old marble floor

Hi Maurizio, I'm restoring my grandfather's house and I don't know how to clean the marble floor. It's been there since 1929 and I doubt if it ever got cleaned or polished. It's uneven because of some tree roots that got underneath it. It's greyish with darker thin greyish veins. It's about 20" square. I really don't know much about marble tiles and I don't want to attempt cleaning it with the wrong products. The tile is dull and has some dark and rust stains along the wall line. Any advise? Thanks.

 

Dear Maha:

If you look closely, you will notice that there are no grout lines in that floor. Back in those days the only way to install marble floors was with the “grind-in-place” method, and no marble floor was ever polished back then. They were all finished with a hone-finish (smooth and scratch-free but no sheen). And that is how marble earned its reputation of maintenance-easy flooring material. (BTW, the marble that you have is White Carrara.)

Under the circumstances, on account of the fact that the root of a tree damaged the floor, your only option is to hire a stone restoration contracting company. They will repair the damage, grind that area flush with the rest and then re-hone the entire floor with a good-quality honing powder to give you back that unique original “old country” marble floor.

After that, all you will need to care for it is a good-quality stone floor detergent (not a soap!) like MB-1.

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,

Maurizio Bertoli

 

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