One thing I like about living in an older town like Boston is the original marble floors that you see in the common areas of apartments. Many of these are now condominium hallways and the owners wisely kept the marble floors to convey luxury and style. Sometimes they’re only in the lobby, but sometimes all the stairs are thick chunks of marble, and even the walls. Cleaning the marble stairs and halls can be a problem, though.
After all, our New England winters drag sand and salt in. Additionally, think of years of foot traffic, plain old wear and tear. Eventually marble floors and stairs start to look ‘beat up’. They attract soil that you just can’t clean away, regardless of how much liquid detergent your cleaning company uses. As a result, we’ve seen some people blame their cleaning staff for not being able to clean the marble stairs and halls well enough.
Don’t Put the Blame on the Cleaner! Cleaning Marble is a Job for the Pros!
Don’t fire your cleaning person! At some point, they need more than plain cleaning. Occasionally they need a ‘tune up’. Basically, that’s a marble restoration project that calls for us to use diamond abrasives. Essentially, we actually sand away the scratches from foot traffic and expose fresh stone.
That’s not a job for an amateur – your cleaning company is wise to pass on it.
Give us a call and we can do it for you. The diamond honing pads gently remove a paper-thin layer of the stone. Then we apply clear penetrating sealer to protect the marble. All honing is always done wet to avoid airborne dust.
Frequently, we also caulk or grout the edges of the stairs so the whole job looks fresh and new.
Condominiums can gain value from a stunning looking common area – or they can lose value if it looks beat up and neglected. Make sure you keep the value of your investment high and enjoy your marble the way it was meant to be experienced!
The pictures below are from a building in the Brookline area. The owners wanted the marble floor on the steps and lobby to reflect the care they had put into the renovation and restoration of the property. The job was done on a fairly tight schedule, on budget and the results speak for themselves. In this case, they didn’t want a polished, shiny finish – just a clean and honed look and a smooth edge treatment with white caulking. If you click on the pictures, you can get a higher resolution photo.
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- Brookline Marble steps before cleaning
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- Brookline Marble steps and lobby before cleaning
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- Brookline Marble stairs half honed and half soiled
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- Brookline Marble steps and lobby after cleaning
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- Brookline Marble steps after cleaning from top view
If you own or manage a condominium with similar issues, feel free to give us a call or text for a free estimate at 617-221-4002 or fill out the form below. We service Boston, Cambridge and all the suburbs in Eastern Massachusetts.
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile
15 Main Street # 138
Watertown MA 02472-4403
617-221-4002 Text or Call
