[DP]

Have got a marble tile entrance hall that was not sealed when first laid, therefore that lovely glass  polished finish has dulled considerably from foot traffic, but the edges remain as new.

Have tried polishes, but they dull again very quickly, it seems the only way to get this back is to re- polish/grind the surface back in situ again.

Has anyone had any experiance of this and is there any mobile kit that can be hired, or is this a contractors job.

Any advice/help much appreciated.

DP

[Kevin_Whitlow]

Have got a marble tile entrance hall that was not sealed when first laid, therefore that lovely glass  polished finish has dulled considerably from foot traffic, but the edges remain as new.

Have tried polishes, but they dull again very quickly, it seems the only way to get this back is to re- polish/grind the surface back in situ again.

Has anyone had any experiance of this and is there any mobile kit that can be hired, or is this a contractors job.

Any advice/help much appreciated.

DP

DP

All the info youneed to find any answers is a site I subscibe too www.findstone.com

[keith b]

DP,

Check out these sites - http://www.scotchcare-services.co.uk/marble.php

http://www.capstonecare.co.uk/universal.php

keith b

[DP]

Many thanks guys. I have viewed and bookmarked these sites

It seems that I do need to re-polish/hone the surface and it is quite a common problem. However there seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether this can be done with a pad on a buffing machine or need further specialist equipment.

I have now secured a professional service cost for the work @ £150 per square metre which equates to twice the cost of the floor in the first place, hardly a viable solution.

So it has now become a search for the diamond cutting pastes and pads/polishes and a good instruction book  

Any further pointers on the trade supplies of these products/ equipment would be greatly appreciated.

[keith b]

DP,

Try this trade association, they should point you in the right direction for supplies etc.
http://www.buildingconservation.com/directory/4s182.htm

[David Lauder]

PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL !!

Or e-mail  info@marblelifeuk.com

The wear pattern has nothing whatsoever to do with the floor not being sealed, it is simply minute scratches from foot traffic. The floor needs to be honed and re-polished - and this should not cost anything like £150 per metre .

Please get in touch and let me know the area of the floor, type of marble and the location of the property.

Visit my web-site at www.marblelifeuk.com to see examples of floors I have worked on.

[Kevin_Whitlow]

DP
Further to your post hard medium such as Marble is totally unsuitable to be sealed as there is no way the sealant can bond to it (it is virtually non porous).The best way to keep marble looking good -is good maintenance and education for whoever is to be looking after it i.e soft sweeping and mopping to remove impurities from foot traffic etc
Hope this helps in some way Good Luck
(P.S. £150 a square metre is that a mistake?)

[DP]

Thanks guys for your replies. There seems to be many opinions on whether or not to seal marble however I think there must be some benefit otherwise why all the products for this, including the one that came from the supplier of the marble.

I can see the logic in the difficulties of not being able to stop grit etc from scratching the surface considering the tonnage of a human foot on a piece of grit, but couldn’t we say that about most floors, so why do we seal them.

However everyone seems to agree that good housekeeping is a key issue with marble, but even with good matting, this is at the end of the day a domestic entrance hall.

Although I have had one quote (which was from one of the links on here, and yes £150 per square metre + vat was the correct quote) I do realise that this was a very opportunistic price and that no doubt others would be more realistic.

But I would prefer to do this myself as I don’t want to incur a constant maintenance cost every time it goes dull, and I really don’t believe that the only way to delay this is to do nothing (ie no protection) sweep as often as I can and wait for the inevitable, otherwise wouldn’t all marble as used commercially simply be impractical as a material?

I feel sure that once restored there must be a maintenance system to protect this in the future.

MarbleLife:  have looked at your website (very impressive) however I’m in West London (ish) and the area is not large and I really do want to try this myself (as I’m not completely without skills here) but am trying to track products, I will return your PM and any advice you can give would be much appreciated.

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi DP

I'm sure Numatic do a guide to marble vitrification - I'll try and get a copy for you (they've also started to do BICS training courses in Chard that cover it as well). 3M used to do a crystalisation product that was used in conjunction with special 'Marble' pads and a std speed rotary and I think the Numatic system is similar.
I'll see what I can find out.

Regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

found it - the last section covers the vitrification process using the Numatic kit - let me know if it's of interest
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/Marble Process.pdf