Polishing Granite
Of all the natural stones that you can choose for flooring granite
is by far the hardest material and the most hardwearing.It is also resistant
to staining and acid and alkaline chemicals. This is the reason it is
the kitchen work top of choice and the flooring material of choice.
Despite its hardness it is still capable of being scratched
by quartz. Quartz is sand like material which makes up the biggest proportion
of dirt brought into a building on the underside of footwear. Traffic
going over this then moves the small particles of sand over the surface
of the granite causing minute scratches. The scratching effect on granite
will be much less than that on Marble for instance but non-the-less
it still scratches.
This effect can be minimized by the correct maintenance. A typical
maintenance programmer for granite flooring would be to dust mop the
floor each day to remove these particles of dirt and once or twice a
week depending upon traffic wash the floor with stone soap. This reseals
the floor and enhances the co lour. This is then wet vacuumed up and
the floor then washed with pure water which is also wet vacuumed up.This
wet vacuuming prevents the possibility of water staining.
Once per week or once every other week, again depending upon
traffic the floor is misted with a crystallizing agent and buffed
at high speed. This removes the minute scratches and restores the shine
to a floor which may be dulling very slightly in areas of high traffic.
Then once per year it can be shined using a more abrasive crystallizing
compound and
a low speed buffing
floor machine with non-rusting steel wool pads.
If this regime is followed then the shine on the granite floor
should last for as long as you require it.
If the floor becomes neglected and is not cleaned correctly
the nit will slowly become dull and the scratching will build up enhancing
the dull effect. If this was a Marble floor then the scratching would
be greater and could be removed and the shine restored by using diamond
grinders on a slow speed marble
buffing machine. However successful re-grinding of granite cannot
be achieved. It can be re-ground using the diamond technique handmade
shiny but quite often it causes a co lour change in the granite which
is obviously not acceptable to the customer.
This re grinding process which for Marble might take about 30minutes
per square meter for granite, being much harder takes about two to three
hours to achieve any sort of shine.
In the processing plants Marble is ground for about 40 minutes
to achieve the high gloss effect. Granite on the other hand will be
ground for several hours to achieve the same effect. There is no way
that once the granite is in place this process can be replicated.
Consequently if you have a granite floor and it dulls and somebody
offers to restore the shine by re-grinding it do not bother. You will
end up with a floor that may be shiny but has probably changed co lour
and it will have cost you a small fortune. Take care of it from the
outset and you will never begin this position.
About the author:
David Andrew Smith is the owner of a commercial and domestic cleaning
services company information about stone cleaning can be found at http://www.wesparkle.co.uk/floorcare.html
