How Often Does A Marble Floor Need Maintenance
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- 15-11-2022
How often does a marble floor need maintenance? Find out why marble floor maintenance is important and how often should you have your marble floors polished.
How Often to Clean Marble Floors
Marble is a stunning stone that adds a luxurious touch to any home. However, marble is a delicate stone that requires special care to keep its shine and avoid scratching. The enemy of marble floors is dust and debris since they can leave tiny dings that degrade the sheen and let unsightly stains seep through the marble.
To combat this, any dry dust mopping ought to be done on floors at least twice a week; even though the majority of marble floors are sealed to help avoid stains, spills, especially those involving acidic substances, and evident mud or dirt should be cleaned up every once. Marble flooring only needs to be thoroughly cleaned once a month.
Cleaning marble floors starts with preventative and periodic maintenance - sweeping, dusting, and mopping daily will remove any dirt or surface debris that might scratch or otherwise ruin your marble. It's also vital to wipe up accidents as soon as they happen to avoid staining your floor with water or other substances.
Important Factors to Consider
Marble is a calcareous, alkali stone that interacts with any acidic chemical; this chemical reaction might result in persistent discolouration. This is why it is critical to select the proper cleaning product. Harsh cleansers, such as ammonia or chlorine bleach, can permanently damage the marble polish.
Any cleaner that feels gritty or claims to "scour away" dirt should be avoided. Acid-based commercial cleansers, including those indicated for granite, should be avoided entirely, as should DIY mixes containing distilled white vinegar or lemon juice. Use caution when using cleaning or waxing solutions that claim to clean and shine.
These are not designed for marble and might make it appear dirty and slippery.
How Often Should Your Marble Floors Be Polished?
Traffic & Usage
You'll need to polish your marble more regularly if it's in a high-traffic location. This is because dirt, sand, and other debris are easily dragged in; these will need to be cleaned and polished off the floor regularly.
Interim Cleaning
Cleaning your floor in between polishings will keep it in better condition for longer; using a mop before polishing your floor may keep it looking clean in the short term.
Type of Marble
Different varieties of marble need varying degrees of cleaning. Softer marble requires more regular cleaning, if only because it is more susceptible to scratch and losing its lustre faster.
Marble has a weighty, cold, and easy-to-clean smoothness that is inherently appealing, and its endurance over time is extraordinary - until stained; despite its tough-looking surface, marble is porous and soaks up liquids.
Even when polished and smoothed to an impenetrable brilliance, marble surfaces may act as sponges for thick, thin, oily, watery, and acidic stains of all types, and when stains seep inside the marble, they sometimes require more than surface cleaning to eradicate.
Maintenance of Marble Flooring
It is essential to maintain your marble and clean it regularly to keep it in good shape; as a general guideline, dry clean it once per week with a soft cloth or dust mop for each person or pet in your family. Weekly sweeping should suffice for a single-person household.
Dust the floor twice a week if you have two people - you'll probably have to dust the floor every day if you have four humans and two pets; this decreases the amount of debris that can accumulate on the floor and helps to maintain your marble free of scratches and in good condition.
If something spills on your marble floor, make sure to clean it up right away to avoid stains from setting in. Marble is a porous rock, which means it may absorb moisture, making it difficult to remove stains. Blot stains, not rub them - spills should be flushed with plenty of water to neutralise the pH and reduce the possibility of stains or etches. This is especially true for acids like tomato, citrus, vinegar, and coffee.
Marble Stains
Examine the stains on your flooring - the sort of stains you have influences how frequently you clean your marble, so, if you discover some scratches, for example, you should deal with them as soon as possible.
Some stains might also become permanent, therefore it's critical to wipe them up almost away.
Liquids soak into marble effectively, and an interesting way to think about ink, dye, and paint removal is that they may be absorbed in reverse.
Marble surfaces contain pores, and a response pulling out, similar to how a sponge or clay mask lifts out blackheads and impurities in the skin, is what happens with marble stains.
A layer of poultice, or a thick powder containing whiting and a low to medium concentration of hydrogen peroxide, will remove the stain from the marble.
Before peeling out and sloughing off the stain pigments, allow the mixture to settle into the stain for 12 hours or longer, and even cover it with plastic wrap to keep moisture out.
If the stain persists after treatment, continue the process until it lifts, then rinses with warm water and soft soap to remove any residue from the porous surface and borders.
Fruit juices may be beneficial to the body, but the acidity may be damaging to even the most durable materials. Whereas the body possesses fluids to counteract the corrosive effects of acids, natural materials, even those as hard as marble, just absorb the acid without reacting.
Hydrogen peroxide and polishing powder mixture, similar to the poultice stated previously, may include a tin-oxide component that works well for sucking out acidic stains, although the marble surface suffers slightly when exposed to acids.
While the chemical cleaning would most likely remove the stain, you will note that the acid and acid-stain cleansing have degraded the marble's surface.
Acid stain removal may necessitate a further procedure known as rebuffing, which polishes and re-shines the surface with just a little more soaking, circling, and smoothing with a cloth and fine powders, or it may necessitate some fine drilling and sandpaper finishing for restored shine.
Marble lends itself well to metal décor, with copper, silver, and steel objects enhancing its lines and smoothness.
However, certain metals discolour the polished surfaces and enable oxidation and rust growth; early on, rust is simple to remove with a wire brush that can reach into crevices without damaging polished surfaces - to remove set-in stains, use a poultice or other powder and chemical treatment, sometimes with a rust remover.
The dark, penetrating effects of black soot and fireplace buildup are similar, but they can usually be removed with just a soap and water cleaning or gentle baking soda scrub followed by cloth rinsing or wet paste treatments set in overnight, then rinsed and repeated.
Both of these stains may necessitate scraping to reach deeper discolouration, which may necessitate rebuffing or re-polishing.
A creamy, oily combination might appear to be beneficial to marble, but elements like cosmetics, peanut butter, margarine, milk, and creams can soak in and cause black stains.
On the first try or after a few applications, lukewarm or warm water and pure ammonia might help eliminate the stains.
If the ammonia-water solution fails to remove the stain, acetone, a solvent found in goods such as nail polish remover, will assist lift the stain and penetrate the jagged pore of marble.
However, pouring the acetone solution into or over the stain is unlikely to be useful. The best results will most likely come from making a paste and leaving it on the site for a day or two.
Marble Flooring Specialists In London
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Contact our experts today for marble floor cleaning, restoration and polishing. Follow the links below for more details about our services.