Marble Cleaning

We’ve said this so many times in the past:
Marbles, limestone and clay floorings are delicate materials to clean, so treat them as such. You will never ever get a nicer surface, and it will last a lifetime but treat with care and use care when cleaning.
Never use any acids - and that includes vinegar, lemon juice, and most grout cleaners.
Never use bleach, and take great care on the alkalis. You will find that a low foaming detergent based around d-limonene will clean marble quite effectively.
These surfaces will clean with a very dilute detergent solution - which should not be washing - up liquid. They should be well rinsed after cleaning and left to dry. They can be polished up with a dry cloth if needed, or gently buffed.
What you shouldn't do:
You should never scrub any marble with a scouring pad, especially not a metal scouring pad, the damage will be pure vandalism, because the small pieces from the scouring pad will stick to the marble and rust in situ, so your marble will show sometimes extensive rust staining. This can only be removed by re-polishing, which can be an expensive procedure.
Use extra care if the marble is pitted or has lost its shine - this means it needs repolishing and that is a specialist job. Never be persuaded that an acid etch will clean the marble - it will not, and will damage the marble.

Marble subject to heavy wear should always be impregnated. Use the specialist cleaners and maintainers available from MB Stone who are experts in all aspects of marble care. Avoid using a buffing or scrubbing machine if the surface is unsealed and powdery -you will see the swirl marks and these can only be removed by repolishing.

CONCRETE FLOORING

Cleaned by a mix of caustic detergent with d-limonene ifit has oil and grease over it. Leave it and then wash it off. Rinse and leave to dry. Rust stains on concrete are removed with Oxalic acid, for preference. Rinse and leave to dry.
Concrete can be acid cleaned to etch it, and it has to be perfectly clean for this treatment. You acid etch before you impregnate the concrete. What you do with it afterwards, depends entirely what you want to use the floor for. Not all concrete flooring is worth spending too much time and money over. Concrete should however have an epoxy impregnator on it.

FLOORING

Of any type is what you walk on so you can expect it to get full of dirt and grease. Obvious? Not to some people it isn't. It stands to reason that flooring should be chosen for the situation, and ease of care. A regular, quick mopping with a good detergent in solution is usually all that is needed, but you will need to protect that flooring with a coating. Floor sealing and waxes are used for just that, but they need removing periodically, and it is as well you understand that these flooring coveringsactually attract soiling, and the continual maintenance can be almost time wasting. And we have seen so many cases of flooring being worn out through enthusiastic use of a buffing machine.
Do you really need that high gloss floor seal? 7 layers of that, is 4 too many! And the wax to go on top of that? And the stripping it off and starting again? And worse, the use of floor seal instead of cleaning the floor properly, in the first instance! In a house, you will not get the wear of a busy shop, so buy flooring that looks good with the minimum of care. And remember that streaks and dullness occur when detergent is not rinsed off with clean water. Or that the mop is not rinsed properly. Or that the water is recycled onto the clean floor taking all the soiling back onto the floor with it.
Floors always look dirty if the corners and edges are not kept clean, so pay particular attention to these. If you do not believe us, go to a particularly filthy shopping area and try to prove us wrong.
Those corners will really shout at you.

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