Blog Stone Maintenance Tips & Information

Not Every Floor Needs to Be Refinished

Not Every Floor Needs to Be Refinished

NOT EVERY FLOOR NEEDS TO BE REFINISHED

Though the most common service we provide for our customers with dirty or worn natrual stone floors. Though this is often necessary to get gid of chemical etching and scratches a full resotration is not always the only solution.

The limestone floor pictured above was very well maintained. Even with a excellent maintenance program it still stored soils in grout joints and the micro pours of the stone.

For this floor we were able to use a heavy duty hard surface cleaner. We pretreated the tile and grout with a alkaline cleaner that was not only safe for the stone but also would not damage adjacent surfaces. After a short dwell time we abbigated the grout joints and tile face to break loose the soils.

We then used a special attachment that shoots 230 degree water through low pressure jets onto the floor then extracts the soils at the same time.

As can be seen the true color of the stone came back.

Once the floor was completely dry we treated the floor with a high grade penetrating sealer desiged for porous materials.

By Josh Huseby 6-19-2017

Water Damage

Water Damage

Why is it important to pay attention to the cualking in your shower? Because little becomes big. As the caulking in your shower ages it cracks and breaks loose from the seam area. This allows water to get behind the tiles. Not right away but eventually that water will soak loosen the tile's bond with the backing material and saturate it with water.

When it gets to that point we have to remove all the loose tiles plus as many tiles as needed to expose a wall stud. This allows us to install new backing material then reinstall the tiles. Once the tiles are reset we regrout the affected area. Often times we will also regrout the entire shower so that it looks brand new. We then install a bead of high grade silicone caulking throughout the entire shower.

Though the caulking and grout are brand new - it doesn't mean your worries are over. Caulking is not meant to be there forever. It has a life ot 2-3 years before you will start to notice significate mold growth bond deterioration in the seams. When you notice this make sure to have the caulking removed and replaced. This short term expense will save a lot of work, money and headache years down the line.

By Josh 6-6-2017

CATEGORIES: care tips

Cautionary Tale

Cautionary Tale

Here is an example of why hiring a professional is important. Take a close look at the picture. That's granite dust all over a customer's kitchen. The customer had a old white under mount sink that had fallen loose. Rather than just fixing the existing sink they opted to replace it. They hired the guy pictured here to swap the sinks.

He measured then went out and bought a new sink. Well he measured the hole wrong and rather than getting a different sink that fit he opted to pull the old sink and cut a new sink hole. Shouldn't be a problem I do this from time to time. The difference is I mask the work space by building a enclosure to ensure dust containment as much as possible.

According to the home owner this guy spent over 36 total working hours trying to swap the sink. And when he was done the new sink still didn't fit in the hole correctly the front edge is crooked and the entire sink, for some reason, is elevated 1/8th off the surface of the counter. That gap is filled in with black acrylic caulking. It's not easy to free hand cut granite in place but I looked under the sink the new cut edge had a noticiable wave amplitude. There were points were the cut edge met the inside of the cabinet frame and other spots along that same edge where it was an 1" off the frame.

The dust fried all their appliances, they had to have all the carpets and drapes professionally cleaned and their ducts cleaned. They have spent so far 6k repairng the damage done to their house and the best news is they guy lied about having an insurance policy. He presented himself as a Restoration business and assured them he carried insurance but it turns out he was carrying no liability insurance.

He was doing these restoration work part time to supplement his income when he wasn't working his full time job. And their home owners insurance company denied the claim because of an exclusion for poor workmanship from a hired contractor.

The dust was so invasive that after the homeowner cleaned the microwave it started sparking inside from residual airborn dust the first time she tried to use it. He also scratched the new sink in 2 places and broke the vertical cabinet frame post between the doors below the sink. Damage he never told them about and tried to repair with an L bracket. Do you care to guess how well he did are reassembling the plumbing beneath the sink?

Bottom line hire a professional.

By Josh 6-2-2017

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