Stone Restoration and Tile Care Maui

Marble - Granite - Travertine - Tile - Grout Cleaning Care and Restoration

 by EUROTECH Maui 877.0222



Travertine Marble Stone and Tile Care by EUROTECH Maui


 

Choosing a stone professional to care for and maintain your natural stone is a worthy investment.

All natural stone, whether marble, granite, travertine, slate, or one of the many other types of stone need ongoing care. The National Home Builders Association asserts that you can get a lifetime of beauty and reliability out of stone that is properly cared for.

Proper care includes sealing stone regularly. Proper preparation and choosing and applying the right professional sealer takes time and experience. Learning to perfect an even finish and remove damage takes even more experience.

Waxing and coating natural stone can be a costly endeavor. Those types of finish wear faster and more obviously than a professional polishing. Smearing, smudging, or ugly traffic patterns are more likely with waxes or coatings. Those types of quick fixes may also trap moisture within the stone and compromise the integrity of the stone in the long run.

Maintaining natural stone showers, floors and countertops properly will prevent damage and prolong their life and beauty.

It's our goal at EUROTECH to provide the best stone care solutions for the long term.  Our mission is to recommend the most cost effective solutions for the long run - prevention, protection and preservation. 

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7 Tips to Prevent Stains - Tile and Grout Care

Tile and grout, whether floors, counters or showers are exposed to dirt that can build up, liquids that can stain, and elements that may harm them. These are our top recommendations for caring for tile and grout.

1. Mop with a rinse bucket. Always use a bucket to keep mop heads clean. It reduces the amount of dirty water the floor is exposed to and helps prevent residual films that attract dirt from forming.

2. Squeegee showers and flooring. Keeping water off your tile surfaces prevents waterspotting and hard waterstain buildup.

3. Redirect irrigation away from exterior flooring. In Hawaii, standing water will leave behind a heavy brown or reddish layer anywhere water has puddled and dried repeatedly. Reducing the amount of standing water by redirecting irrigation and sweeping standing water away reduces the staining effect on the tiles.

4. Apply a suitable mildewcide in showers at servicing. Tile professionals may treat shower grout with a product like MicroBan or the green version, Benefect is a good way to prevent and reduce, or at best stop, mold growth.

5. Service Level Cleanings Have regular professional maintenance done regularly, especially on exterior and shower tile. Know the difference between a maintenance cleaning (extraction style which may or may not remove all the deposits) and a service level cleaning which deeply cleans to prepare for resealing.

6. Regular sealing of grout - On a porcelain or ceramic tile, the glaze protects the tile itself, so sealing is really to protect the grout from water or oil based staining. We recommend impregnating sealers or penetrating sealers.

Sealing does not prevent dirt from accumulating in the grout joints, but it does prevent water from dissolving the dirt and penetrating it deep into the grout. It prevents the deep stains that permanently discolor grout.

7. Consult a Professional - Preventing damage to tile glaze is also important. The older the tile is, the more fragile the glaze or protective finish on the tile becomes. Once the glaze is compromised, the tile is on its way to being in need of replacement. Be sure to advise your professional about the age of tile and any patches that seem rough or don't match the original finish of the tile. This damage may not be apparent prior to cleaning if deposits are heavy.

Your shower, floor or counter top tile and grout will look better and last longer with these care tips.

Written by Lance Racoma

http://ezinearticles.com/?Tile-and-Grout-Care---7-Tips-to-Prevent-Stains&id=7014685

Professional Tile and Stone Care - An Investment that pays

Why is Professionally Maintaining your Natural Stone and Tile Cost Effective?

1. Preserves and Extends the lifespan of the material

• Proper preparation and sealing will prevent staining

2. Prevents future costly repairs and restorations

• Much like auto maintenance, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Regular cleanings and sealings are like doing your oil changes. Maybe you can get away with skipping it, but that may cost much more in the long run.
• Trained tile and stone professionals will use the correct agents, sealers, and process. For example, marble, ceramic tile, and granite have differing limits for withstanding pressure cleaning. To much pressure can cause damage. Porcelain tile, marble and granite would require different products and methods. The wrong cleaner may not clean or could cause damage. Use a stone and tile professional.
• Using too much pressure on unsanded grout can cause grout erosion.

