How do you clean marble?  There is a wrong and right answer to this question.  A lot of people aren't aware that their city water is hard water.  Hard water leaves minerals behind, so that isn't the answer.  But what about soft water?

Get Marble Cleaning in Marion | (210) 637-5050

Soft Water in Marble Cleaning

As we covered previously, soft water isn't the answer either. Soft water usually involves salt, which can leave water marks or stains. As if that weren't bad enough, a great many city water sources also contain trace amounts of chlorine, which is highly acidic. Knowing what to do is also important where stone restoration is concerned. Why should acidic compounds be avoided? Well, how would you like your $3,000 floor to begin to dissolve? You'll be surprised at how even ordinary things can impact your floor. Orange juice, coffee, and wine for example are highly acidic, as is vinegar.  Another reason for a professional stone cleaning service.  

To keep marble floor tile looking its best, you need to have a service that does stone cleaning in Marion come in periodically to clean and enhance your marble to the shine level you are searching for. There is a difference between cleaning marble and polishing it. Even though it's highly recommended that you use a cleaning service, you can also choose to do the polishing yourself, though we don't recommend it.

Marble Cleaning and Polishing

Cleaning marble usually involves some sort of mild soapy water solution to thoroughly clean dirt off the tiles, after which having the tiles rinsed with clean water and a chamois cloth. In cases of much more extreme stains such as coffee, tobacco, or tea, peroxide solution may be used to remove the stains. When in doubt, as to whether the cleaner you've might harm the tile, call a professional marble tile cleaning service out to take a look at it.

An abrasive is used to polish marble. Tin dioxide may be used to remove scratches or dull spots. As both marble polishing as well as tin dioxide can be an eye irritant or toxic if breathed in, it's important to work with safety eye protection and a respirator to avoid particles.

Because of the potential risk, you should not attempt to do stone restoration on your own.

What you don’t know about marble can hurt your floor. When in doubt, do not try to do it yourself. Call in a company that does stone cleaning and restoration in Marion.

Continue...

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

Stone Cleaning and Restoration

Stone cleaning and restoration help to keep your natural stone surfaces looking their very best.  And before you rush out to try to restore or clean your stone yourself, there are some things you ought to know

Cleaning Your Stone Yourself: A Warning

Get Natural Stone Care in San Antonio , TX | (210) 637-5050

You saw it on TV, and online.  A handy dandy miracle stone cleaning product that allows you to clean your stone yourself.  It's only $19.99, but wait there's more.  If you call today, you can get two bottles for the price of one.  Sounds great.  Except for a few problems.  First off, what's in that cleaning solution?  If it contains any harsh chemicals or anything acidic, it may help you to clean your stone yourself,  but it will almost certainly start to dissolve your stone.

Marble, limestone, and travertine are all types of natural stone heavily used in homes.  They are beautiful, and add elegance and grace to your environment, however, they are also members of the calcium carbonate family of stones.  As such, they require highly specialized care.  If you have a ceramic tile floor in your kitchen and you spill your coffee or orange juice, you probably wipe it up and don't think anything more about it, however, if you spill anything acidic on a calcium carbonate surface, you might end up seeing your stone surface erode before your eyes.  The same holds true for anything that has harsh chemicals in like ammonia.  So much for miracle cleaning products, but what about tried and true home remedies.

Hire a Professional Stone Cleaning Service and Keep Your Stone Looking Good

On one cleaning site, it recommends using white vinegar and lemon juice to help clean a wide variety of surfaces.  While hardwood flooring does well with white vinegar, and non reactive surfaces such as ceramic tile, it can harm your natural stone surfaces.  That's why hiring a professional stone cleaning service in San Antonio is a much better idea.

A professional stone cleaning service will be able to do  your stone cleaning project with both experience and knowledge.  They will have access to professional grade chemicals and will be able to get you the results you want when cleaning your stone surfaces.

So remember, life is all about choices.  These choices also apply to your home.  So remember, if you have natural stone, take care of it the right way.  Hire a professional stone cleaning service in San Antonio.

Read Our Next Article

Lone Star Tile and Grout Cleaning
4019 Stahl Rd, Suite 202
San Antonio TX 78217
(210) 637-5050
Contact Us

Stone Cleaning Tips

Why do you want to hire a professional stone cleaning service in San Antonio? Because they know a lot of things.

