Tumbled Marble Floor Kaboom Damage
by Jana
QUESTION:My mother tried to clean the grout of her tumbled marble bathroom floor with Kaboom. Apparently it went onto the tile and took the finish off. Is there any way to repair it?ANSWER:Kaboom, like nearly all generic an brand-name household cleaners are too harsh for cleaning marble, travertine and stone.Which is why you should use only products safe for cleaning marble, travertine and stone. Common cleaners will corrode and damgage travertine leaving dull and discolored spots. It's called "etching". The finish has been "taken off" in a sense, however, the finish is not something that is applied to the travertine. The tumbled finish is created on the stone itself using a particular process and not a product. But etching does eat into and destroy the stone itself, which of course will remove the surface stone... the "finished" part exposing the more raw and un-finished stone underneath. Good news is that etching can almost always be repaired and the surface finish restored, but the method varies depending on the type of finish. For a tumbled, honed or any other non-polished, non-shiny finish you either have to hire a marble maintenance professional to re-surface the stone or you can do-it-yourself following the detailed instructions provided in the Removing Etch Marks e-book. It's cheap and easy to do and with a rougher surface finish like a "tumbled" finish you should be able to achieve near professional results. 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. |
