Restoring shine to marble

Let's talk about restoring a natural stone surface. After prolonged use of marble, heavy foot traffic, and the use of chemicals, the stone tends to dull and lose its shine. But this should not scare you, since the process of restoring natural stone is possible to its original state.

First, you need to assess the degree of wear of the stone and the presence of marks, chips and defects. If there are no defects, then the restoration is reduced to the process of crystallization of the stone.

Crystallization is a thermochemical reaction of a crystallizer with the surface of a calcium-containing stone, such as: marble, travertine. The crystallization effect will be better where the stone contains more calcium. Crystallization is carried out using polishing powders, polishing pads and grinding and polishing equipment. Crystallizers are: liquid, powder and cream.

Depending on the type of marble, different powder crystallizers are used: A1Grey, A1Yellow, A3Yellow, Polish KP92, Polish HG92, Polish KP85 or liquid crystallizers FK2 Faber, CRISTAL LUX, ALPHA GLOSS, BUFF N SHINE (acid-free crystallizer) CRISTAL FABWHITE PAD.

Equipment used: single-disk machine (polisher) with a power of at least 2 kW (150-200 rpm, 430 mm diameter) or manual polishing tool (400-600 rpm, 125-150 mm diameter). Polishing pads SCOTCH-BRITE d430mm or 3M 4100 Super Polish.

If you are using crystallizers for the first time, we have a few recommendations for you.

1. To renew slightly worn stone, you can use liquid crystallizers, which are easy to apply and increase the shine of the stone. The easiest way to do this is ALPHA GLOSS/ BUFF N SHINE/ + white pad.

2. CRISTAL LUX/ FK2 are applied with a metallized pad, as a result of which a reaction occurs and the level of gloss on the surface of the stone increases.

3. Powder crystallizers cope with more complex scuffs and tarnishing. A3Yellow, Polish KP92 are universal crystallizers, they are suitable for most stones and give maximum effect, depth of shine.

4. When using powder crystallizers, you need to mix 40g of powder with a small amount of water until a suspension is formed, and then polish at low speeds. To get the maximum effect, do not let the mixture dry out.