Natural Stone Care | Call Us Today | (210) 637-5050

San Antonio Stone Cleaning Tips

A professional stone cleaning service knows a lot about stone. For example, they know that anything acidic can damage marble, travertine and limestone. They also know about stains and how to get them out. How do you get stains out of marble? It depends entirely on the stain. Here is a handy guide from the Marble Institute:

"What Type of Stain is It?
The following sections describe the types of stains you may have to deal with and the appropriate household chemicals to use and how to prepare and apply a poultice to remove the stain.
Oil-based
(grease, plumbers' putty, tar, cooking oil, milk, cosmetics)
An oil-based stain will darken the stone and normally must be chemically dissolved so the source of the stain can be flushed or rinsed away. Clean gently with a soft, liquid cleanser with one of the following: household detergent, mineral spirits, or acetone.
Organic
(coffee, tea, wine, fruit, tobacco, paper, food, urine, leaves, bark, bird droppings)
May cause a pinkish-brown stain and may disappear after the source of the stain has been removed. Outdoors, with the sources removed, sun and rain action will generally bleach out the stains. Indoors, clean with 12% hydrogen peroxide (hair bleaching strength) and a few drops of ammonia.
Metal
(iron, rust, copper, bronze)
Iron or rust stains are orange to brown in color and follow the shape of the staining object such as nails, bolts, screws, cans, flower pots, metal furniture. Copper and bronze stains appear as green or muddy-brown and result from the action of moisture on nearby or embedded bronze, copper or brass items. Metal stains must be removed with a poultice. (See website on Using a Poultice – www.marble-institute.com/consumers/poultices/. Deep-seated, rusty stains are extremely difficult to remove and the stone may be permanently stained.
Biological
(algae, mildew, lichens, moss, fungi)
Clean with diluted cleaning solution. Use a 1/2 cup of any of the following: ammonia, bleach, or hydrogen peroxide and a gallon of water. Reminder: do not mix bleach and ammonia."
SOURCE

Why Professional Stone Cleaning Matters

In addition to marble cleaning or any other type of natural stone care, your professional stone cleaning service will recommend something like stone sealing.
Stone sealing will help to fill in the pores of your stone, and protect it from stains and spills. In the case of marble, this can quite literally save your stone. Simply spilling some red wine on a marble floor can not only stain your floor, it can start to dissolve it.

So remember, there is a big difference between do it yourself stone care and professional stone cleaning in San Antonio.

Read Our Next Article

Lone Star Tile and Grout Cleaning
4019 Stahl Rd, Suite 202
San Antonio TX 78217
(210) 637-5050
More Info

Professional Travertine Cleaning in San Antonio, TX: What You Should Know (Contd.)

Travertine cleaning is more than just the tile, it's the grout that lies between them and under them.

Get Professional Travertine Cleaning in Cibolo TX | Call Us Today (210) 637-5050

Travertine Care and Your Grout

Travertine is a stone that is in the calcium carbonate family of stones that include travertine, marble, and limestone.  Each of these stones despite looking very different than each other require remarkably similar care.  For example, part of a proper travertine care regimen includes avoiding exposure to anything acidic or any harsh chemicals.  Another thing that you have to be aware of, is you want to make sure that the grout that is between your tiles is in good condition as well as the grout that is underneath the tiles as well.

We know what you're thinking.  Without a high powered ultrasound machine or X Ray device, how can you know if the grout that is underneath your tile is good?  Well, the grout that is between the tiles is a key indicator.  If it is good, it's likely that the grout under the tiles is good too.  And you want to make sure that when you're thinking of travertine care that your grout is good too because grout helps to strengthen as well as protect the stone. Each and every day, you have the weight of an adult or two, plus maybe some kids as well.  If there is sufficient grout under the tile this isn't a problem.  However, if the grout's damaged, then sooner or later you're going to hear a sound that you don't want to hear, namely, the sound of a travertine tile cracking.  A cracked tile can sometimes be repaired, but most of the time, you end up having to replace it.  That's why you want grout cleaning and care done on your travertine.  A service that does both stone and grout is the best one to pick as that way everything is done all in one visit.

Travertine Cleaning:  Call a Pro

A travertine cleaning professional knows the difference between slate, marble, travertine, limestone, granite, or whatever other type of stone you have in your home and/or office, and more importantly knows what can and can't be done to each of the stones in question.  Travertine is a fairly hard stone, but it is surprisingly vulnerable to anything acidic.

So remember, it is easier to clean something than replace it.  With that in mind, make sure you get a stone cleaning service in to clean and protect your travertine.

Read more about travertine cleaning

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