If your stone flooring or counters are showing light scratches, water marks, or streaks that are not removed with daily cleaning or by crystallizing, then you will need to use a slightly deeper method of restoration.
Stone Polishing (or Honing) would be the next step, assuming the surface is not so damaged as to merit diamond grinding. Honing and polishing are essentially the same procedure, but they differ slightly in supplies. Stone floors vary in color, density, and type of material. Because of this, different compounds are used to restore different floors.
For marble, limestone, terrazzo, travertine restoration most commonly uses Marble Polishing Compound (or MPC). For Granite (as well as some of the harder black and green marbles), Granite Polishing Compound (or GPC) is used. These products come packaged as either a powder or a ready-to-use paste. The powder cannot be used dry, and can easily be made into a paste before use.
To hone flooring you will need:
- A weighted floor machine
- natural hair (tan) or red floor pads
- a large spray bottle
- MPC or GPC
- a squeegee
- a wet vacuum
- a wet mop and mop bucket
- caution tape and wet floor signs
- a floor mat.
Honing the floor:
- Daily clean: Sweep and mop.
- Setup area: Secure the area with caution tape and wet floor signs as needed. Move anything covering the surface. Stage and prepare supplies to be used.
- Mix MPC or GPC to the consistency of soft peanut butter and apply one or two scoops to your surface.
- Working is 2′ x 2′ or 3′ x 3′ areas, make four to seven slow passes with the weighted machine equipped with the natural hair (or red) pad under it. MAKE SURE TO NOT LET THE SLURRY DRY! Apply small amounts of water and stone soap mixture to keep your compound slurry just wetter than the peanut buttery consistency mentioned before.
- Pull back the slurry compound using a squeegee to check if the damage (scratches, dullness, spotting) is returning to the expected natural gloss.
- Pull all slurry to the new 3′ x 3′ section. This allows progress to continue with no downtime or waste of product!
- Rinse the honed section and wet vac making sure the surface has no unwanted residue or imperfections. Never let the slurry dry and harden.
- Continue moving from section to section until the desired area is restored completely. Rinse entire floor with stone soap.
- Crystallize…
Important tips:
- Protect baseboards, metal, trim, carpeting, and electrical work prior to starting any project.
- Use caution signs, mats, and tape prior to working.
- Use a mat to wipe feet when entering / exiting your area being restored as not to track dirt or slurry between sections. This doubles as a place to stage supplies.
If scratches or damage are not removed with honing, your floor has received enough damage to merit diamond grinding.
You must log in to post a comment.