Our client wanted the dirt and grease build up removed from the sandstone kitchen floor in her Atco home.

Chris went to inspect the floor and noticed discoloration on the stone floor wherever it was exposed. Wherever she had those gel (comfort) mats in place, in major work station areas, you could see the original color of the floor when they were picked up. Self-admitting, she did confess that she frys a lot, so much of the buildup is probably aerosolized fats settling on the stone surface. Not liking it looking dinghy, she wanted it professionally cleaned.

Chris inspected the project and gave her two distinct options to restore the stone floor. Either a simpler option, to professionally steam clean the floor, then scrub and seal it. Or, if the contaminated grease, oils and soils had absorbed into the pouricity of the stone, then he said that an additional diamond grinding procedure may be required. And, he would not be able to tell whether the basic clean would do the trick until he actually began the cleaning/restoration process.

With an understanding of the project volatility, Rita approved the work and the cleaning was scheduled.

The day of the cleaning appointment all the equipment necessary to do the additional procedure, diamond grinding, was loaded on-board our van in case it would be needed. Not a large kitchen, Chris indicated either way it would be completed in one day. As for the additional equipment, a special heavy weighted buffer may be needed with diamond encrusted pads, which Chris will use to diamond grind in a 2-3 step process. Explained in lay terms, it is akin to wet sanding the stone surface to remove a minute layer where the grease would have absorbed into the stone surface. Each of the 2-3 step process involves using a successive grit diamond pad, which would begin with a coarse diamond pad, and end with a finer grit pad.

Again, without knowing if the quick clean, scrub, seal process would be sufficient, Chris forecast that the additional procedure would about double the time to complete, and nearly double the cost. None- the-less, he was prepared whichever option would be required, and Rita, our client was prepared as well (although both hoping the cleaning process would be sufficient).

As the work began Chris and Mark (our other tech) saw good response with the basic steam cleaning process.

To everyone’s delight it appeared as though the truck mount extraction steam cleaning was up to the task. This meant that the buildup on the floor was superficial, and not soaked into the pouricity of the stone. It furthermore meant that the first option would solely do the trick, so the diamond grinding process was not necessary.

Acutally they cleaned it twice and saw quite a difference. Her husband Mike, who was there and saw if for himself was thrilled! It looked much cleaner and more uniform, not like night and day from before the cleaning.There was not but a subtle  discoloration where the gel mats were located, and they were so happy it cleaned so well, the slight difference didn’t matter to them at all!

Now thrilled at how the kitchen floor came out, they felt there is no need to have it diamond ground.

As the project was coming to an end, Chris recommended to them some stone friendly cleaners they can get on line from our supplier. Actually most popular cleaners “under the sink” are not appropriate for stone, and some can even cause immediate damage if used on stone floors. So Chris directed them to a few specific cleaners that they should get that will help moving forward.

And, he also recommended scheduling a periodic steam cleaning of the floor, which he mentioned maybe on a yearly basis or so. All in all the cleaning had positive results, and Mike and Rita had good instructions to help keep the sandstone looking consistently better.

Do you have stone floors that look dirty or dinghy, and need help? Give us a call for stone care cleaning and restoration solutions. FREE ESTIMATES. Call 609.953.0472 or Contact Us on line and we will reach out to you!