Orange juice and travertine

I recently had travetine floors installed in my house. The quality of the stone, installation and finish is incredible. My son spilled orange juice on the floor and we wiped the spill up immediatly. The floor is clean; however there is a distinct dull spot where the juice landed and splashed. Is there any way to bring the lustre back? My understanding is that the floors had been sealed after installation.

 

Dear Greg:

" My understanding is that the floors had been sealed after installation"

And so what?

I must assume that you have polished travertine, right?

Well, first off, they never sealed that stone, I can promise you that! Oh, yes, I'm sure that they did apply an impregnator (a.k.a. sealer) to it, but that doesn't mean that they actually sealed your stone. In fact, since polished travertine does not absorb a darn thing, it can not be teachnically sealed, because the impregnator must be absorbed by the stone to work.

That said, even if some of the impregnator went in (which it didn't), it really doesn't matter. An impregnator can not - and in fact does not - offer one iota of protection to the stone surface, because it is strictly a below-the-surface (of the stone) sealer.

The "stain" that you have is not a stain at all and has nothing to do with the absorbency rate of the stone, but exclusively with its chemical makeup that, in the case of travertine, is mostly calcite (Calcium Carbonate), which is very sensitive to acidic substances.

The orange juice (citric acid) corroded the surface of the stone on contact and what you have is a so-called etch-mark - a surface damage.

No sealer for stone on planet Earth could do the first thing to prevent that. And that is the very reason why polished calacreous rocks do no belong in a kitchen: too many acidic spills are possible.

All that bening said, if the damage is not very extensive and your stone is indeed polished, there's a marble repair kit available that could solve your problem; but if more than one or two tiles are involved, it may turn out not to be adequante to the project, unless you have some sort of power tool that could aid you.

If you do, let me know and I will gladly take you step by step.

 

May I ask you now to please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm?   :-)

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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