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Choosing Your Stone Care Provider
Your home is your canvas. You have created a living space that makes you feel comfortable and safe. The use of color has given you the freedom to express yourself. Your furniture is tasteful, plush, or ornate. Your home is a reflection of you.
But one aspect seems to be waning. One small part of your perfect space has been slowly degrading. Every effort has been put into its care. You have repeatedly admonished yourself or your housekeeper to make a greater effort to keep your natural stone floors looking clean and bright. But with every passing day your grout lines get blacker, holes become more evident, and the shine is distorted. After a year on your hands and knees with focused effort you've decided to call a professional.
And what does he tell you? Your one year old floor is ruined and needs to be refinished, honed, deep cleaned, sealed, your grout is black and can't become clean, the holes in your travertine will not become clean, you need a grout treatment, grout stain, color seal, your floor needs a good coat of wax, to be polished, crystallized, powder polished, pressure washed, sanded, diamond sanded, chemical polished, re-grouted, we have the best method, don't trust that guy, they're going out of business, we have the solution, every line to get your business. Your asking yourself, “Do they want to solve my problem or are they after my money.”
Ask five different professionals. Many times you get five different answers. You are dealing with a contractor. In the past that meant something. A contractor had a license, insurance, a bond, a method of oversight that allowed the consumer to know that they were getting good advice from a trained qualified professional. It's not like that anymore. The stone industry has truly become caveat emptor. BUYER BEWARE. The purpose of this piece is to educate you on the language of the stone industry so that you can make an informed decision based on concrete facts.
The evaluation, also known as the estimate is your chance to learn something about your floor. Before you invite them into your home, here are a few terms that you should know.
Etch: A chemical reaction between your stone and a liquid. Etching takes place on marble, travertine, limestone, and other like materials. That little white spot on your polished floor that is lighter than surrounding area and no longer has a shine is an etch mark. Etches are the result of chemical reactions between your stone and acid containing substances. There are so many acid containing substances in our homes including all citrus, colas, and many household cleaners. It is important to exercise care when these items are in use.
Deep Cleaning: Deep cleaning is the process by which the darkness is removed from the stone and grout. Travertine collects dirt in its pores, limestone slowly turns grey, Marble and tile floors stay clean but the grout tends to discolor from dirt and debris. The deep cleaning process removes this soiling safely and effectively without using harsh chemicals while insuring that your surface looks “like new” again.
Dullness: Dullness occurs when scratches and etches from use combine to reduce the clarity of a reflected light on the surface of your stone. Dullness is a condition that requires refinishing to remove.
Refinishing: Refinishing is the systematic removal of damage from the surface of your stone. Refinishing involves the use of diamond pads and other abrasives to first remove scratches and etches then through successive smoother grits, the surface is brought to the desired finish. The only way to remove all scratches and etches from your stone surfaces is by refinishing.
Chemical Polishing: The final step in the refinishing system for a polished stone; chemical polishing is not often used independently of refinishing. This process will remove light surface scuffs and abrasions, as well as increase the overall reflection of the treated surface.
Hone: A hone is a term used to describe any level of shine on a stone's surface. A low hone is also described as a matte or flat finish. Each level of abrasive used increases the level of reflection from flat to satin (high hone) to polished.
Stain: A stain is a solid particle that has been carried into the surface by a liquid and was left behind as the liquid evaporated. These are common on porous surfaces such as limestone, concrete, and many light colored granites. Stain removal treatments involve the use of many different chemicals and solvents. Many times a poultice is necessary to remove a stain.
Poultice: A poultice is a cream prepared for the application to the stained area. The poultice process can take from a few hours to several days to complete and should be completed by a professional who has experience in stain removal.
Finding the right people to perform this work is a process in itself. Few trade organizations exist that train and certify stone refinishing technicians. There are some items of concern that you need to be aware of before placing the call. Your stone floors are in need of restoration or deep cleaning. Do you call a company that specializes in natural stone refinishing and maintenance? Or do you call a company that specializes in carpet cleaning that also does stone? Or do you call a company that specializes in janitorial and housekeeping services that also does stone? It is my experience that what a company does best they specialize in.
Your resources are vast. Before you go to Google, call around to your friends that have stone and ask who they have used and are they happy with the results. Call your local tile store and ask for referral. The best source of the best work is through these referral based outlets. Their reputations are built on customer satisfaction so they will hold their referrals accountable as well.
