Cleaning, Repairing and Sealing Marble floors

by Beverly
(CA)

QUESTION:

We just moved into a home that has a white marble floor in the kitchen with veins of beige. It also has a decorative marble trim that is made of a brown and black diamond pattern.


The marble needs repair, but it has many problems and I'm not sure how to go about it.

The previous owner told us that she had the floors professionally resealed 3 years ago...

But after much research on sealing marble and after looking at our floors I'm sure it needs to be resealed again.

There are tiny little holes that have accumulated dirt...so it looks like some of the marble tiles have a bit of a peppered affect to them. How can I remove this dirt and fill in the holes?

Second, it looks like there are various water and grease stains in certain spots.

You can only see the spots from certain angles, but I know that is not a natural part of the marbling pattern.

How do I fix the holes and take away those stains before sealing the marble again?

Next, the outer tiles near the walls have a beautiful shine to them...but all of the other marble tiles that are in the main "traffic" area look dull and if you look real close it looks like there are a lot of little scratches on it.

Also, there is a chip about the size of a dime in the dinning room area. Is there a way I can fill this in and have it look like it is part of the marble?

How can I fix the scratches, chip and dull tiles?

What is the best type of sealer to use for marble floors? Can I do this whole process by myself?

ANSWER:

Beverly, you have a variety of marble repair issues that have built up from years of use. There are some things that you can do yourself, but......

The short and best answer is for you to locate an experienced and reputable marble maintenance and restoration pro to come in to clean and re-surface your marble floors.

This will be expensive, but there's only so much you can do yourself.

Holes are found naturally in travertine, which is in the same family of marble, but don't get much veining in travertine, so without seeing the floor it's hard to say exactly what may be happening here.

Of course a deep marble cleaning or re-finishing is necessary.

Re-sealing is the least of your issues, but it's easy to answer. All you need to do is water test in various places to determine if the floor does or does not need re-sealing.

But it really doesn't matter until you fix all the other issues.

Grease and water stains that you can only see at an angle are not actually "stains" where something has absorbed into the stone.

These are spots of corrosion caused by contact with acidic foods/drinks and/or too harsh cleaning products.

FYI... you should only use products safe for cleaning marble or else you get this type of damage called "etching".

Luckily you can repair mild to moderate etch marks yourself on polished marble using the ETCH REMOVER / Marble polishing paste.

Traffic areas are dull and scratched because the polished layer has been worn away by all the feet. Nothing you can do about that except have a marble maintenance pro re-polish the floor.

I'd suggest that instead of getting it "polished" that you have it "honed", which is a matte surface.

Why?

Because a polished marble floor is much more trouble to keep looking good and you'll have to re-polish periodically as traffic wears away the shine.

The chip is likely repairable depending on how deep. Scratches that are deep enough can be filled using the recommended Marble & Granite Repair Kit. A shallow scratch won't hold the filler and will need professional repolishing.

Light surface scratches can be rubbed out with the Etch Remover paste mentioned above.

I know it's not what you want to hear given you just bought this place, but you can likely improve the appearance greatly with a little DIY marble repair, but you may also want to call around, get references and hire a pro to restore your marble floor.