Sealing Marble

We have polished crema marfil marble in our shower stall. Our question is do you feel that this type of marble should be sealed? We have heard both yes and no and are confused on how to proceed on this as our marble shower installation is almost finished. Thanking you in advance for all of your knowledge about this subject.

 

Dear Joanna:

Not even with my very own MB-4!!

First off – and this is not my opinion, but a scientific fact – Crema Marfil, which is technically a compact limestone, will not take any impregnator (a.k.a. sealer) in, which is the first prerequisite for an impregnator to work. In other words, in its polished form Crema Marfil can't be sealed.

Second, even if it were a stone that could be actually sealed with an impregnator, the practice is never advisable in a wet environment. Not to mention that no impregnator will ever offer one iota of protection to any stone, this side of reducing its natural absorbency rate.

Make sure that the installation is done right to begin with!!

The grout must be set deep in between the tiles (no butt-jointing!!), and caulking should be used where the wall meets another wall and where the walls meet the floor. There's no “miracle in a bottle” that will ever overcome the structural problems deriving from a possibly faulty installation!

Finally, you'd better get the right intelligence about routine care of your stone, which is vastly more important than any sealing!

By logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm , you will be able to get the short version of our maintenance guidelines at no charge. The full version of it – a 7-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay-per-download format in our Educational Literature section at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/literature.htm .  

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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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