New Techniques in Stone Floor Care

Increasingly, I am being asked about using a polishing systems with diamond grit or some other compound to maintain stone and terrazzo floors. These systems are very expensive in the initial phase, however, they are cheaper to maintain in the long run. The big question is if the initial expense is worth it.

Natural stone floors present some of the greatest challenges in hard floor maintenance because if not properly maintained, they can be destroyed for life. However, if properly maintained, they are beautiful, long-lasting and relatively easy to maintain.

Granite and marble are being used more frequently in buildings for these reasons. We now see stone flooring from all over the world – including China and India – which as helped to make them cheaper than they have been in the past.

There are three main forms of granite and marble that we see in the marketplace and all require different maintenance techniques depending on their application and traffic.

FLAMED OR SAND FINISH
This floor is characterized by its roughness and is normally seen on the outside of buildings or inside as an accent because of its slip resistant characteristics. It may also be used on ramps, slopes and stairs. It is difficult, if not impossible, to polish this surface with diamond or polishing compounds, and we normally suggest penetrating sealers – which I will discuss later.

HONED FINISH
This surface has a smooth appearance without any roughness but it is not polished to a high shine. The choice of the low luster has usually been the designer’s choice and therefore polishing to bring a higher shine is not normally desired. Polishing or resealing is often necessary in high traffic areas as the shine is worn down.

POLISHED
A very high gloss finish, which at one time was found only on walls because of its perceived slipperiness, it is not seen on floors in combination with flamed stone or on its own. It is important to remember that the high gloss is achieved by high sophisticated equipment using many of the same type of compounds to sand the stone as are used in the polishing systems employed directly in buildings. Applying the polish at the manufacturing level is considerably cheaper than trying to apply it by hand or floor machine once it has been put down in the building.

We used to recommend some form of penetrating sealant protection for these floors and still do, however many of the polishing systems will work well in repairing worn, highly trafficked areas if the floor has not been protected. The caveat here is that, repair or a complete job can cost $3.50 per sq. foot up to $7 per sq. foot depending on the amount of repair or work necessary.

In the past 20 years we have seen stone floor maintenance technology change significantly. In the early phases it was normal to apply a low solids, solvent-based seal and then a water-based finish or wax, which gave the stone an artificial looking shine. Solvent seals, which wore better than water-based seals and penetrated more into the stone, then went out of fashion due to better technology in water-based sealers but the shine became even more artificial as the water-based seals did not penetrate as much as the solvents leaving more finish on the surface of the stone.

Solvent-based seals started to make a come back a few years ago because of their ability to protect the stone without giving it an artificial appearance. The floor can then be spray buffed or burnished to maintain its appearance.

I have never been a fan of crystallization due to its high cost and the fact that it actually chemically changes the surface of the floor. It has also not been recognized by some of the marble and tile industry associations as an acceptable method of maintenance. The latest technique we are seeing increasingly is to polish the stone with a polishing compound or diamond grit pads. As mentioned earlier the process is expensive initially but cheaper to maintain in the long run.

In order to establish typical costs I developed a simple specification for using a penetrating seal and one with polishing (See Table).  The sample area is 5000 sq. feet of medium- to light-traffic. The following are the hours per year required for the maintenance of each:
  •  Marble Polishing – 494;
  •  Granite Polishing – 504;
  •  Marble/Granite Penetrating Seal – 595.

Obviously this is just a sample, however the results show that traditional methods are about 20 per cent more to maintain than a floor which has been polished.

As mentioned earlier there is a high initial cost to polishing and I believe that there needs to be a continual program of repair of traffic lanes factored into the maintenance program. Based on the above program and a loaded wage cost of $20 it would take 10 years before the cost of the initial polishing would be recovered.

I would be interested in any experience or observations that anyone has, as it would be interesting to start to track what the real life cycle costing of this process is and the different costs to maintain it.