Once you have a name or two, hit Google and see what is available in your area. The sponsored links are very competitive in many markets, but beware, just because they are willing to pay more, may not mean you will get the best results. There are many companies that just simply need the work more now.
Many companies that advertise are not licensed to work in their field. Watch out here. If there is no license, there may not be any liability insurance, or workers compensation insurance. You may be putting yourself at risk for the few dollars you may save.
Prepare
This is the easy part. Prepare a list of specific questions that you want each person to answer. This list could be as long as you need or may be just one question. But I suggest you ask some specific questions about their experience or company. How long have you been in business? How long have you been working on stone? Have you done anyone in my area? Will you be doing the work?
Be careful about certifications, many require less than 20 hours of instruction, then they learn on the job. Do you want them learning on your job?
The Evaluation
Also known as the estimate, the evaluation is your opportunity to interview the prospective company. This interview actually starts the moment that you pick up the phone to place the call. Did you get a live person to answer and schedule an estimate? If not was your message returned promptly? Was your message returned at all? Did the person on the other end of the line ask any pertinent questions about your surfaces? Are you comfortable with this company? Did the representative from the company arrive on time or call and let you know when they would be there? Communication is key in the service business.
Did they answer your list of questions to your satisfaction? Do you feel they will do the best job? This should be your primary concern. Price should become a concern only when comparing two or more equal candidates. You are confident that you have three companies of equal ability, only then should the lowest price be chosen. This is your home. Most good companies will be comparably priced within 5% – 10% of each other.
Scheduling
Schedule the project on your terms. There are times during the project that you can not walk on the floor. Some cleaning chemicals and sealers can have a strong odor. Many services will be noisy. Pets should be away from the service areas. Fumes from chemicals many times are heavier that air and will dissipate slower closer to the ground. Pets may be adversely affected by this. It is important that you are aware of this and schedule your days accordingly.
The Project
Remember that even though you trust this company to perform at their best and deliver a great job, they are in your home. If you have special concerns, make sure that you voice them early. Point out specific areas of concern. Make sure that they are masking effectively enough to protect surrounding areas. If you are leaving, make sure they know to pull the door if they leave for lunch and can get back in. Ask them when they think they will be done so you can be home to evaluate and pay for the service. Many homeowners leave bottled waters in the refrigerator for my technicians. Or they let them know that they can use the ice water form the tap on the fridge. This is not required, but really can make a technician put in the extra effort on your behalf.
Completion and Walk through
This process usually takes place at the end of the day. It is important to view the entire project form every angle and have any concerns addressed at that time. Putting in the extra effort to look at the project will save you money in the long run.
There is a great deal of cost in the performance of a re-service. In scheduling the re-service the company must sacrifice revenue and as such, must make it up in other ways; which means higher prices. You do a great deal of service to your contractor by making sure any and all concerns are handled on the day of service.
Follow up & Re-service
Because the light can change and small details can be missed, you might see that little spot around the doorway or in that hard to reach area that needs to be addressed. This is where choosing the best service provider pays off. As they follow up with you, you can let them know of these concerns. It is the reaction that you get that will set them apart from the competition and secure your referrals.
Re-service work should be done immediately or at your convenience. Many times it may take an hour or two. It's how companies react in these situations that validate your decision and cement their name in your mind as the only company that will touch your stone surfaces.
The Last Step
Your natural stone floors look “like new” again. You are thrilled with the results and your choice in service provider. Now it's time for the feedback. Send a short note about your experience. Evaluate the company on the BBB web site. Post a note on their blog or forum about your experience. Give them a glowing recommendation on Angie's List. Great companies can still be affected by the economy and market forces. Take care of them, you will need them again.
Ted McFadden has been a stone refinishing contractor is Southern California since 1994. Visit Ted's Company website.
You can leave a comment or question below, however many questions or responses to this knowledge base article can be found on our blog.
Tags: stone, care, restoration, refinishing, polishing, cleaning, maintenance, marble, travertine, granite, limestone, etch, removal, lippage, stain, poultice, slate, stripping, coating, dirty, how to
When it comes to cleaning any natural stone surface, Sureshine is second to none. This shower was cleaned and sealed in four hours. At the same time, we deep cleaned four other small travertine floors, another shower, and detail cleaned and sealed the customer's kitchen granite.
