Burnishing Pads Archives - South London Tile Doctor

Renovating a Dirty Limestone Patio in Putney

This work was conducted earlier in the year when I was contacted by a previous client from Putney who needed help renovating their Limestone tiled patio. I usually work on indoor stone floors so I didn’t anticipate any issues apart from having to contend with the weather.

Limestone Patio Before Cleaning Putney

I went over to survey the patio and come up with a renovation plan. I could see the Patio was in good physical shape but it had a lot of green algae staining and was generally very dirty with ingrained dirt. After measuring up and working out a renovation plan I was able to email over a quote which was accepted and a date scheduled for the work to start.

Limestone Patio Before Cleaning Putney

Deep Cleaning a Limestone Patio

Work started by giving the whole area a thorough wash to clear any grit and general dirt using a pressure washer and extracting the slurry with a wet vacuum. It was a large area so the work was done in sections.

Working in sections again the next was to burnish the limestone starting with a coarse 400-grit diamond pad which is applied with water for lubrication. This coarse pad opens the pores in the stone allowing the ingrained dirt to be flushed out. The soiling was extracted with the wet vacuum and work progressed onto the next pads which are a finer 800 and 1500-grit. Again, water was used for lubrication and the soiling extracted after each pad was applied. These finer pads slowly close the pores in the stone and refine the appearance of the stone building up a lovely finish on the Limestone.

Limestone Patio Renovation Putney

The next step was to clean the grout using a dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean scrubbing them by hand with a stiff brush. The pads do a good job of cleaning the stone but can struggle to reach into the recesses of the grout line.

After another extraction with the wet vacuum the last pad in the set was applied to the patio as before which is a very fine 3500-grit that adds the final polish to the Limestone. This pad is applied dry with only a little water sprayed onto the tile.

Sealing a Limestone Patio

Once the patio was dry it was sealed using Tile Doctor Ultra-Seal which is a natural look sealer that will protect the stone from dirt becomes ingrained in the stone. The sealer soaks into the pores of the stone preventing dirt from residing there and keeping it on the surface where it can be easily rinsed away.

Limestone Patio Renovation Putney

Once complete the patio looked like a new installation and the new sealer will help it stay that way for many years to come.

Limestone Patio After Renovation Putney

Professional Renovation of a Limestone Patio in London

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Acid Damaged Marble Tabletop Renovated in Putney

Restoring the Appearance of a Marble Coffee Tabletop in Putney

1 Comment / Marble Tile Cleaning / Daniel

The photographs below are from a client in Putney, and show what will happen to a Polished Marble tabletop if you try and clean it with Viakal. Marble is made from calcium and magnesium carbonate which makes it acid sensitive, Viakal on the other hand is an acid cleaner blended from Formic and Citric acids resulting in a pH level of 2.2. This product uses the acid to dissolve the calcium and magnesium deposits in Limescale.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table Before Renovation Putney

To be fair to Viakal the label does state not to use it on natural stone, but who reads the label, certainly my clients cleaner hadn’t. The result was the acid had etched the lovely, polished Marble surface and it appeared to be ruined.

I was happy to re-assure my client that the etching could be removed, however, to do this the table would need to be burnished with a set of diamond pads of different grades. This process cuts into the stone with a coarse pad to remove the etching and then slowly builds back the polished appearance using finer grades of pad. The table was very heavy however so the work would need to be done on-site.

Polishing a Marble Tabletop

Due to the weight of the stone table, it couldn’t really be moved so my first job was to relocate nearby furniture, roll up the rug and cover everything in blankets and a drop cloth. The last thing I wanted was any other possessions getting splashed during the burnishing process.

When polishing Marble floor tiles, I would normally use large 17-inch diamond pads fitted to a rotary floor buffer, however that simply wouldn’t work on a table, so I ordered a set of 6-inch burnishing pads from Tile Doctor instead. These smaller pads fit nicely on a hand-held buffer that would be perfect for this situation.

The burnishing process involves working through the pads in sequence. I started with the coarse 100, 200 and then 400-grit pads applied with a little water, these coarse pads were able to remove the etching and ingrained dirt. The table was rinsed down and then the 800-grit medium pad was applied which is the first step in the polishing process. Again, this pad is applied with water to lubricate, and the table was rinsed down afterwards.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table During Renovation Putney

The process was repeated with the 1500-grit fine pad and then the 3000-grit very fine pad to bring up a really nice shine to the Marble table, I should mention the last pad is applied dry with only a tiny amount of water sprayed onto the surface.

Sealing a Marble Table

The last step was to seal the stone to protect it going forward. I used Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal for this, it’s an oil-based impregnator and I figured the oil in the sealer would mask any marks that I wouldn’t be able to remove, however I actually ended up removing all the etching so the sealer just gave the stone a really nice colour and gloss.

Acid Etched Polished Marble Table After Renovation Putney

My customer was very pleased with the work and said that the table looked better than it ever had before. NB. For the aftercare cleaning of a polished Marble coffee table like this I recommend the use of Tile Doctor Stone Patina Spray which has been especially formulated for the regular cleaning of stone worktops.

Professional Restoration of a Marble Tabletop in South London

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Acid Damaged Black Granite Sink Countertop Renovation Clapham

Renovating an Acid Damaged Black Granite Countertop in Clapham

1 Comment / Clapham Tile Cleaning, Granite Tile Cleaning / Daniel

This Black Granite sink countertop was damaged by a cleaning company during an end of tenancy clean at a rental property in Clapham South London. Granite is a very robust stone, but acidic cleaning products will etch it and damage the factory polish thereby ruining its appearance.

Acid Damaged Black Granite Sink Countertop Clapham Before Renovation

Naturally the landlord was not very happy and was considering having it replaced at the cost of the cleaning company who really should have known better. This however would have taken time to source and replace so after searching for a solution on-line I was asked to pop round and see if I could resolve the problem. We don’t just help resolve problems with tiles, jobs like this add a little variety to our day.

The landlord was relieved to hear that the problem could be fixed when I visited site. My solution was to re-polish the granite using a combination of hand-held burnishing blocks and six-inch burnishing pads fitted to a flex machine. He agreed my quote which he passed on to the cleaning company and we arranged a time to get the work done ahead of his new tenant moving in.

Restoring the Appearance of a Granite Countertop

To bring back the appearance of etched Granite we have found its necessary to use various grits of polishing pads and handheld blocks which are made from industrial diamonds. The larger 6-inch pads fit into a handheld buffer which helps to make the process easier.

I started though with the application of a coarse 200-grit hand block to remove the deeper etching from the damaged areas and then moved on to refinishing the surface with the diamond burnishing pads of increasing grits. Water is used to lubricate the process and remove the fine slurry that is generated. I finished on a 3000-grit pad which is applied dry with only a small amount of water to really bring up the polish and ready for sealing.

Sealing a Granite Countertop

To protect the Granite a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer was applied. This sealer is an impregnator which soaks into the pores of the stone giving long lasting protection, it’s formula also contains a colour enhancer which brought out the dark Black colours in the Granite.

Acid Damaged Black Granite Sink Countertop Clapham After Renovation

Once done the countertop looked new again and my the landlord was so happy the problem had been resolved, I’m sure the cleaning company were pleased as well as it saved them lot of hassle and money to replace the countertop. The cleaning company took our details for any future mishaps, hopefully they had learned a lesson though!

The property was now ready for the new tenant.

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