I have a beautiful shower tiled in a cream colored marble tile. The water at our house is very hard, so in the areas where water hits, the tile has dulled. Can I use a car buffer to restore the shine and remove the deposits? If not, what would you recommend?

 

Dear Angie:

If it is really hard mineral deposit, a product like MB-3 will remove it. However, in the stone trade all too many times the perceived problem does not always correspond to the actual problem.

What I mean is that what you see may look like hard mineral deposits, and it could be just it; but then again, it could be something else…

If your water is rich in sulfides, once they are deprived of oxygen inside the boiler, they turn into a mild version of sulfuric acid, which will corrode (etch) the surface of your marble. The visual effect is the same as if you had mineral deposits sitting on the stone.

To find out what the real story is, try to scrape the surface of one of the most affected tiles with a razor blade. If it is mineral deposit, some of it will come off. If not… now you know what it is.

Only a qualified stone restoration contractor will be able to repair that and bring your stone back to its pristine conditions by slightly grinding it (honing) and the re-polishing it with an appropriate (for the specific marble) polishing powder.

 

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

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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