Projects like this don't have to take all day. You don't even have to change your schedule. Just let us in and and we will take care of the rest.
With workmanship guaranteed in writing, and documented results like this, we are confident that there is no other choice for your natural stone care and restoration project.
The video below is a short 1 minute presentation of a very dirty shower that we were able to bring back to "new."
Travertine cleaning, shower cleaning, tumbled travertine cleaning, mold in shower, how to clean travertine
On June 9, 2010 we completed a natural stone deep cleaning project. The project consisted of cleaning three different surfaces including honed travertine floors, tile and grout, and exterior tumbled travertine flooring.
The honed travertine floor was extremely soiled and lightly coated with a gloss acrylic coating. Heavy streaking and other evidence was evident, but the homeowner insisted that they had been there since the installers sealed it 18 months ago.
The installer used an improper sealer. Because of this, a decent installation turned into a complete failure. Don't put the burden of sealing your newly installed surfaces in the hands of an installer or fabricator. Call Sureshine to make sure that your surfaces look great for years to come.
Please take a minute to look at this project video.
Stone cleaning, grout cleaning, travertine cleaning, tile cleaning, stone sealing
Let Sureshine clean your tile and grout to like new condition. Check out the video below.
If you know your square footage you can receive a highly competitive proposal for tile and grout cleaning right now. It takes less than five minutes to hold it in your hands.Click here now to create your proposal.
Or call us today to schedule an estimate. 800-378-0266.
Travertine Cleaning - No one cleans travertine like Sureshine
When is comes to travertine cleaning, Sureshine leads the pack. Most stone cleaning and refinishing companies will tell you that they can't remove all of the ground in dirt in travertine without costly refinishing. Nonsense...
If the minor scratches in your floor don't bother you yet, why refinish?
We have designed a cleaning program specifically for deep cleaning and restoring your travertine floor to like new condition without costly refinishing.
Call today to discuss your options and learn the truth about cleaning your travertine. Call us at (800) 378-0266. The video below shows what you will get when your travertine is treated by Sureshine.
For the last decade, marble hasn't been all that popular as granite became more affordable than ever. Granite's ease of maintenance and scratch resistance made it easy for buyers to leave marble in the dust.
The momentum is swinging back, though, as more customers are asking for marble countertops, especially in kitchens. This isn't the time to be scared of dealing with marble; it's time to be ready.
The problem is that, no matter how many times you try and educate someone on the stone they are picking out for a functional kitchen, they don't listen. They want what they want, and – especially with marble – all of the vital information you're offering takes the express through one ear and out the other.
Marble is great for a kitchen, as long as you and your client know the limitations. Low scratch resistance, acid sensitivity and other peculiarities aren't issues that many homeowners are willing to put up with, but many of them don't know the difference between marble and granite. And, when I say marble and granite, by the way, I mean marble, limestone, travertine, serpentine and, well, granite.
We've all had that client who picks a stone that doesn't rank with the more-durable varieties of quartzite and granite. They pay no mind to the warnings and cautions you offer. Then, you get the frantic phone call one week after installation about the “water stains” and the questions about why their sealer, for which they paid so much, for isn't working.
Now they're listening; they need you to fix a problem they created. Are you ready to deal with this problem? Do you know how to properly repair and refinish this stone you've just installed? What good are you to the client if you cannot service your own installations?
You can't just go in the house and rub some magic powder on the stone and fix it ... or can you? This is when it pays off to have at least one person on your staff capable of performing refinishing and restoration services. The initial problem is usually something small, but often right in the middle of the counter. The repair needs to blend in and be the same as the original finish, because that's the proper way to do it.
If you or someone on your payroll cannot perform these tasks, the client will find someone who can. And, if that ends up as a good repair, you've lost a good opportunity to provide continual service and generate repeat clients. (This isn't exclusive to marble, either.)
And, if you start to see more marble jobs in your shop, you're likely to need these refinishing skills before countertops start going out the door. Our shop re-polishes or re-hones every calcite-based stone that comes through before we deliver it to the client. Most of the time, the factory finish isn't even acceptable and it doesn't take much to make it significantly better.
