You’ve spent a lot of time and money on identifying and installing the perfect marble flooring for your home. You might be aware of the common problems that a natural stone like marble faces. While some of those problems need a professional fix, here’s a list of simple measures you can take to ensure that you’re maintaining your marble floors well.
1. Use your Curtains and Blinds to protect your floors: Yes, it’s important for your house to be airy and bright but UV rays from sunlight can cause fading and discolouration of your marble floors. It is wise to protect your floor from direct sunlight, so close your blinds and curtains, if the light is harsh.
2. Floor Protectors under furniture: Furniture, not to mention heavy furniture, can scratch the relatively soft marble surface. Use of furniture coasters can go a long way in maintaining those floors especially while moving them around.
Pro tip: Felt, easy available in any fabric store can will act as an excellent furniture coaster.
3. Coasters: How do you treat your fine wood furniture? Our tip is to apply the same sensibilities to your marble floors and countertops. Sometimes, bottles and cans contain acidic substances that can damage marble surfaces. Using a coaster can prevent the etching that these substances would otherwise cause.
4. Clean spills then and there: Be wary of spills from common household items like wine, coffee, fruit juices, tomato sauce, sodas, cleaning and toiletry products. Marble is highly sensitive to acidic substances and any spill should be cleaned immediately; otherwise, the surface becomes dull.
Pro-tip: Blot the spills with a soft cloth towel instead of wiping it because to avoid the spill from spreading over more surface area
5. Doormat: Capture dust and grit at all entrance doorways instead of letting it get inside the house and transferred onto your floorings. Dust and grit are quick to cause scratches on marble floors.
6. Stay away from bleaches, tile cleaners and oven cleaners: Refrain from using these cleaners as they contain strong chemicals that can damage your floor. Exercise caution when it comes to choosing your marble cleaner. Use only concentrated cleaners, with a neutral pH and no acid.
Pro-Tip: Vinegar, lemon or ammonia is a great DIY tool for most cleaning purposes at home but definitely not an option for cleaning marble surfaces!
7. Dust and mop your marble: Make sure you use dry, clean dust mops, that are not treated in any way. When you dust or mop, do it in one direction and not back and forth as is most common. In the absence of the neutral marble cleaner, use only warm water and soft cloth to mop your marble floors. Any abrasive cleaners can scratch your marble.
Pro-Tip: Contrary to popular practice, it’s important to dry your marble floors after a wet mop with a clean, untreated soft cloth, instead of letting it air dry. This will help to maintain the shiny marble finish.
Professional Measures to be taken
- Use sealers: Marble is porous in nature, which means it can crack, etch, efflorescence and stain very easily. Unsealed marble more susceptible to such damage, which is why you must always use sealers while installing marble and reseal the floor once every 3 years.
- Re-Polish frequently: Re-Polishing makes marble less absorbent and brings out the colour of the stone. Highly recommended for high traffic areas, re-polishing must be carried out at-least once every year.
Get in touch with NKE to give your marble surfaces a well deserved restoration.