Repolishing Scratched & Spotty White Marble
by Nora
QUESTION:I have new white carrara marble countertops that got scratched during constuction. The contractor hired experts to repolish them. After they were done a gray hue appeared and later small drop-like whiter spots came through.They came and repolished again and although the marble did not look as white as when first installed, the white spots and the dark gray hue reappeared....frustrating to say the least. It is not from use because one of the bathrooms doesn't get used and I have only wiped the dist with damp clean washloth...Help please! ANSWER:Without knowing specifically how the marble was polished and what was applied during the polishing it's very difficult to say why you are seeing spots and discoloration.Also, you didn't indicate the timing. Did the gray hue and spots occur immediately or was it a couple hours later... a couple days later? I'm assuming that they re-polished only the area that was scratched, but just to help you diagnose the cause.... did this problem occur uniformly over the entire surface? ... or just in certain areas? Was it exactly in the area that was worked on? Typically, lighter-colored spots are from some acidic or too alkaline substance that has contacted and etched the marble. You can remove such etch marks on polished marble with SCP: Marble Polishing Paste... excellent "must-have" marble maintenance product. The emergence of the gray hue is odd, but could be from the adhesive saturating through the marble causing a stain on the surface. Usually you'd see this in only in specific spots and not over the entire surface. And is the gray hue REALLY obvious or could it be that you just feel that the marble was "whiter" before? Very often after installation when you are able to look at your stone a lot many people start to see patterns, colors, spots, etc. that they never noticed before. I'm not saying that's the case in this instance... drop-like white spots are certainly not normal and suggest chemical damage. The gray hue is puzzling though because Carrara marble does have a gray undertone. But again, if it is an obvious change, then there is likely a problem. Possibly they applied some chemical/substance/compound to fill the scratch (instead of grinding it away and re-polishing) that is responsible for the gray color? I'd suggest having another marble company come take a look. I'd use the paste recommended above as well. You'll want to have some around anyway and it will help solve the mystery of the white spots. If the paste removes them, then we know it was chemical damage. If not, then something else is to blame. If the gray color is only in spots, then I'd treat them as "stains" and follow the instructions in the Removing Granite & Marble Stains ebook. Sorry I couldn't give you a more concrete answer, but this one is odd and again, without seeing it or knowing what was done... hard to say exactly how to solve it. 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. |
