How to Add a Deep Durable Shine to Marble Tiled Flooring

The pictures below are of a Marble tiled floor installed in the hallway of a property at Crakemarsh Hall, near Uttoxeter. The Marble had lost its shine due to several years of wear and was now looking quite flat and uninteresting. This happens with highly polished floors which need to be re-polished every six to 12 months if you want to keep them looking fabulous.

      

Naturally my client had become unhappy with the dull appearance of the stone and I was asked to call round and put the shine back. I viewed the floor and talked them through the polishing process. I left them with a quote which they were happy to accept.

 

Cleaning a Marble Tiled Hallway Floor and Grout

The first job was to clean the floor using a rotary floor machine fitted with a Black pad to scrub in Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is an effective alkaline tile and grout cleaner. I used a medium dilution of Pro-Clean sprayed onto the tiles and left to soak in for ten minutes before scrubbing.

These pads can struggle to get right into the grout so I used a hand-held scrubbing brush along the grout lines to tackle any stubborn grout stains and dirt hiding in the recesses. The soiling was then rinsed off the floor with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

Polishing a Marble Tiled Hallway Floor

Work then commenced on polishing the Marble for which I used several grades of diamond burnishing pads starting with a coarse 400-grit. Only water is needed to help lubricate the process and once the pad has been run over each tile at least three times the soiling is rinsed off and extracted with the wet vacuum as before. This process is then repeated with the 800 and 1500-grit pad until you reach the 3000-grit pad which is applied with only a little water sprayed onto the tiles.

Sealing Marble Floor Tiles

To add a deep durable polish to the Marble I then applied Tile Doctor Polishing Powder which is spread over the floor ground into the marble using a White polishing pad. I also went around the edges with a handheld buffing machine fitted with smaller 6" pads.

 

I finished the floor by using a super high speed burnishing machine fitted with a White polishing pad to remove any marks left on the floor. My client was so happy that they have booked in for an annual Maintenance clean for next year to keep the floor in top condition.

 

Before leaving I also encouraged then to clean the floor using Tile Doctor Stone Soap which is a mild but effective cleaning solution that helps maintain the patina on polished stone. Many of the floor cleaning products you find in supermarkets are simply too strong for use on a sealed floor.

Source: Marble Floor Cleaning and Polishing Service in Uttoxeter Staffordshire