Marble Cleaning: General Recommendations

When you install marble in your home or office, you are certainly driven to it by the dazzling look. Now, you must try to ensure that the stone remains intact for as long as possible. This is where the maintenance comes in. Marble, like any other natural stone, needs certain specific care. Make sure you provide them. Only then, the stone will withstand time. Here are some tips to help you out.

Fruit juices or alcohol may be very useful for you, but not for the marbles. So, make sure that you have coasters under the glasses. In fact, the coaster should be used to protect the marble from any kind of liquid. Remember most of the drinks have some amount of acid in them and this can be very damaging for the marble.

Again, you should use mats to prevent the hot items from touching the marble. The mats should be also placed under products made of silver, ceramics, china or any other material that may scratch the smooth surface of the marble.

You should place mats or rugs in and outside the entrances. This would ensure that the visitors are not taking in the dust and grits that are more harmful for the marble than anything else. However, you should ensure that the rugs or the mats have an undersurface that grips well with the marble floor.

While cleaning the surface, you should ensure that you are not using the worn vacuum cleaners. The plastic or metals that are attached to the wheels may be harmful for the marble floor. However, a regular dusting and mopping will keep the marble floors in good shape. For the floors, the clean rag mops are very effective. However, the soft cloths are suitable for other surface.

There are cleaners made especially for the marbles. You can buy them from the hardware shops or from the stone dealer. The mild detergents and the neutral cleaners can be used with warm water to clean the surface. However, you should not use them very frequently since this can affect the shine of the stone.

You should never use any product that contains acids. After washing the surface with cleaners, you should rinse it well with water and dry it with soft cloth. Scouring powders should not be used since the abrasives in them can leave scratches on the surface of the marble. If there is any spillage, you should blot that up immediately.

When you install marble in the bath and other wet areas, you must ensure that the soap scum is removed. For that, you should use the neutral soap scum remover. For marble used in the vanity tops, a penetrating sealer will be appropriate. Some marble wax will provide that. The same thing applies for the marbles in the kitchens. For outdoor, mild bleach solution are helpful to retain the shine of the marble. Sometimes, a solution of ammonia serves this purpose as well. However, you should never mix the bleach with it since this creates lethal gas.