3. Saves time and labor - makes cleaning easier

• Unsealed surfaces hold deposits differently than properly sealed surfaces. Treated stone and grout makes daily cleaning quicker and easier.

4. Prevents purchasing unnecessary cleaning products


5. Makes your rental property more desirable and may have tax benefits (see below).*

• May Provide Tax Benefits: "A repair keeps your rental property in good condition and is a deductible expense in the year that you pay for it. Repairs include painting, fixing a broken toilet and replacing a faulty light switch. Improvements on the other hand, add value to your property and are not deductible when you pay for them. You must recover the cost of improvements by depreciating the expense over your property's life expectancy. Therefore, from a tax standpoint, you should make repairs as the problems arise instead of waiting until they multiply and require renovations."* See FULL article by George D. Lambert at http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/06/rentalowner.asp *We do not provide tax advice. Ask your accountant about qualifying repairs and tax benefits.

Natural Stone - Porcelain - Tile Cleaning and Care

"Because of its natural variations, stone flooring in a facility’s entryway and lobby can easily lose its appealing aesthetic qualities due to damage resulting from the everyday wear of foot traffic, spills, harsh cleaners and weathering elements. Since stone is absorbent and rejects most conventional cleaners, proper chemical selection is important in successfully cleaning stone floors.

Distributors are forced to educate end users on the correct chemicals to use. Distributors say they often find cleaning crews using all-purpose cleaners instead of cleaners specifically formulated for natural stone.

Bill McGarvey, training manager for Philip Rosenau Co., Inc., Warminster, Pa., says most distributors educate their customers on the value of using a neutral pH chemical that is designed for specific stone types. Mostly, it helps end users avoid costly gaffes and unnecessary maintenance down the line.

Most all-purpose cleaners have a pH ranging from slightly acidic to an alkaline base with a pH of 8 to 10. Thus, the use of all-purpose cleaners gradually breaks down the stone’s sealer, removes its protective properties and makes the stone’s natural polish susceptible to dulling, discoloration and irreversible changes.

Stones vulnerability can be greatly minimized by using the correct chemicals and having the stone treated at the time of installation and manufacturer recommended intervals, says Jerry Hoffman, vice president of business development at National Paper & Sanitary Supply Co., Omaha, Neb.

“The first step after a new installation is complete, is to impregnate the stone with a durable sealer,” he says.

The main objective of an impregnator is to protect the interior of natural stone from staining. Impregnator seals help prevent fluids from penetrating below the stone’s surface and into the micro-pore structure. It also makes the stone’s surface easier to clean.

As part of a stone maintenance program, distributors recommend end users keep a record of when the stone was treated, the product used and its service life. Over time the treatment will eventually lose its effectiveness and the stone should be retreated.
...
Porcelain’s dense, low-absorptive body inhibits the penetration of contaminants and, therefore, is a tile that is easier to maintain than stone. Porcelain not only limits dirt and stains, but also prevents top sealers and most chemicals from penetrating the surface. Also, porcelain tile does not need to be sealed, but does need surface protection to impede dirt collection and improve ease of cleaning.

General maintenance and cleaning of porcelain varies depending on the surface texture and soil load.

Distributors say daily cleaning should be performed with non-oil, non-acidic and non-soap based neutral cleaners diluted to manufacturer recommendations."

Quoted from article at - http://www.cleanlink.com/sm/article/Floor-Care-Cleaning-Stone-And-Porcelain-Tile--8282

Marble Fills Luxury Villa Maui, Hawaii

It was a beautiful day with kitesurfers flying by outside the large picture windows from this oceanfront luxury villa in Maui, Hawaii. The villa was purchased with the existing beige marble tiled floors. Pencil eraser sized holes started appearing throughout the flooring over time and the Owner asked if we could replace the marble tiles with his extra pieces. Once we started counting up the number of holes in the tiles, they numbered over 35. So, as a cost effective remedy, we offered him the option of filling the holes instead of replacing the tiles.

Lance was able to fill the holes in an afternoon successfully and buff the finish back to get it even. Some issues were identified with loose tiles that will likely have to be replaced in the future.

Needless to say our client was happy with the work, the appearance and the safety of the floor was greatly improved and we called it a day.