Proper training is critical if you are just venturing into the refinishing world. Get started on the wrong foot and you're in trouble –not because you won't get paid, but that the guys that really know what they're doing will make your work look silly.
As my friend Ted McFadden says, “Stone refinishing is a science, not an art.” The majority of stones can be refinished with the same process and materials to yield the same results every time. Since it's a scientific method, it can be taught.
Ted McFadden owns and operates Sureshine Care and Restoration Services, Inc. in Southern California.
To be fair, there is an art to refinishing – it lies in the ability to adapt to the small percentage of problem stones and properly execute the proper technique for each to achieve the proper finish.
Speed (rpms), pressure, the amount of water, type of polishing compound and the type of polishing pad being used will all have an important role in how the final product will look. While this may sound like it is a lot to take in and learn, it doesn't have to be that difficult.
Starting with your basic process, you can add pressure, increase speed, change the way the materials are used and go from there. The process of elimination is your friend. If something isn't working, it isn't working; move on until you find something that makes it better. Move on from there until you eventually get what you're looking for. This is the skill needed to diagnose the problem stones.
Whether you attend a class or are trained on the job, you'll develop a technique slightly different than the trainer. Everyone has certain details that make their process unique to them. This is one of the reasons why no single product will work for everything.
I would love to tell you my polishing compound works on all stones and anyone can use it, but that's simply not true. You need to find what works best for you, so you're comfortable with your equipment and materials. As long as your finished product is correct, it doesn't matter how you get there.
Practice on a few pieces of stone and do some experimentation. See if you can tweak the process a bit to make it easier or faster. Crema Marfil is a great “base” marble for learning; it's very easy to polish and, depending on your equipment and polishing compound, can handle anything between 400-3,000 grit.
The stone can take a beating, but will orange-peel if over-polished, so you can get a good feel of when enough is enough. Change the pad, change the compound, change the pressure and the speed, and then see what results you get. All will help you get a better feel for the process and what results to expect when you apply certain techniques.
Knowing how to properly refinish the marble is only half of what's important. When you do these types of repairs in a home, you can't hook up a garden hose to your polisher and proceed to fling water around the house at 3,000rpm.
Prepping the area is just as critical as anything else. A lot of times, my prep work is overkill, but I know I won't be paying for anything I damaged. The homeowner will see that you care about their property and belongings, and leave you alone to do your work.
Put plastic or wax paper wherever the water might splash, protect any fixtures, and remove linens. A properly finished job, left just as clean as you found it, will guarantee your client calls you instead of the other guy when they need more work done.
Take pictures! I don't have a fancy sales pitch or color brochures to convince people to hire me. What I do have are thousands of before-and-after pictures of my jobs. With almost every service call, I can bring up pictures of the stone the client wants me to work on and say, “This is what your floor looks like now, and this is what it can look like when I'm done.”
You won't have thousands of pictures to start off with, but you'll accumulate a collection quickly. Taking pictures is important – not only for making things clear with customers, but also to put on your website.
Many people tell me they aren't any good at snapping pictures, but I find that to be a poor excuse. (Not that instruction always helps; I took photography in high school and learned absolutely nothing.) There are only a few settings that you really need to know how to use with today's digital cameras; the rest is point-and-shoot.
All the pictures I've posted in online forums have been taken with a $150 digital camera. We recently purchased a decent digital SLR camera to take high-resolution pictures, but even without knowing how to use it properly I can still take decent images.
And, I can offer a couple of hints for taking better stone photos:
The macro setting should be used for close-ups, to allow the camera to focus when very close to an object.
When taking virtually any photo of natural stone, turn the flash off. You may have to stand very still to take photos that will be in focus, but you'll pick up more detail and eliminate glare spots.
The bottom line with marble is this: If you're going to sell it, you need to know how to fix it. Find some proper training, either on the job or at one of several good classes, and get to work.
Again, if you cannot service your product after the fact, what good are you to the client in the future?
Cameron DeMille heads up restoration work with MilleStone Marble & Tile Inc. in Palm Desert, Calif. He's also a regular on the forums and at workshops with the Stone Fabricators Alliance, which named him Educator of the Year in 2009.
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Sureshine recently completed a residential floor refinishing project in South Orange County. The customer's marble floor was stripped, refinished, and polished to perfection. Please check out the video. If you hang on until the end you can see just how thrilled our customer is.
