San Antonio Stone Cleaning (Contd.)

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Stone cleaning in San Antonio is based on a lot of knowledge. You have to know your stone, know the stone type, and other things.

As we covered previously,frofessional stone cleaning involves a great deal of expertise to stop this sort of thing from happening.

Stone care is easy. That is when you call the right people. Who should you call? A professional stone
cleaning service in San Antonio.

Stone Cleaning and Restoration

Stone cleaning and restoration in San Antonio is more than just knowing the stone, it is knowing the stain as well. Some stains are easier to remove than others. Another thing that a professional stone restoration service in San Antonio is going to know is what to do after they are done cleaning your stone. One thing that they are probably going to do is what is called stone sealing.

Sealing
Sealing is a common step taken on some stones as an extra precaution against staining. In fact, the sealing products used in the stone industry are "impregnators" which do not actually seal the stone, but more correctly act as a repellent rather than a sealer. Sealing does not make the stone stain proof, rather it makes the stone more stain resistant. When consulting with your stone supplier, you may find that many stones do not require sealing. However, applying an impregnating sealer is a common practice.
When considering sealing, remember that sealing the stone does not make the stone stain proof, it makes it more resistant to staining.
If a sealer is applied in a food preparation area, be sure that it is non-toxic and safe for use.
Consult with your supplier or sealing manufacturer specific to the type of sealer and frequency of use recommended.
Stain Identification Tips
Identifying the type of stain on the stone surface is the key to removing it. Stains can be oil based, organic, metallic, biological, ink based, paint based, acid based. If you don't know what caused the stain, consider likely staining agents that may have been present. Here are some questions you consider:
Where is the Stain Located?
Is it near a plant, a food service area, an area where cosmetics are used?
What color is it?
What is the shape or pattern?
What occurs in the area around the stain?
Stain Removal Steps
Surface stains can often be removed by cleaning with an appropriate cleaning product or household chemical."

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How Can I Get a Stain Out of Marble?

How to remove a stain from a marble surface is dependent on whether the stone has been sealed, and whether the stain has sunk into the pores of the stone.

When in doubt, don't chance it.  Contact a stone cleaning service in San Antonio.

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San Antonio Stone Cleaning

There are so many things that can go wrong when you try to clean your natural stone yourself.

Stone Cleaning in San Antonio:  What You Don't Know

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Natural stone care is tougher than you might think.  

If you're not careful when you're looking to clean your natural stone is that you might put your stone as well as your life in danger.  

From the Natural Stone Institute's website:

"Cleaning:
Clean stone surfaces with a neutral cleaner, stone soap, or a mild liquid dishwashing detergent and warm water.
Similar to any item cleaned in your home, an excessive concentration of cleaner or soap may leave a film and cause streaks. Follow manufacturer recommendations.
Use a clean rag mop on floors and a soft cloth for other surfaces for best results.
Rinse the surface thoroughly after washing with the soap solution and dry with a soft cloth.
Change the rinse water frequently.
In the bath or other wet areas, soap scum can be minimized by using a squeegee after each use. To remove soap scum, use a non-acidic soap scum remover or a solution of ammonia and water (about 1/2 cup ammonia to a gallon of water). Frequent or over-use of an ammonia solution may eventually dull the surface of some stone types.
In outdoor pool, patio or hot tub areas, flush with clear water and use mild bleach solution to remove algae or moss.
Cleaning Products:
Many suppliers offer products used for stone cleaning.
Products containing lemon, vinegar or other acids may dull or etch calcareous stones.
Scouring powders or creams often contain abrasives that may scratch certain stones.
Many commercially available rust removers (laundry rust stain removers, toilet bowl cleaners) contain trace levels of hydrofluoric acid (HF). This acid attacks silicates in addition to other minerals. All stones, including granite and quartzite, will be attacked if exposed to HF.
Do not mix ammonia and bleach. This combination creates a toxic and lethal gas."

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Stone Cleaning: The Professional Way

As you see, mixing the wrong stuff together can be fatal.  In addition to the risk to your family and yourself, you are also risking damaging your stone as well.  Professional stone cleaning involves a great deal of expertise to stop this sort of thing from happening.

Stone care is easy.  That is when you call the right people.  Who should 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
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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

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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.

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San Antonio TX 78217
(210) 637-5050
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Stone Cleaning Tips

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

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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.

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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
More Info