Cleaning marble and tile floors can be frustrating. Normal vacuuming, sweeping and mopping obviously works to some degree. But over time, soils can build up in grout lines or in the natural crevices of stone. That’s especially true of stone that has a rough and irregular surface, like tumbled marble floors.
And grout lines tend to look worn and darker over time, but the rough surface doesn’t respond much to normal mopping.
The photo above was a before and after view of a kitchen South of Boston. The way we approached cleaning this tumbled marble floor was to use high alkaline cleaning liquids and a scrubbing machine with counter rotating stiff nylon brushes. Plenty of water, lots of time to soak in before scrubbing. Oh, and we decided to hand scrub every grout line with a stff nylon brush to give it maximum force!
Homeowner was very pleased and the work was finished within her timetable for an upcoming party.
Cleaning Floor Grout Lines
Sometimes the hardest part of cleaning marble and tile floors is not the tile itself – it’s the grout lines! Because they are very porous, it’s very easy for soils to get trapped inside the micro pores of the grout. If you run your hands over a sanded grout line, it feels about as rough as sidewalk cement. No wonder it’s difficult to get it clean!
The floor photos above were from a job in Bedford Massachusetts. The homeowners wanted to get their grout lines back to the original color. The grout lines were somewhat faded and had lost the rich earthy red color that matched the tiles nicely.
In this case, we decided to apply a tinted color sealer to the grout. After cleaning the tile floor, we had to do the sealer application on hands and knees, (This stage of the job has no shortcuts – you have to go over every single grout line carefully). The color sealer brought the floor back to life and since it’s a tough coating, future cleaning will be more effective. Basically, the grout lines are no longer porous after this sealer.
When to Call a Pro
Some types of cleaning chemicals can actually damage stone. If you want to use a new product, do yourself a favor and read all the fine print on the back label. If you see something like ‘Not for natural stone’, then don’t use it! That’s likely code for ‘contains acid which will instantly etch your natural stone’! If you’ve etched a polished marble surface, repolishing it is not a DIY project, even if you’re relatively handy.
For routine maintenance, I found some fairly useful cleaning and maintenance tips at a credible source, The Natural Stone Institute. This page https://www.naturalstoneinstitute.org/consumers/care/ has all the basics you need for routine cleaning. If you have an issue with your stone or tile floors that you’re wondering about, feel free to give us a call at 617-221-4002 We can likely talk you through most cleaning tasks on the phone, for free. Most of our customers send a photo or two and that usually provides enough for us to get you a quote if you need professional cleaning and restoration.
Heavy Duty Floor Stripping
The photos below were from a historic home in Brookline. They had a slate floor in the basement with a clear gloss urethane coating. Unfortunately, a flood damaged the finish and left an ugly, flaking mess. In order to clean it off, we had to use solvent paint remover and follow with high alkaline water based cleaning. Another hands and knees job! (Note: if you decide to use solvent based paint removers, please be very careful since most of them sold on the market today are flammable. You need good ventilation and should not allow any flame in the room, since the vapor is flammable).
If you have a project you’d like a quote for, feel free to get in touch. You can fill in the form below or just call or text us at 617-221-4002
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile
15 Main Street # 138
Watertown MA 02472-4403
https://cleanpolishmarblegraniteboston.com
617-221-4002 Text or Call
