Natural Stone Cleaning in Miami

Cleaning Stone Without Damaging It

Walk into almost any condo tower or Class A office lobby in Miami and you'll find stone underfoot. Marble and travertine look great and last for decades, but they're softer and more chemically sensitive than most people realize. Both are made mostly of calcium carbonate, which reacts with acid. A splash of lemonade, an acidic bathroom cleaner or the wrong all-purpose spray can leave a dull, rough spot called an etch mark.

That's why stone needs its own approach. We clean marble, travertine, limestone, granite, terrazzo and slate with stone-safe, pH-neutral products and soft pads, and we keep away from the acidic and high-alkaline cleaners that work fine on ceramic tile but slowly wear stone down. Where the stone is porous, we finish by sealing it so spills stay on the surface long enough to be wiped up.

If a stone floor is already scratched, etched or dull across the whole surface, cleaning alone won't be enough. That's when we move on to floor polishing or full floor restoration.

What Our Stone Cleaning Includes

Types of Stone We Clean

We work with the natural stone found most often in South Florida buildings:

• Marble. Polished and honed, in lobbies, elevator landings and restrooms.
• Travertine. Filled and unfilled, often in condo common areas and around pools.
• Limestone. Including the coral and keystone varieties common in Florida architecture.
• Granite. Harder and more acid resistant, common at building entries and on counters.
• Terrazzo. Marble chips set in cement or epoxy, found in many older Miami schools, hospitals and public buildings.
• Slate. Textured stone used in entryways and some restaurant floors.

Why Stone Gets Dull

Most dull stone floors aren't dirty in the usual sense. They've been worn down. Grit from shoes acts like sandpaper on a polished surface, and every acidic or harsh cleaner takes a little more of the shine with it.

Wax and acrylic coatings make things worse over time. They look shiny for a few weeks, then trap dirt, scuff and yellow, and eventually have to be stripped off the stone. Good stone care is mostly about avoiding that cycle: walk-off mats at the entrances, daily dust mopping, a neutral cleaner instead of a general one, and periodic professional cleaning for what daily care misses. When we take over a stone floor, we often strip old coatings off first.

Sealing: What It Does and Doesn't Do

A penetrating sealer soaks into the stone and slows down how fast it absorbs liquids. It helps a lot with oil, coffee and water stains on porous stone. It won't stop etching, because acid reacts with the stone itself whether it's sealed or not, and it doesn't add shine.

In busy commercial areas, sealer generally needs to be reapplied every one to two years. We test how the stone absorbs water to tell when it's time, rather than resealing on a fixed calendar.

Our Stone Cleaning Process

Every stone job starts with a close look at the floor. We check the finish, look for existing etching, cracks and lippage (uneven tile edges) and find out whether the floor has a coating on it. A small test spot shows us how the stone responds before we clean the whole area.

Then we remove dry soil, apply a pH-neutral stone cleaner and scrub with pads that won't scratch the finish. Dirty solution is pulled up with a wet vacuum instead of being left to dry on the floor. The floor is rinsed with clean water, dried and inspected under good light.

If the stone needs sealing, we wait until it is completely dry, because sealing damp stone traps moisture. After sealing, we generally recommend keeping traffic off the floor for about six hours so the sealer can set. You'll get written care instructions for whoever cleans the floor day to day.