grinding a travertine/marble floor

Can you recommend the right equipment and process for leveling a few high edges on travertine? Also, how can I remove an etch mark from a marble top? I would like to do the work myself. Thanks

 

Dear John:

I will start with the second question.

If the etch mark is not too severe, you could easily remove it with a good quality Marble Repair Kit.

As for your first question instead, I hope that you care about good advice instead of some pipe dream.

To grind a marble (or travertine or any other stone floor) you would need a machine that you can't rent anywhere: a heavy-duty floor grinding machine for stonework that would set you back a minimum of $4,000.00 for a machine that's not a toy. (You will also need a good quality wet and dry vacuum cleaner.) Attached to the machine you would have to have special de-lippage tools (grinding-grade metal-sintered diamond pads) to be worked on the floor with plenty of water until the “lips” are all leveled. (Every 20 sq.ft. or so you will have to pick up the slurry with the wet and dry vac.) You will need to use at least two grits, namely 50 and then 100. After that you will switch to resin-bond diamond pads starting with a 50 grit, to eliminate the heavy scratch patterns created by the de-lippage tools, still using plenty of water. At this point, once you picked up all the slurry and waited an entire day to let the floor dry, since we're dealing with travertine you will have to re-fill all the holes that will get inevitably open with the first two aggressive grinding cuts. Of course, you need a special filler. Once the filler is cured (a couple of days) you will go on with the honing and you will stop at 800 grit… Sall O go on?

Oh, by the way, even if you decide to buy all that stuff, I can assure you that you would not know what to do with it. I teach 3-day information-packed classes on stone restoration and maintenance, and I can assure you that after those 3 days you would still not be able to grind your floor!

Sorry, my friend, but if there's a kind of work that no DIY can do, stone grinding and refinishing is it.

Your only option is to hire a bona fide stone restoration contractor.

Now, you'd better watch out! I consider stone refinishing as the very pinnacle of all the activities related to stone from a professional point of view. Unfortunately, there are a lot of quacks on the loose out there! You get one of those, and you may even have to kiss your stone bye-bye!

How could you tell a champ from a chomp? Could you trust the recommendation of your local stone distributor, or contractor, or your interior decorator? Hardly!

We have available a very comprehensive article on how to select a bona fide stone restoration contractor, which will give you all the intelligence you need to make a competent choice. It does carry a small price tag, and you can order it by logging on the Educational Literature section 0f our website at:   http://www.mbstone.com/literature/literature.htm. It's available in pay-per-download format and I consider it a cheap “insurance premium” to pay when there are thousands of $ involved! Not to mention the little and much needed support you'd be giving to the cause – YOUR cause, since every single penny of the cost of the article will be used to support it.

Also, will you please read and sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm? By spreading the word about this valuable site among your friend & family and the stone trades' people you've been dealing with you will be rendering everybody a valuable service!   

Moreover, do take advantage of the plethora of FREE Helpful Hints available at:   http://www.mbstone.com/HH_promo/helpful_hints.htm. They're on the house!

Thank you.

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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