Cleaning Natural Stone Floors & Grout - Help!

[Jeff Madsen]

Every time I try to deal with a stone floor I go away frustrated. Even after scrubbing the ever living hell out of the floor the grout comes out uneven and the floor comes out dull and hazy. I scrub the grout lines, but I don't crank the pressure up because I'm always worried about damaging the floor. How do you folks deal with this. Do I need to be thinking in terms of cleaning, polishing and color sealing? What's your secret recipe?

 

[Guest]

What chems are you using? What Pressure are you running?

 

[Blue Monarch]

Jeff,

I don't recommend cleaning grout in Lincoln

I've been successfull using Oxyblaster or Powermax Powder.

I rarely scrub the grout lines and I do crank the pressure to 1,000psi on man made tiles. It's always scary wondering if you're going to blow out some grout, but it's just a matter of preparing the customer for the situation. A lot of times you can see the weak areas and be ready for it. In other cases, it's a shoddy install and there's no way to tell.

As a general rule, the results outweigh the risks by a mile. The floor looks so much better that they really aren't too concerned about the couple of inches of grout they lost if any at all.

 

[Mikey P]

If Dirk scrubbed he would not have to run the pressure that high.

 

[Blue Monarch]

Everybody has their system.

 

[BUSY BEE]

Every time I try to deal with a stone floor I go away frustrated. Even after scrubbing the ever living hell out of the floor the grout comes out uneven and the floor comes out dull and hazy. I scrub the grout lines, but I don't crank the pressure up because I'm always worried about damaging the floor. How do you folks deal with this. Do I need to be thinking in terms of cleaning, polishing and color sealing? What's your secret recipe?

What type of stone floor is it? You need a swing machine with brushes or pads as well.

 

[Bob Foster]

What are you using to scrub with?

 

[Cameron1]

Every time I try to deal with a stone floor I go away frustrated. Even after scrubbing the ever living hell out of the floor the grout comes out uneven and the floor comes out dull and hazy. I scrub the grout lines, but I don't crank the pressure up because I'm always worried about damaging the floor. How do you folks deal with this. Do I need to be thinking in terms of cleaning, polishing and color sealing? What's your secret recipe?

Jeff......sounds like you just got some bad ones up front. Most tile and stone jobs we do are rather easy. Sooner or later you'll get an easy one, and wonder what all the frustration was about. Just make sure you have everything that you think you might need in the truck. You might also try some stripper on the tough ones.

 

[Jeff Madsen]

Thanks for the help folks!

When I scrub I'm using my OP and/or my beveled grout brush on a stick. I'm using an oxygenated prespray.

Steve - do you use stripping solution on marble/travertine floors? I think I'd be scared shitless to do that. I may need to grow a set!

I hate to admit my level of ignorance on this - I'd swear it was a marble floor but my client (that's for you Jimmy!) claimed it was travertine.