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ella_socal

Anyone Honed Marble in Place?

ella_socal
15 years ago

I installed a polished hex carrera marble floor that was scratched during the installation. Has anyone had polished marble honed after installation? Has anyone done it themselves? Aqua Mix sells a honing powder, which requires an orbital sander.

Comments (3)

  • coastalhp
    15 years ago

    Stone Tech Pro also has honing and polishing powders. (http://www2.dupont.com/Stone_Tech_Professional/en_US/products/Transform/honing_powders.html) This isn't to promote one brand over another, but my personal preference is Stone Tech.

    Question: What type of grout was used on the installation and what is the depth of the joint compared to the face of the tile? If a sanded grout was used (I have no idea why anyone would use a sanded grout with natural stone... I only know that some folks do) then you may want to rethink doing the floors yourself.

    All in all, these honing powders are available to homeowners, but they are really designed for stone professionals. It's not that it can't be done in a DIY setting, but it's really not recommended for an on-the-job-training type project.

    If you really, really want to do it yourself, read the tech sheet for whichever honing powder you use (here is the one for Stone Tech: http://www2.dupont.com/Stone_Tech_Professional/en_US/assets/downloads/Honing%20Powders.pdf) and let us know.

    Also, what are the dimensions of the floor and how many and how deep are the scrathes we're talking about?

  • bill_vincent
    15 years ago

    I would strongly recommend against trying to refinish marble yourself. That is NOT a DIY operation. I wouldn't even go to just any stone guy for it. You need to find someone in your area who is trained specifically in stone refinishing or restoration. I wouldn't even attempt it for a customer, and I wouldn't do it for myself, unless I had enough stone left from a job to make a mock up and practice on it first. it's extremely easy to completely ruin a floor if you don't know what you're doing.

  • smileytiley
    15 years ago

    Working for a large stone and marble restoration company here in London England, let me throw a little bit of advice to you across the ocean :) (Im having a quiet 5 mins here with a good cup of coffee)

    Bill is 100% right in saying to hone down marble is not a task that you should really undertake yourself. Let me tell you what my team would do.

    You have Carrera Marble on the floor which they scratched during the installation :( First of all forget these fancy polishing powders, the problem is the scratches, you dont want to be honing down tiles for scratchs its a lot of hassle hard work and marble dust floating around for the duration. What we do is this, and you can try this yourself on a loose tile. The first step is to make some marble dust and to do this you have to first get an off cut of the marble tile, that you have hanging around. You have to break the tile down into dust, a little bit of work involved here, but basically break the stone into small pieces and then with a hammer crush the marble into the finest particles you can get. Next get a fine wire mesh sift and work the marble through it, you should now have a fine marble powder. Next you need to buy a resin based tin of a product called Akimi...as you are working with Carerra Marble you want it in clear you then mix approx 50% marble with 50% Akimi till it reaches a paste, you have to work quickly here though as the resin will set hard if you dont keep moving it. When you have a nice matching colour to the marble tile you then get a small palette knife and work the marble mix into the scratch. Try not to get the mix everywhere over the tile. Be nice to yourself and make a neat job of it. This will set hard, but dont worry, the colour comes up slightly lighter when dry. Next you need to take a little hand held slow polisher (with a roughish finish on the pad) work the excess paste of with the slow polisher, ok not to much here, get rid of the big bits and stop. Change the pad down to a smoother pad and run this over the scratch again, you want to take away the excess akimi mixture that might be standing above the surface of the tile but not damage the surrounding area. Finally get a very fine smooth pad on the slow polisher until all the excess filler had gone. Wipe with a dry cloth and the scratch should be un-noticable.

    Hope this helps

    Lynn