The Best Methods For Polishing Granite

Of all the natural stones that you can choose for flooring granite is by far the hardest material and the most hardwearing

. It is also resistant to staining and acid and alkaline chemicals. This is the reason it is the kitchen worktop of choice and the flooring material of choice.

Despite its hardness it is still capable of being scratched by quartz. Quartz is sand like material which makes up the biggest proportion of dirt brought into a building on the underside of footwear. Traffic going over this then moves the small particles of sand over the surface of the granite causing minute scratches. The scratching effect on granite will be much less than that on marble for instance but non-the-less it still scratches. This effect can be minimized by the correct maintenance programme. A typical maintenance programme for granite flooring would be to dust mop the floor each day to remove these particles of dirt and once or twice a week depending upon traffic wash the floor with stone soap. This reseals the floor and enhances the colour. This is then wet vacuumed up and the floor then washed with pure water which is also wet vacuumed up. This wet vacuuming prevents the possibility of water staining.

Once a week, once a fortnight, once a month or even once every 6 months depending the usage the floor receives it should be buffed. In the home environment once every 6 months should be sufficient. In this process the floor is misted with a crystallising agent and then buffed using a machine buffer. This helps to remove the minute scratches that have build up and restores the shine to the surface. Once every two to three years in the home environment and every 6 months in a commercial building with a large footfall it should be treated with a much more abrasive chemical and buffed at low speed with steel wool pads on the buffing machine. This removes all the scratches and brings back the brilliant shine of the granite.

If this regime is followed then the shine on the granite floor should last for as long as you require it.

Should you inherit a granite floor that has been neglected then this scratching will have built up to the point where the floor will be completely dull. Now if this was a marble floor it could be rectified relatively easily by diamond grinding. Diamond grinding of granite floors is not really a practical or realistic process. As granite is so hard it takes about 10 -20 times longer than the marble and very quickly consumes the diamond pads. So purely from a cost basis it is normally beyond most people's pockets. Also if it is required to regrind a granite floor and the client does not mind the exorbitant cost then they should be made aware that although the shine can be restored the actual colour of the granite may change quite dramatically. For example black granite can suddenly become very grey!

On a marble or limestone floor which needs to be reground it might take about 30 minutes to restore the shine to a particular area. A granite floor would take between 3 to 4 hours to shine an equivalent area and use up at least 3 times the number of diamonds. it should therefore be very evident why this is not a very cost effective procedure.

After being quarried natural stone is sent into the processing plants where it is cut and shined if required. Limestone and marble will be subject to the large grinding machines for somewhere in the region of 40 minutes to produce the high gloss finish. An equivalent piece of granite will be in the machine for many hours, perhaps as much as 18 hours. Once this granite is on your floor it is very difficult to replicate this process!

If you instigate a good maintenance programme along the lines outlined above then you will never be confronted with this problem and the costs will be minimal by comparison. Not only that you will have a floor that looks like a mirror all of the time! Should you happen to inherit a bad granite floor then even if a stone polisher offers to regrind decline and have it recrystallized instead. The effects will be equivalent at a much lower cost.

by: David Smith..

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