Natural Stone Care in New Braunfels - Final Thoughts

Natural stone care in New Braunfels is all about knowledge.

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Professional Stone Cleaning in New Braunfels: Don't Damage Your Stone

As we covered previously, if you have granite, you want to get it professionally cleaned rather than take a chance. If you don't, you run the risk of damaging your granite. This holds true for other types of natural stone, especially calcium based stone such as marble, limestone, and travertine.

Travertine is elegant, but also surprisingly fragile. It forms near mineral springs from deposits left behind by bubbles. Since bubbles form it, travertine is rarely a solid piece of stone. As a result, the gaps are filled in with a resin that matches the color and texture of the stone. This resin is vulnerable to damage from harsh chemicals, but the stone itself is vulnerable to anything acidic.

Clean Your Stone Yourself? Don't

Do you want to clean your travertine yourself? Don't. Or at the very least, know what you're doing. As we covered above, if you put anything acidic on travertine, it can dissolve the resin as well as the stone itself. And by anything acidic, we really mean anything. Here's a short list of things that can harm your stone: bleach, red wine, coffee, orange juice, lemonade, and vinegar. Adding to this, there is a lot of misinformation out there. One 'stone care expert' for example advises you to use white vinegar to clean your travertine. While white vinegar works well on hardwood floors, if you put it on your travertine, suffice it to say, you'll have to replace your stone.

How do you know the product you're going to use is safe? Even tap water contains trace amounts of chlorine. It isn't just acid that's a problem. Ammonia is a common ingredient in cleaning products, and it isn't an acid, it's a solvent. If you use ammonia to clean your travertine, it will more than likely react chemically, and either start dissolving the stone, or discoloring it severely.

Remember, it is a lot cheaper to take care of your stone the right way, than to have to replace it all.
So follow the care instructions for your stone. Next, use the right way to clean it. And most important of all? Make sure that you call a professional stone cleaning service in San Antonio.

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Lone Star Tile and Grout Cleaning
4019 Stahl Rd, Suite 202
San Antonio TX 78217
(210) 637-5050
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Natural Stone Care Part 1: General Travertine Care

Part one of a series on natural stone care focuses on travertine.

Travertine Basics

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First off, travertine is a type of limestone. Travertine is used in a lot of different applications.  More specifically: "Travertine is often used as a building material. The Romans mined deposits of travertine for building temples, aqueducts, monuments, bath complexes, and amphitheaters such as the Colosseum[13] , the largest building in the world constructed mostly of travertine. Other notable buildings using travertine extensively include the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris and the 20th-century Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and Shell-Haus in Berlin. The travertine used in the Getty Center and Shell-Haus constructions was imported from Tivoli and Guidonia. Travertine is one of several natural stones that are used for paving patios and garden paths. It is sometimes known as travertine limestone or travertine marble; these are the same stone, although travertine is classified properly as a type of limestone, not marble. The stone is characterised by pitted holes and troughs in its surface. Although these troughs occur naturally, they suggest signs of considerable wear and tear over time. Some installers use a grout to fill the holes, whereas others leave them open — travertine can be purchased "filled" or "unfilled." It can also be polished to a smooth, shiny finish, and comes in a variety of colors from grey to coral-red. Travertine is most commonly available in tile sizes for floor installations. Travertine is one of the most frequently used stones in modern architecture. It is commonly used for façades, wall cladding, and flooring." [READ MORE]

If you have travertine, depending on where it's installed in your home, it may need some highly specialized care.  Travertine installed as a counter top in a kitchen, for example, won't need the same care that travertine in a shower will need.

Travertine Cleaning and Sealing

Getting travertine cleaning is always your first step in caring for your stone.  It will help to get the dirt out of the pores in the stone.   Once you've cleaned it, we recommend sealing it.  Travertine sealing helps to keep stains and spills from seeping into to the stone.

So remember, don't guess when you're dealing with natural stone.  So whether you have travertine, marble, limestone, or any other type of natural stone, call a tile cleaning service for help with it.

This concludes part one of our series.  Be sure to read part two and part three as well for more information on natural stone care.   

Lone Star Tile and Grout Cleaning
4019 Stahl Rd, Suite 202
San Antonio TX 78217
(210) 637-5050
http://www.lonestartileandgroutcleaning.com