travertine cleansers

What do you recommend for cleaning honed travertine neglected floors? What about ongoing maintenance for a house with two dogs? What about a sealant? There is a lot of conflicting information. Your input is appreciated. Thank you.
 
 
Dear Shelly:

First off I would recommend having your floor professionally cleaned with a professional scrubbing machine and a heavy-duty stone tile and grout cleaner. 

Once the cleaning is done you will be able to determine a couple of things:

 

  1. If your floor needs actual resurfacing in case that you notice unsightly wear and tear patterns and etchings. If that's the case, then you will need the services of a professional stone restoration contractor that will refinish your floor using a good-quality honing powder. I recommend going to www.stoneandtilepros.com to locate a stone restoration contractor in your area. 
  2. If you have imbedded stains that were not removed with the cleaning. I doubt that you will have any of those, but you never know. If you do, then you will have to remove them by poulticing them out, and then apply a good impregnator (a.k.a. sealer) like MB-4 to your floor. Even if you will determine that your floor should be refinished by a bona-fide stone restoration contractor, you need to remove the (improbable) stains first, and, in such case, the sealing will have to be done a few days after the restoration process is finished.

Finally, for routine maintenance, I recommend that you use a good quality neutral cleaner like MB1.
 

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

Article ID: 12
Created On: Fri, May 4, 2007 at 8:08 AM
Last Updated On: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:00 AM
Authored by: Maurizio Bertoli [mail@mbstone.com]

Online URL: https://marblecleaning.org/knowledgebase/article.php?id=12