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

How to Achieve a Deep Polish on Marble Floor Tiles

The pictures below are of a Polished Marble floor installed at a property in the village of Callow End which is a few miles South of Worcester. The owner of the house had attempted to clean and seal the floor by themselves and as you can see from the photographs, they ended up dulling its appearance. The physical nature of Marble and natural stone floors in general make them a difficult project to attempt without expert knowledge and the right equipment.


I arranged to survey the floor and explained to the client how I intended to restore the appearance of the Marble to how it should look. I demonstrated the process on a small test area so they could get an idea of the result and explained that the floor could look even better than the day it was installed. Tile Doctor has developed a system called burnishing for natural stone floors which involve the application of a set of diamond pads which are used in sequence to clean and restore the polish to the stone. My quote was accepted, and a date set for the work to begin which should take two days.

Cleaning and Polishing a Marble Tiled Floor

I arrived on the agreed date and started by sealing up the bases of the kitchen kickboards and skirting with silicone to protect against any damage from water ingress. I then vacuumed the floor to remove any debris and grit. Tile Doctor Stone Soap was then worked into the floor with the first of a set of diamond encrusted Burnishing Pads. The first pad is a coarse 400-grit pad and is run over each Marble tile four times. The floor is then rinsed with water and the soil extracted with a wet vacuum. This process was then repeated with an 800-grit, 1500-grit and then finally a 3000-grit pad which is applied dry with only a little water spayed onto the floor. Tile Doctor Stone Soap is a stone cleaning product designed for maintaining the patina on polished stone. Additionally, it has a sealer friendly pH Neutral formula which is ideal for floors like these. Many floor cleaning products you find in supermarkets are too harsh for use on natural stone and can cause damage over time (always read the label).

Sealing a Polished Marble Floor

Once the burnishing was complete the floor needed to be sealed to protect its’ final finish. Tile Doctor have a whole range of sealing products available but for a really durable shiny finish on Marble I recommend the application of Tile Doctor Shine Powder. This is a crystallising powder that provides a very high shine and tough durable finish, it’s worked into the stone using a white pad fitted to a rotary machine.


My client was absolutely delighted with the result and agreed the floor had never looked so good and lived up to the high standard I told them they could expect. For aftercare I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Stone Soap which will keep the floor clean and help maintain the deep patina that I had built-up on the Marble tiles.



Source: Marble Tile Cleaning and Restoration Service in Worcestershire

Restoration of Marble Tiles

We were recently asked to look at a polished Marble Tile installed in the floor of a house in Kendal, Cumbria. They were recently fitted but the local Tiler had struggled to get the sheen right on the surface of the Marble, in fact the sealer he had used was badly smeared in some places and needed to come off. To strip off the sealer we used with a Red diamond encrusted burnishing pad fitted to a rotary machine and then rinsed the floor with water which we then removed using a wet and dry Vax machine. We then used other pads in the burnishing system process to clean and polish the Marble floor until we had a nice overall sheen. We finished off the floor with a coat of Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal, which is a premium, no-sheen, natural-look penetrating sealer formulated to provide maximum stain protection. Source: Polishing Marble Tiled Floor in Kendal, Cumrbia Read more...

Polished Marble Floor Covered in Grout Haze in Irthlingborough

These photos are from a newly installed Polished Marble floor in the kitchen at a residence in Irthlingborough Northants which had been left covered in grout haze. The customer called the builder back as they were unhappy with the finish but he could not rectify the problem, so the customer contacted Tile Doctor to see if anything could be done. This is a problem we often come up against where a builder or tiler does a good job of laying the tiles but for some reason doesn't remove all the Read more...

Commerical Marble Tiled Floor Restoration

Photographs below of a classic black and white Marble floor tile installation at premises in the city of Winchester. As you can see these Marble tiles had seen some traffic and were not in the best of condition following on from some building work that had been going on; fortunately we are quite used to dealing with these problem and have just the right products and equipment to restore them. Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing For best results on hard stone surfaces such as Marble we burnish the floor using a set of diamond encrusted polishing pads. You start with a coarse pad which applied with a little water to remove surface dirt and sealers etc. before moving through a set of finer polishing pads until you reach a high shine glossy finish. Half way through the burnishing process we stopped to apply a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean along the grout lines and give them a scrub with stiff hand brushes repeating the process in stubborn areas. After the treatment the floor was washed do to remove any soiled solution before being buffed with a white buffing pad. Any trace of its previous condition was now gone and the floor was uniform in appearance, it took much of the day to do the polishing and a set of four burnishing pads to acquire the right lustre. Source: Mabrle Read more...

Resolving Marble Tile Installation Issues

These photos are from a newly installed Polished Marble floor in the kitchen at a residence in Irthlingborough Northants which had been left covered in grout haze. The customer called the builder back as they were unhappy with the finish but he could not rectify the problem, so the customer contacted Tile Doctor to see if anything could be done. This is a problem we often come up against where a builder or tiler does a good job of laying the tiles but for some reason doesn't remove all the grout from the tile and we have even seen some jobs where the grout smears have been sealed over which makes it even more noticeable especially on a polished floor. Fortunately for the customer we are able to resolve such problems and after agreeing the process we set about solving the problem. Burnishing Polished Marble Tiles To protect the kitchen units from any splashing etc. all the kick boards were removed and plastic sheeting fitted to protect new doors and panels before any work was undertaken. Polished Marble is a very hard surface that has to be burnished with diamond encrusted pads to restore the finish so we set about this task using a set of Tile Doctor Burnishing Pads. The pads come in a set of four, you start with the coarse pad together with a little water and this cut's Read more...

Polished Marble Floor Covered in Grout Haze in Irthlingborough

These photos are from a newly installed Polished Marble floor in the kitchen at a residence in Irthlingborough Northants which had been left covered in grout haze. The customer called the builder back as they were unhappy with the finish but he could not rectify the problem, so the customer contacted Tile Doctor to see if anything could be done. This is a problem we often come up against where a builder or tiler does a good job of laying the tiles but for some reason doesn't remove all the Read more...

Marble Tiled Floor Restored in Winchester

Photographs below of a classic black and white Marble floor tile installation at premises in the city of Winchester. As you can see these Marble tiles had seen some traffic and were not in the best of condition following on from some building work that had been going on; fortunately we are quite used to dealing with these problem and have just the right products and equipment to restore them. Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing For best results on hard stone surfaces such as Marble we burnish Read more...