiling a six-inch 1500-grit burnishing pad fitted to a handheld machine was run over each tile several times using only water for lubrication. This was then followed with a very fine 3500-grit pad to bring up the polish.

Once I was happy that the finish on the Marble tiles was as good as it could get, I then re-inspected the grout and decided to replace some areas of grouting that had suffered deep staining. I used a coloured grout to match what was originally there.

Last step before leaving for the day was to strip out all the silicone sealant from the wall verticals and along the bath and allowed the joints to dry overnight.

Applying a Grout Colourant to Marble Bathroom Tiles

The next day I returned the next day to finish the project off starting with an inspection to ensure nothing had been missed. At this point I felt the grout could still be improve so all grout lines were coloured with a Tile Doctor Grout Colourant to ensure a consistent appearance. I was hoping to avoid this but I felt it was the best solution to bring the bathroom to an “as new” appearance. The colourant also acts as a barrier over the grout making it much easier to keep clean.

Last step was to apply new mould resistant silicone sealant to the verticals and along the bath which finished off the project nicely. They still had some work to do including painting the ceiling but from my point of view I was very happy with the way the Marble tile and grout had responded to the treatment.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom After Cleaning Twickenham

My work was done so I called the client who was keen to come over and look. To say they were shocked is an understatement, they were considering ripping all the tiles out and replacing but luckily, we saved them a small fortune. For aftercare I advised increasing the ventilation and using a mild cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Aqua Pro.

Severe Mould Stained Marble Tiled Bathroom After Cleaning Twickenham

 

Professional Restoration of a Marble Tiled Bathroom in Southwest London

Mould-stained Marble Tiled Bathroom Restoration in Twickenham Read More »

Dull Marble Kitchen Countertop Polishing Surbiton

Restoring the Polish to a Marble Kitchen Countertop in Surbiton

1 Comment / Marble Tile Cleaning, Surbiton Tile Cleaning /

Whilst I was working on a stone floor at a property in Surbiton I was asked if I could do anything about the Marble Countertops in the Kitchen. The Marble had almost completely lost its shine and the owner was keen to have those re-polished to finish the kitchen renovation.

Dull Marble Kitchen Countertop Before Polishing Surbiton

Fortunately, the methods and products we use to renovate stone floors can also be used to restore stone worktops as well. The only difference being we can’t use 17” floor buffers on worktops and countertops so for those we source smaller 6” pads.

The countertop had been worked on before by a different company previously but they had done a horrible job. Bu the time I was asked to look at it the Marble was very dull and covered in different marks, staining from acidic food and lots of etching.

Dull Marble Kitchen Countertop Before Polishing Surbiton

Polishing a Marble Kitchen Countertop

First thing we did was to cover the kitchen in drop cloth and grey blankets to stop the slurry that’s generated during polishing dripping onto the stone floor below.

I then worked through a set of Diamond encrusted Burnishing pads fitted to a handheld DeWalt machine. The pads are applied to the Marble in sequence from 400 to 1500 grit using water for lubrication and then the waste is extracted after each pad using a small Numatic wet vacuum. I inspected the stone after the first pass through the pads and decided it could be better so started again working my way back up through the pads. You can see from the photographs there was a lot of Marble worktop to cover so this did take some time.

Sealing a Marble Countertop

I then left the stone to dry overnight and returned the following day to finish the job starting with a damp test on an electronic moisture meter which showed the Marble was dry.

To bring up a deep shine on the Marble the countertop was given a final polish with a very fine 3000 grit pad using a little water sprayed onto the surface. This final pad adds a nice deep shine to the stone and although it leaves the surface dry, I left an air blower running for a while to make sure.

Later that day I applied a few very fine coats of Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal and gave the surface another buff with a microfiber cloth. This sealer is an impregnator that soaks into the pores of the Marble preventing contaminants from becoming ingrained there and ensuring they remain on the surface where they can easily be cleaned away. Being an oil-based sealer, it really helped to bring out the beauty and colour of the Marble.

Dull Marble Kitchen Countertop After Polishing Surbiton

For the aftercare of stone worktops, we recommend the use of Stone Patina Spray which is a spray-and-buff cleaner that is designed to enhance the natural beauty and lustre of polished stone as it cleans.

