[Ryan Smyth]

Have a job to look at on saturday its marble tiles the lady is loking them cleaned and polished was thinking of using QMT stoneclean from prochem to clean but what can be used to put a shine or polish on these tiles and should a white pad just be used on the rotary? Cheers

Ryan

[sherco]

The only way to get marble tiles clean and polished is diamond polishing, i did one today and they looked amazing you could see your reflection in them when i finished. 

[Ryan Smyth]

Diamond polishing

Ryan

[sherco]

This is a four stage process, with different grade diamonds,  each set has 5  at £50.00 each so thats a £1000 for the set, then if there is any lippage on the tiles they have to be removed thats a further two stage process £500 these are all wearing parts thats why i charge £45 sqm for polishing 

[francis]

Thereare a number of different processes for cleaning/restoring marble floors depending of their state & what the customer is expecting.  If they are scratched then diamond refinishing as Sherco mentions is correct.

If you are just cleaning them up a bit try using  Pro Clean from Tile Doctor which is safe for anyone not into this game. They also have various other relevant products.      Certainly wouldn't use QMT.   Acidity & marble don't get on to well together.   Try spilling some lemon juice onto a nicely polished marble floor and leave for a few minutes & see the result

[sherco]

You just need to see what the customer wants, you need to check for scratches, etching where they have used the wrong cleaner on the floor, you could just use stone soap and follow instructions, take some with you and do a few test area to show the customer the finish you can achieve, if they want a finish like the tiles had when they were new you wont get it unless you diamond polish, i offer 3 services, 1. BRONZE  which is a deep clean and buff. 2. SILVER, diamond polish 2 stage and buff. 3. GOLD, Remove all lippage on tiles 2 stages, diamond polish 4-6 stages depending on finish and polish. Just rember if you are just going to clean the marble floor with a scrubbing pad dont use a black or green use red and white only as the others will scratch the tiles and will need diamonds to remove the etching. Also make sure you sweep the floor really well as you dont want any grit scratching as you are cleaning. 

[Ryan Smyth]

Cheers Lads,from what i can gather just by talking to her on the phone she is mainly interested in putting a shine on them,even said she had considered hiring a "buffer" and doing it herself.What would you use to polish?

Ryan

[Ryan Smyth]

have decided to give this job a miss,dont know enough (anything) about it But it has got me interested in learning about stone cleaning and restoration.Can anyone recommend a good place to get some training,cheers

Ryan

[derek west]

alltec do a hard floor course, thinking of doing it myself, also i think prochem do one.
derek

[sherco]

I haven't found a decent training course in the UK for this, there are a few but i don't agree with the way they polish there stone, crystallization as it blocks the pours in the stone so it cant breathe causing problems. The best place to learn is in America if you are really serious about it, i have just learnt myself as i lay natural stone floors i have had chance to experiment and teach myself, also i work closely with a diamond polishing manufacturer and i try new a different products for them. The set up cost would be around £10,000 to get all machines, diamonds etc. There is a guy in the midlands that i know who does diamond polishing and he was talking about doing some training this year, he is very skilled at this buisness, he has worked and trained in Spain, Italy, and America. If he decides to run a training course i will let you know.

[sherco]

alltec do a hard floor course, thinking of doing it myself, also i think prochem do one.
derek

I did the Prochem one and they dont cover grinding/ honing and polishing.

[derek west]

whats the best one sherco?
or is it a mutitude?
derek

[sherco]

Have a look at marblemaster they do training i think.

[Dave_Lee]

Try this
   www.theflooracademy.com

Dave.

[cleaningmaster]

Have a look at Chemspec products

They do polishers/ honing/ etc , but you can use their cristalizing product
quite easy to use but then again i have used them a few times.

Regards

Daryl

[Ryan Smyth]

Anyone see a price or dates for the alltec courses?

Ryan

[sherco]

Anyone see a price or dates for the alltec courses?

Ryan

You would be better to do the floor academy course, i have looked into it and it seems to be a good course after speaking to them, have you looked at their web site.

[Ryan Smyth]

Yes i looked at it Sherco but it seemed to be just generalised on marble floors or is it a case of if you can do marble you can apply that to all floor types ie.granite,stone,terrazzo etc?

Ryan

[sherco]

Yes i looked at it Sherco but it seemed to be just generalised on marble floors or is it a case of if you can do marble you can apply that to all floor types ie.granite,stone,terrazzo etc?

Ryan

Yes its all the same principle, for marble, terrazzo, limestone which are the easiest but granite can be a bit tricky as its so bloody hard, it would be worth you doing it if you want to get into it, i have only started to push this side of my buisness because normally i only do it on the floors i lay, i looked at a job today to lay 120sqm of limestone in a kitchen of a new house, just to lay the stone and grind and polish it and not supplying any material i quoted £9,600.00 and i got the job, this will take me 2 weeks to do on my own, there is big money to be made if you can do it
but this is a big job, normally they are around 25-40sqm but there are loads of floors that have been layed and need this service and not many people doing it.

[Ryan Smyth]

Sweet so you reckon you would need about 10 grand for a set up,or could you kill 2 birds with 1 stone and buy a truck mount and then whatever accessories for the stone?

Ryan