Restoring Old Stained Marble Patio
by John Turner
QUESTION:I have a marble patio built in 1950. The marble is discolored and stained. How do I restore?ANSWER:Honestly John, this job sounds like it will require a marble restoration professional to grind down and resurface the marble.Of course, without seeing it I can't say for sure, but based on your description, I'd say it's likely. Stains develop when a substance is absorbed into the marble. Stains can be removed with a pretty simple process, but if the stains are old and deep, large and/or you have a lot of them, you probably won't get satisfactory results trying to do-it-yourself. The discoloration of the marble patio is probably from years of ground in dirt, maybe some moss, etc. Again difficult and time consuming to clean and you still may not get great results. A pro will simply grind away the stained and discolored layer until you have clean, raw marble of uniform color. Depending on the size of the patio, it could be somewhat expensive, but you should get excellent results. Or try this... Now if the space is fairly small (say 8x8 or smaller) and you are up for a project that may yield uncertain and possibly not perfect results, then there's a couple things you could do for cleaning marble in bad shape... First, soak and scrub the marble patio with MB-2 Heavy Duty Cleaner. Follow directions for application, rinse and spray off with a hose. Repeat this routine until you stop getting improvement. If you are lucky, this process may clean off a lot of the dirt and improve the stain and discoloration. You'll likely still have stains. You'll need a different process to remove stains and it depends on what stained the marble, how deep it is, so it may involve a bit of experimentation. You'll find complete step-by-step instructions for how to do this in the Removing Stains Manual. You never know. It may not be as bad as you (or I) think and you have good success with the DIY techniques. If they don't get the results you want, then you're not much worse off and can call a pro at that point. But if the patio is large, then just hire a marble restoration pro. 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.  I highly recommend MB Stone Care Products to maintain all your marble, stone and granite countertops and floors in optimal condition. I've used other good products (Stone Tech, Miracle) but found MB Stone Care is the most reliable and effective.
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