Dull Marble Kitchen Countertop After Polishing Surbiton

 

Professional Restoration of a Marble Kitchen Worktop in South London

Restoring the Polish to a Marble Kitchen Countertop in Surbiton Read More »

Acid Damaged Marble Tabletop Renovated in Putney

Restoring the Appearance of a Marble Coffee Tabletop in Putney

Marble Tile Cleaning /

The photographs below are from a client in Putney, and show what will happen to a Polished Marble tabletop if you try and clean it with Viakal. Marble is made from calcium and magnesium carbonate which makes it acid sensitive, Viakal on the other hand is an acid cleaner blended from Formic and Citric acids resulting in a pH level of 2.2. This product uses the acid to dissolve the calcium and magnesium deposits in Limescale.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table Before Renovation Putney

To be fair to Viakal the label does state not to use it on natural stone, but who reads the label, certainly my clients cleaner hadn’t. The result was the acid had etched the lovely, polished Marble surface and it appeared to be ruined.

I was happy to re-assure my client that the etching could be removed, however, to do this the table would need to be burnished with a set of diamond pads of different grades. This process cuts into the stone with a coarse pad to remove the etching and then slowly builds back the polished appearance using finer grades of pad. The table was very heavy however so the work would need to be done on-site.

Polishing a Marble Tabletop

Due to the weight of the stone table, it couldn’t really be moved so my first job was to relocate nearby furniture, roll up the rug and cover everything in blankets and a drop cloth. The last thing I wanted was any other possessions getting splashed during the burnishing process.

When polishing Marble floor tiles, I would normally use large 17-inch diamond pads fitted to a rotary floor buffer, however that simply wouldn’t work on a table, so I ordered a set of 6-inch burnishing pads from Tile Doctor instead. These smaller pads fit nicely on a hand-held buffer that would be perfect for this situation.

The burnishing process involves working through the pads in sequence. I started with the coarse 100, 200 and then 400-grit pads applied with a little water, these coarse pads were able to remove the etching and ingrained dirt. The table was rinsed down and then the 800-grit medium pad was applied which is the first step in the polishing process. Again, this pad is applied with water to lubricate, and the table was rinsed down afterwards.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table During Renovation Putney

The process was repeated with the 1500-grit fine pad and then the 3000-grit very fine pad to bring up a really nice shine to the Marble table, I should mention the last pad is applied dry with only a tiny amount of water sprayed onto the surface.

Sealing a Marble Table

The last step was to seal the stone to protect it going forward. I used Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal for this, it’s an oil-based impregnator and I figured the oil in the sealer would mask any marks that I wouldn’t be able to remove, however I actually ended up removing all the etching so the sealer just gave the stone a really nice colour and gloss.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table After Renovation Putney

My customer was very pleased with the work and said that the table looked better than it ever had before. NB. For the aftercare cleaning of a polished Marble coffee table like this I recommend the use of Tile Doctor Stone Patina Spray which has been especially formulated for the regular cleaning of stone worktops.

 

Professional Restoration of a Marble Tabletop in South London

Restoring the Appearance of a Marble Coffee Tabletop in Putney Read More »

=================================

Ashford Tile Cleaning, Brentford Tile Cleaning, Ceramic Tile Cleaning, Encaustic Cement Tile Cleaning, Feltham Tile Cleaning, Fireplace Cleaning, Flagstone Tile Cleaning, Grout Cleaning, Kingston Upon Thames Tile Cleaning, Limestone Tile Cleaning and Polishing, Marble Tile Cleaning, Porcelain Tile Cleaning, Quarry Tile Cleaning, Richmond Tile Cleaning, Sandstone Tile Cleaning, Slate Tile Cleaning, Staines Tile Cleaning, Staines-upon-Thames Tile Cleaning, Stanwell Tile Cleaning, Surbiton Tile Cleaning, Terracotta Tile Cleaning, Terrazzo Floor Cleaning, Travertine Tile Cleaning, Twickenham Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Vinyl Tile Cleaning, Work by Category, Work by Location, Work History /

South West London Tile Doctor

================================= Read More »

╳
Scroll to Top