I don’t like to bore people with a lot of technical gibberish, but the subject of preserving highly polished stone floors does need some technical explanation to be better understood. To understand and appreciate the solution, you need to first understand the problem before you. So, please bare with me in this somewhat lengthy description; after all, it is your coveted marble and granite floor we are discussing.
Keeping your Marble floor properly clean at all times is the most important rule to follow. This, however, will not totally satisfy the one thing you most likely care about which is keeping your natural stone floors as shiny as when they were originally installed in your home. Is there a simple answer? Unless you quit the nasty habit of “walking on your floor” the answer is NO! Sooner or later you will need maintenance to restore your stone’s shine. The amount of time this takes depends on several factors including the amount of traffic, the type of stone, and how shiny it was in the first place.
(The shinier a floor is, the more -and sooner- it will show patterns of wear and tear)!
In the case of marble and other natural stones, considering the unorthodox way floors are installed in this country (by setting marble tiles pre-finished to the highest possible gloss level in the factory, as opposed to the traditional “grind-in-place” installation) the problem is notably augmented. In fact, there’s hardly a topical finish of any sort on a polished marble surface.
(The stone was originally polished mechanically, by abrasion and friction, like a gemstone).
This means that you are walking on bare stone. What does this translate into? When somebody waxes, say, a matte vinyl floor (like those in the supermarkets) in order to make the floor shiny, the future requirements of that floor would be to maintain NOT the vinyl itself, but the finish that was applied onto it because people are walking on the wax, NOT on the vinyl. In other words, the wax has the task not only to make the floor shiny but – and most importantly – to protect the actual floor (the vinyl tiles) from wear and tear. Without that protection, the tiles would wear down and they could not certainly be fixed by buffing them up.
The way stone floors are installed in this country is such that nobody feels like there’s any necessity of putting any finish over the marble tiles, because their gloss could not certainly be increased – thus overlooking the most important feature of any topical floor finish, which is to create a protective buffer between the bare floor and the foot traffic. The result is as if we were to walk in mirrors! Now, if you had a floor made out of mirrors, would you keep walking over it and expect it to remain shiny and maintenance-free for a long time? Of course not! Yet, although it is well-known that marble is much more fragile and softer than glass, people somehow got the impression that marble can withstand any sort of abuse.
(Opposed to general public opinion, marble is a relatively “soft” stone).
For routine cleaning, we recommend our unrivaled MB-1 Marble, Granite, and More Floor Detergent. Will these two excellent products perform the miracle of preserving the original finish of your polished stone floors for an indefinite amount of time? We’re not in the business of issuing false hopes, therefore, alas- we can’t promise you that.
(Challenging Mother Nature by putting under our feet a stone polished to a degree that She never intended, is a losing proposition).
Eventually, your stone will need professional restoration and re-polishing. Since good professional stone processors are a rare and costly commodity, the implementation of a sensible and sound maintenance procedure from the very beginning will greatly postpone this requirement. In conclusion, our MB-1 teamed with our MB-7 will make your beautiful stone floor age gracefully and over a long period of time.
And THAT is our promise.
MB-1 Stone Floor Amore: Its pH balanced, NO RINSE formulation effortlessly cleans soil and grime and dries with NO STREAKS. Special inorganic salts in the formula act as moisturizers and optical brighteners, actually enhancing the shine of the floor. Safe to use on all-natural stones. Also excellent for wood floors, ceramic and porcelain tiles, and great for the maintenance of large commercial floors with automatic scrubbing machines, too!
MB-2 Alkaline HD Heavy Duty Cleaner: This highly concentrated product is designed to clean the toughest soils from tiles, grout, and all-natural stones. It is a biodegradable, powerful cleaning agent, formulated with the latest cutting-edge technology, to clean deep into your grout and any other treated surface effectively and easily.