Hi I just had a travertine floor put in my kitchen ( not polished but honed and filled) - it was sooo beautiful - until they sealed it. now it loooks like a bad wax job on my floor. there are "shiny" patches all over - my beautiful natural stone does not look natural any more - not sure if there was to much sealer in areas or what they did but I hope this is fixable. Can you help?

 

Dear Debbie:

 

“ Can you help? ”

 

Who, me?... I don't think so; at least not from here… L J

What you have to do is call back the “Michelangelo” who performed that “wonderful” sealing job and tell him to take care of the mess he made, or be ready to pay for someone who will do it for him.

I can anticipate to you, however, that the only smart way to remove the cured-on impregnator from your floor is to have it professionally re-honed with a good-quality honing powder. Chemical approaches are going to be nasty to begin with, and while probably (and just probably) not detrimental to the stone, they have good chances to be detrimental to the factory filler and the grout.

Once the stuff is removed from the surface of your stone and you have back a wonderful-looking floor (even much better looking, if it gets re-honed with a good-quality honing powder), remember: the issue of what you'll be doing day in and day out to your stone is – as it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable) and it's all too often neglected. As you can tell by reading many of this site's postings, you're not likely to get good information about routine care from your dealer or installer. Don't become another statistic! 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.  

And remember, every single penny of the cost of the literature will be used to support this site and its cause: your cause.

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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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