Miles of Marble & Travertine Polished For New Hope Listing
- Home Case Studies Miles of Marble & Travertine Polished For New Hope Listing
Here you see the etch mark to the left of the front door stop..
After re-honing and polishing the etch mark on the left edge near the door is gone.
Although hard to see, the black marble had etching from something on delivery truck wheels (plainly visible standing from the side)
Now brilliant, this marble black & white marble commands your attention
This is a spacious and well loved kitchen with many etch marks, especially on the island.
During marble restoration and polishing we protected the cabinets and floors.
All the counters were re-honed and repolished to restore its brilliance.
All the marble in this kitchen is now polished and reflecting brilliantly again.
Commonly etch marks are found from cleaning products or bath care products that leak, spill or drip.
Most likely this etch mark on the travertine is from cleaners left on the floor.
It doesn't take but a second to etch stone from leaky or dripping acidic products like cleaners.
Now the travertine has all the etching removed and reflects beautifully!
Now this is how the travertine should look- no etch marks and brilliantly reflective!
Now their stone surfaces look and reflect as grand as their stately listed home.
- Location New Hope, PA
- Job Type Preparation for Real Estate Listing
Calling it a stone tune-up, this home’s marble and travertine got rehoned and polished to prepare for showings.
A bittersweet situation, this family faces moving for personal reasons and puts their home on the market. As explained, the home was gutted when they purchased it. Then it was overhauled as part of a major restoration project. Frankly, the family likes their roots right there in New Hope. So they are torn with the concept of moving.
This lavish home would certainly serve most. It is clear the family with four children, 3 Labradoodles, and 3 rare cats are quite content. Clearly loved, it was fun to see how their pets have run of the house just like the family. In fact, one of the Doodles sitting at the table of their everyday dining area was priceless. A lap of luxury, these dogs and cats live a good life too!
The problem
- The marble foyer has etch marks by the front door where a contractor had tidied up the stain and such on the door.
- It also had some marks on it as evidence of a delivery by the landing tread at the base of the steps
- There were obvious etch marks on the kitchen island and on the counters along the back wall to the left of the main sink
- The travertine in the master bathroom had etch marks just inside the entry and near the soaking tub
- The walk-in master shower needed some stone re-honing and polishing to remove a build-up of soap scum and such from personal care products and or cleaners used
Overall the stone needed some deep TLC, and the owner was willing to spend the money to have it restored properly.
Realizing their stone needed some primping, they reached out to their remodeler for a recommendation.
But, they came up empty-handed. And asking around the neighborhood, a tight-knit neighborhood of stately homes, no one had a stone restoration company to offer.
So between his fellow homeowners, and his remodeler, he set about to find a stone company he could hire. And although his need was immediate he felt finding a new company would be helpful to both the remodeler, Milex Residential, and his neighbors too. As it turns out, Milex did need a new company and welcomed our mutual client Rob’s efforts.
Not trusting the first contractor’s offering, he called and scheduled us to come out.
In fact, he had sense enough to be wary of what and how they intended to do their work, basically what amounts to using what might be called pixie dust for the work. The homeowner rightfully saw through that and continued his search for professional stone care.
Having a substantial list of prominent homes in New Hope and South Jersey, the client invited us to evaluate his project and give him a proposal. In fact, mentioning we maintain stone surfaces for J. Robert Hillier, a renowned architect from Princeton whose home in New Hope we had been entrusted with for over ten years, his hunch was perhaps correct in that he found a suitable team.
Not knowing our credentials, he sensed we had the equipment, skillset and references to prove it.
Studio Hillier, an architectural firm in Princeton is world-renowned. And we are proud to be the stone team Bob Hillier, the owner uses. Whether it be his home on River Road in New Hope, his studio in Princeton, his storefronts on Witherspoon, or a prominent home on Aunt Molly Road, Bob has called us in when various stone surfaces needed attention.
And after selling his home in New Hope he even referred us to the buyer of his home. Sadly selling, the home was too big for him now a widower. And the buyer, downsizing from New Hope’s most expensive recently sold home (19.4 million), used us for both their homes. Moving in to their new home on River Road, we restored the stone after major renovations. And, we restored their recently sold home on Meetinghouse in New Hope, as well.
Instead of crystallization, we proposed to re-hone, then clean, seal and polish the stone.
Crystallization, or the pixie dust I referred to is a light treatment some offer. Not considered something a true stone professional would do, it does delineate the difference between a fast attempt and professional work.
After asking, we described that our work would take approximately two days. We also informed him we would be using heavy floor and counter grinding equipment. After re-honing the surfaces we would clean, seal and polish the stone to a high shine.
We collected a deposit and scheduled the work for the following Monday.
With no time to spare we cleared our schedule on Monday and Tuesday and prepped for the job.
The work.
With a team of four, we got to work.
Day one we concentrated on the main living level. The kitchen counter surface etch marks came out easily and the various surfaces polished up nicely. The black and white marble floor was a bit more challenging. Considered a more difficult stone installation to work with, it would and did take time to restore.
Two areas in particular, the area by the landing tread was an issue, and about a 1 inch area along the left front door was an issue.
Day two we concentrated on the upper floor. All in master bathroom area, we focused on both his and hers sink vanity tops, the travertine floor and the master walk-in shower.
The results.
Liking the results overall, we did circle back around on the foyer giving it some further TLC.
Giving it a tad more attention, we took it back down a bit and then polished it to a slightly higher shine. So after two long days of grinding and polishing we got their stone surfaces looking all pristine, beautiful and brilliant again.
