Tips to Restore and Maintain Natural Stone Surfaces (Marble & Travertine)

Whether you wish to retain the high gloss of a newly installed marble or travertine stone floor or bring older, dull stone flooring back to life, we’ve got the answers you’ve been looking for. Keep reading as we discuss tried and tested methods for restoring dull marble & travertine stone surfaces, as well as product recommendations to give you the best results, guaranteed. 

What Causes Polished Marble or Travertine Stone Surfaces to Become Dull? 

Diamond polished natural stone surfaces sparkle because light bounces off the even stone surface. Stone surfaces can become dull and lack lustre with age, due to

• Traffic
• Wear and tear
• Poor maintenance.
• Accumulation of many surface scratches – dirt, sand and other particles dull stone floors and surfaces by causing tiny scratches

Using the wrong floor care products can also dull, or even damage, natural polished stone surfaces. Avoid using acid-based cleaners, vinegar, bleach, lemon juice, abrasive cleaners, as well as grout, tile, and bathroom cleaners, as these may all ruin a polished natural stone surface. 

Before we discuss how to restore dull stone floors or surfaces, we’d like to share our advice for maintaining stone flooring, to prevent, or at the very least delay, dulling. 

Maintenance Tips

While it is possible to restore dull marble or travertine stone floors, why go through the effort of restoration work, if you can simply preserve your stone surface’s beauty? Although this may not be 100% effective, keeping your stone surfaces clean can hugely reduce the amount of work to be done later. 

• Capturing Dust and Debris – Limit debris from being tracked inside your home by using high-quality door or dust mats.   
• Vacuuming and/or Dry Sweeping – Unfortunately, dust mats cannot remove all dust and debris, however effective they may be. This brings us to the next step in maintaining your flooring – vacuuming and dry sweeping. Vacuum cleaning is quick and easy but dry mopping, also referred to as dust mopping, is much more effective. This method uses a non-treated microfibre or rayon mop, without water, to capture dust. To dry mop, you can use our mazzlin tool with mazzlin cloths.
• AVOID! Damp and Wet Mopping – Damp or wet mopping should be avoided at all costs. Dirty water runs into holes and natural fissures and cannot be removed unless the entire surface is re-polished. Mopping with water will also lead to dirty grouting.
• Wipe up wet spills as soon as possible with a damp cloth and dry afterwards.
• Acid based spills like red wine, coffee, tea, alcohol and fizzy drinks should be wiped up immediately. This avoids etching of the surface.
• Deep cleaning of polished and unpolished natural stone can be done periodically and only when required. Use slightly alkaline product like Stoneshield Deep-Clean™. 
• Crystallising should be undertaken on a regular basis to maintain the original factory shine and to prevent wear and tear. Crystallisation is a specialised chemical polishing procedure often used in high-traffic areas. This process entails spraying a marble crystalliser over the floor and buffing it in with steel wool or a white nylon pad using a regular speed buffing machine.

Restoring Polished Surfaces

Very badly scratched or worn stone floors will require a professional restoration contractor as diamond cutting and polishing will be required.

In less severe cases where minor surface damage or wear has occurred the use of a specially formulated marble polishing powder, such as Stoneshield™ Marble Polishing Powder, or the ROX® MP 17 Polishing Machine with the Razor® Polishing Pads and our range of Stoneshield™ Restoration and Maintenance products can be used to restore the stone surface back to its original condition. 

This applies to floors, vanities, counter tops and other work surfaces.