After investing in natural stone materials, you will want to employ proper sealing procedures, cleaning products, and care to maintain their beauty and durability.

PROTECTING YOUR STONE

It is a common misconception that stone is “stain proof”. However, water, oils and other liquids can easily penetrate porous natural stones, leaving unwanted stains. Using a good quality sealer will protect your stone from most spills and help maintain its natural look and luster.

Sealing your stone for a natural look:

If you are trying to retain the natural look of your stone products, we recommend you employ protective sealers for your interior and exterior materials. There are a great variety of sealers available, many of which can be found at your local home improvement store or we can supply you with Roval products that we carry.

Sealing your stone with color enhancement:

If you want to transform the surface of your stone for color enhancement, especially unpolished natural stone materials such as tumbled, we recommend using good quality polish, rich color enhancers, or high gloss lacquer. These products will deepen the color of your stone, and protect it from stains and weathering.

It is especially important to use a protective sealer in high-traffic and food areas. This will reduce maintenance to a minimum and provide maximum protection against stains and slips.

Grout care:

Some grouts require a sealer, while others do not. To ensure that your grout will be appropriately protected, consult your installers and contractors on the type of grout being used on your property. 

 CARE & MAINTENANCE

Routine Care:

To minimize the scratches and wear patterns that can develop on natural stone, we recommend you sweep or dust surfaces regularly. Additionally, we recommend cleaning your natural stone with warm water and a sponge, mop, or non-abrasive cloth. To remove soils that usual dusting and mopping leave behind, you can use gentle, neutral cleaning agents especially made for natural stone and tile care.

Scratches:

To remove light scratches, tiles can be hand-sanded using pre-wetted, appropriate grit sanding paper in a circular motion. Once the scratch has been removed, clean the surface of the tile, let it dry, and re-seal it with the appropriate high-quality sealer.

Deep scratches or gouges can be filled with a high quality, color-matching cementitious grout. Both sanded and unsanded grouts can be found at your local home improvement stores. When the scratch or gouge has been filled, be sure to clean and dry the surface for re-sealing.

Cleansers and Cleaning Agents to AVOID:

·          Don’t use general purpose cleaners

·          Don’t use products that contain lemon, vinegar, or other acids

·          Don’t use scouring powders or creams

·          Don’t use abrasive cloths or cleaning agents

·          Don’t use ammonia or bleach

·          Don’t use alkaline cleaners not specifically formulated for natural stone

Agg-888 Color Enhancing Sealer is a crystal clear, high solids content, interior or exterior solvent base acrylic sealer that produces a rich glossy finish. Formulated to efficiently seal rough or porous surfaces or both, such as stone, Mexican Saltillo, deep wire cut brick pavers – exposed aggregate and all other rough or porous cementatious  tiles or materials. Agg-888 has a built in sun shield that will resist fading or discoloring and also maintain the enhanced look for long periods of time, when applied to exterior surfaces.

Ultimate – 466 Medium Color Enhancing Sealer  is a fast drying, crystal clear, medium light viscosity, solvent base acrylic sealer. Designed  for use on porous smooth or semi smooth floor surfaces such as travertine, quarry tile, unglazed ceramic tile, slate, terrazzo, or any other fairly smooth cementatious surfaces. Will not fade, discolor, crack or peel when exposed to the weather. Ultimate-466 recommended when low gloss is desired.

Sealer - 444 Color Enhancing Sealer  is a water base, milky white, light viscosity, high solids content non toxic sealer, that dries to a very tough slip resistant and clear glossy finish. Design to be applied on most all porous tiles on new installations before grouting to help protect the tiles from sticking grout. Sealer-444 can be used indoors or outdoors and recommended uses on porous quarry tile, Mexican Saltillo, brick pavers, concrete tile and some terra cotta clay pavers.

Magic Natural Look Sealer  is a petroleum base penetrating siloxane water repellent and protector sealer which provides virtually an invisible below surface seal. Magic sealer repels moisture penetration, but allows vapor migration ( breathing ). Magic sealer can be use on stone surfaces, brick, brick pavers, unglazed ceramic tile, clay, concrete, grout joints, cementatious  and saltillo type surfaces where no gloss is desired.

Magic – Plus Natural Look Sealer  is a clear penetrating water and oil repellent suitable for use on interior or exterior surfaces. Unlike most water repellents, Plus is based on new technology that provides oleophobic ( oil resistant ) protection as well as water repellency making it for ideal for long term protection against food, oil and water related stains. Magic Plus dries clear and non glossy. Magic Plus sealer can be use on stone surfaces, brick, brick pavers, unglazed ceramic tile, clay, concrete, grout joints, cementatious  and saltillo type surfaces where no gloss is desired.

Tile & Stone Neutral Cleaner is a concentrated, neutral pH cleaner designed for regular use on all types of hard surface flooring materials, such as travertine, marble, granite, limestone and other delicate natural stone surfaces, brick, masonry, terrazzo, ceramic tile, synthetic and no-wax flooring, urethane sealed wood flooring, asphalt, vinyl, rubber  and Mexican Saltillo tile. Tile & Stone Cleaner is a special blend of powerful detergents, surface active surfactants and wetting agents that combine to gently loosen, lift and dissolve dirt and grease on contact. Tile & Stone Cleaner dries clear and bright without leaving streaks or hazy residues and may not require rinsing when used as part of a regular maintenance program. Concentrated formula dilutes in water.

Natural Stone Care & Cleaning

Stone walkways, driveways, flooring, tile backsplashes and other projects are like works of art and you want to protect your investment with proper natural stone care and natural stone cleaning, ensuring that when you clean your granite or marble countertops or are cleaning Travertine backsplashes, you take precautions to keep your tile and stone in the finest condition possible. 

Natural stone sealing and natural stone maintenance are critical. Because they are abrasive in nature, sand, grit, and dirt can easily damage natural stone surfaces and you want to be as selective with your stone floor cleaners, and stone floor maintenance choices as you were in your selection of your floor tile and or natural stone, or other tile, granite or marble projects in your home or office space.

Maintenance of Travertine, Marble, Granite and Limestone Tiles, Paver & Grout Protection and Sealing

Let Marble Florida help you when it comes to protecting granite, sealing natural stone tiles, stone cleaning and natural stone sealer selection.   We can suggest special cleaners meant specifically for stone floors and how to go about cleaning natural stone without damaging your investment. 

You never want to used any acidic products on your marble, Travertine, limestone or granite.  These all have the capacity to dull the shine and texture and, especially with porous stone, you want to think about protecting your floors and walkways, as well as countertops, driveways and other projects by using a natural stone cleaner .   

Staining of porous tile and stone is always a concerns, so stone floor cleaning and tile cleaning are important, but so is sealing natural stone tiles. Once you’ve damaged your stone or tile it can be expensive to replace or bring the original finish back.  On the other hand, cleaning and protecting your travertine, tile, granite or marble projects doesn’t take a lot of money or hard work.