Oil On Tumbled Marble Shower

by Susan
(San Diego, CA)

QUESTION:

We have unpolished, tumbled black marble tiles in our shower. The cleaning people thought to make it shiny by "polishing" it with coconut and almond oils. It was okay for many months (they stopped "polishing") but now there are streaks of, I'm assuming, oil down the tiles.

I have tried hot water, hoping to dissolve the oil and let it run down the drain, but this doesn't seem to work. Can you give me some ideas as to what I can do to clean the tiles?

ANSWER:

Try using acetone and a soft bristle brush. Then go back over the same area with hot soapy water and soft brush.

Do a test area first and see what kind of results you get.

This should work to a degree. Since they apparently did this several times, the oil has likely absorbed pretty well into the stone. You may never get it completely removed (without professional help) but you may be able to control or stop the streaking.

Typically, if you want a honed or tumbled stone to be more "shiny," then you'd apply a color enhancer like SCP-Enhance & Seal. This will give the stone a "wet look," which is not shiny, but darker and with a bit of sheen.

You may also want to try DEEP CLEAN, which is made to remove wax and grease from stone.

Good Luck,
Ryan

P.S. Get all the facts, answers, explanations and simple solutions with step-by-step instructions for any issue, problem or question with our Granite & Marble Maintenance Manuals.

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