As many homeowners know likely through finding out the hard way, acidic cleaners and marble dont go well together.
With the job below we were called to restore these marble mosaic tiles on a shower floor in Radlett Hertfordshire. Due to particularly hard water in this area there was quite a buildup of limescale in the corners. The homeowner then tried to rectify the issue by applying an acidic detergent. This was a bad idea!
Etching of marble tiles from acids
As you can see in the pic above the acids have eaten through the top layer of the marble and given it a very dull white appearance. This is only rectified by resurfacing the marble tiles as best we can. The issue I found with these mosaics is that they shred up the diamond pads required to resurface them, so frustratingly after 2 diamond polishing pads were destroyed it was just about at the required level for the etching to be removed and polishing to begin.
The polishing process gradually brought back the color and luster to the marble mosaics. After polishing was complete I was able to apply heat with a heat gun to dry it sufficiently enough for deep sealing. I used a color enhancing sealer on this one to help bring the color back as when resurfacing mosaics little bits between the ridges of the tiles usually get left out.
The importance of sealing your marble shower tiles and how to do it
I really can not stress this point enough!! Seal your marble every year as it will stop stuff ( dirt, grime, limescale) from taking root in the stone. This makes it much easier to clean and prevents things from staining and discoloring the marble.
This job in the pics had allot of limescale buildup in the corners from the hard water in Radlett ( pic below). However I was able to gently remove allot of this limescale with an ordinary Stanley knife blade. The reason I could remove this limescale buildup so easily is that the installers obviously sealed it well enough to prevented this limescale from taking root in the marble. The acidic detergent on the other hand was left on the tiles and passed through the sealer given enough time to eat into the stone.
I clean and restore all kinds of tiles and now after all these years when I am asked to refurbish tiles that I have sealed myself several years ago they are very easy to clean and there is no staining at all. Sealing absolutely works so just do it!!
How to apply sealer to marble tiles
Its quite straight forward to seal marble. The idea is that you clean it first so that the new coat of seal doesent trap in any dirt. Then once dry you apply your seal and buff off the excess. Its very important to buff off the excess as this allows you to top up the seals on stone that has already been sealed. If excess pools on the surface and is left , it will form dirty sticky patches. If you buff off any excess then you can never over apply the sealer as it sinks in exactly where required even if the stone has allot of sealer in it already. So as a quick step by step guide on sealing your marble follow the steps below.
- clean marble with PH neutral detergent and rinse with clean water
- allow marble to dry than apply penetrating tile sealer with microfibre cloth
- allow sealer to soak in for a few minuites and then buff off any access with dry microfibre cloth
- buff all the marble again to bring out the shine a bit with microfibre cloth or polishing pad.
