cleaning/poilishing tips for marble?

did a monster house on friday, 15 rooms. The house had hot water on tap outside for when I filled my tank which was nice.

I am going back to do all the marble downstairs, its about 2300 sqft. I have some pics I will post but there is dull spots in the center of almost all the tiles.

What pads should I use? and what solution would you recommend?

Thanks much appreciated

Has it been cleaned in the last 3-4 years? That will help choose the solution.

no the house was 3/4 of the way done being built when it was repoed by the bank. It sat vacant for several yrs before the new owners bought it.

so annoyed right now, I imported the pics from my iphone and they show up on my pc mostly gray with just a sliver of the photo at the top of the picture, and I had delete after import selected....

so much for those pics, but I am going back soon to finish carpets.

What color is the marble? How good is the install, much lippage?

I forget, or don't remember you saying you had any stone polishing/restoration experience?...do you, have you taken any stone restoration classes, or even more so do you have some hands on experience with it?

Cleaning, not too much of an issue, but certainly some things to be aware of and be able to identify to avoid costly mistakes.......

But polishing, diamond sanding/ stone restoration work is not something you can just learn on an internet forum, and go out and successfully do. Especially when you say, "dull spots in the center of almost all the tiles."...and being it's marble, and if it's a darker color marble?? That makes me think the floor could have been poorly installed and have some serious lippage, and if so, that is a whole neither challenge when if comes to polishing or sanding on a floor like that.

You know 2300 sf of marble is likely a $25,000 floor on the low side, and could be much higher depending on the type of marble and the install..Soooo............

Not a good job, or stone type to learn on and get your feet wet on.

Some pictures of the floor are diffidently in order, some close up in focus ones.   And shot from down on floor level would also help identify how flat the floor is or isn't and maybe help determined the cause of the dulling you mentioned.

The install looks good, its a very high end home. The marble is white, and its the very center of the tiles that have a dull circle. I am not sure what this is caused by. Cleaning I can handle but if it is some serious polishing I would probably have to pass on this one.

I was mostly questioning whether the dullness would come out from a good solution and running some pads over the top, or if like your saying it needs diamond sanding...

I think this one I will have to pass on, its a huge job... I was going to measure exactly when I finish carpets but guesstimating around 2300sq ft.

I am pissed the picture are ruined I wanted to show you guys the hot/cold spigots outside, they are super fancy.

The house is unbelievably huge, my van looks like a little spec in the pictures from the top of the driveway. I cleaned the owners previous house which was just a cookie cutter 4bdrm... and now they bought this palace at a foreclosure auction, found out there is expensive water damage in the basement which is going to cost them tons of money to fix

I cant even imagine the property taxes on something like this, its got to be 50k/yr

I would have bought a much more reasonable house on the water or with a view for what they paid, didnt even seem like they had kids...

have a feeling they will be selling this thing after not too long.

I just gave the lady an email saying she better call a stone restoration company, I do believe the dull spots are not just residue but need to be diamond sanded.. and its probably a very expensive job that is way over my head.

Sorry I was away, but Davey is correct...it sounds like more than a cleaning is in order. I like working with marble and the results can be awesome, but it is not something to try for the first time without someone over your shoulder.

You could quote them for a cleaning only and see what happens. If it has been vacant for that long, even a basic cleaning will improve the appearence and might make the owners happy. Using the honing and polish products from Pro's Choice makes for a pretty easy learning curve. It will not handle bad lippage or anything, but it can improve appearence a lot.

ACpower1 wrote:I just gave the lady an email saying she better call a stone restoration company,   I do believe the dull spots are not just residue but need to be diamond sanded..   and its probably a very expensive job that is way over my head.  

Yep, if you don't know how to do it, that's a vary smart move!

I've got it setup, so as I'm learning, as I'm servicing my customers needs and making money at the same time......and what I mean by that is....

I've found a guy in my area who is an O/O stone restoration pro, that I can call to help service my customers needs.  I become the middle man for several reason, but my customers don't need to know that, I just say "Jayson" is my stone restoration specialist.   

If I say in the middle then............

1)I don't loose my customer by "referring" him to them, basically keeping him and paying him as a sub contractor.
2)I'm then on the job, helping while leaning from Jayson.
3)I make money on my customers stone jobs (I'm not comfortable doing myself) still, because I get a ball park price from Jayson, and then quote my customer the going Blue Book rate for the job, and this works well and always puts money in my pocket thanks to Jason's low prices.....Mainly because he's like a lot of others in our business, and afraid or just simply not comfortable quoting large numbers, and asking for the big money that adds up to, especially on larger jobs.........works well for me, because I don't have that problem, and it leaves a nice margin for me and it's like paid on the job training.  

I mention this, because if you can find a guy in your area like this, you may as well try to make this type of thing work for you to stay in the 'loop', so you're not loosing business/customers by not being able to provide the service they need.

I'm sure you did the right thing this time, with your current lack of knowalage of stone by telling your customer to find  "a stone restoration company", but just think of the future loss in work/profits that means (after the big restoration job needed now to get the floor up to par, based on what you've said I'm assuming prob 5-8k, and then the yearly maintenance needed on a floor like that is another 2-3k for cleaning and re-sealing), which after telling them to go with a Yep, if you don't know how to do it, that's a vary smart move!

I've got it setup, so as I'm learning, as I'm servicing my customers needs and making money at the same time......and what I mean by that is....

I've found a guy in my area who is an O/O stone restoration pro, that I can call to help service my customers needs.  I become the middle man for several reason, but my customers don't need to know that, I just say "Jayson" is my stone restoration specialist.  

If I say in the middle............

1)I don't loose my customer by "referring" him to them, baiscly keeping him as a sub contractor.
2)I'm then on the job, helping while leaning from Jayson.
3)I make money on my customers stone jobs (I'm not comfortable doing myself) still, because I get a ball park price from Jayson, and then quote my customer the going Blue Book rate for the job, and this works well and always puts money in my pocket thanks to Jason's low prices.....Mainly because he's like a lot of others in our business, and afraid or just simply not comfortable quoting large numbers, and asking for the big money that adds up to, especially on larger jobs.........works well for me, because I don't have that problem, and it leaves a nice margin for me and it's like paid on the job training.

I mention this, because if you can find a guy in your area like this, you may as well try to make this type of thing work for you to stay in the 'loop', so you're not loosing business/customers by not being able to provide the service they need.

I'm sure you did the right thing this time, with your current lack of knowledge of stone by telling you're customer to find  "a stone restoration company", but just think of the future loss in work/profits that means, and if you can work it out the way I explained, or just take the required classes, and do the need testing and experimentation on your own test floor in your garage, you can become the go to guy for your customers stone care needs.

Your likely loss by not being able to provide this service I'd assume based on what you have said about the floor is............

$6-8k for the current restoration work now needed, and then the yearly maintenance needed to keep a floor like that in good cond is another $2-4k for cleaning, light buffing/polishing and re-sealing..........so that should be some motivation to learn how to do this type of work rather than continuing to pass it on........I know that's my motivation, when I decided to start learning how to service other types of flooring besides carpet.   

Wheeew, that was tooooo much typing!!!  

Well said...twice!

I started out by hiring on with a stone restoration company for a vacation. I worked for them for 2 weeks for free and they made sure that I learned as much as I could in that period of time. It was a great experince, but 2 weeks was not enough to make me feel comfortable on a really expensive floor like that marble.

Love the idea of playing the middle man to both learn and secure a customer for future work. Most homeowners (and salesman) don't even realize the maint. involved with a stone floor. They all think that stone means maint. free for life....so mistaken.

Im just not experience with marble polishing but very experienced with stone installation outdoors.

I owned a medium sized landscape construction company, 4 trucks for about 6 years.

We installed walls, patios, decks, blue stone, flag stone, lime stone, every type of synthetic stone.

most of our jobs were 6,000 - 50k but marble is a different deal, and its indoors.

all of our installs would need light cleaning (not polishing) after construction to get rid of dust etc from the diamond saw.