Types of Natural Stone Floors: Slate

Slate:

Slate is a metamorphic stone formed by hardened clay and volcanic ash. Slate floor tiles can be a solid color or may have many rich beautiful colors running through the stone. Slate tile is very durable and hard to stain and can be used inside and outside the home. Slate floors can be sealed with a topical slate sealer to provide a glossy look or with a penetrating slate sealer with a color enhancer. Slate services include: Slate stripping, slate cleaning, and slate sealing.

Slate restoration is a labor of love for the Floor Cleaning Experts! We’ll restore the WOW to your slate floor.

Types of Natural Stone Floors: Limestone

Limestone: Limestone is an organic sedimentary rock formed by tiny shells and micro skeletons molded together with heat and pressure. Limestone floors are the softest and most porous type of natural stone floors. Most limestone will not polish to more then a dull shine. Limestone cleaning with a stone detergent and a hot water extraction cleaning will restore a dirty limestone. Limestone grinding will smooth a rough or unleveled limestone floor and opens fresh new stone to the surface bringing back the new look of the limestone floor. Limestone floor maintenance includes: Limestone cleaning, limestone leveling, limestone polishing, and limestone sealing.

 

Limestone restoration is a labor of love for the Floor Cleaning Experts! We’ll restore the WOW to your limestone floor.

Types of Natural Stone Floors: Granite

 

Granite is formed by lava cooling under immense pressure. Granite tile floors and granite slab floors are the hardest most durable of any stone floor. Granite floors need regular granite polishing to prevent the need for granite floor restoration. Granite floor maintenance includes: Granite floor cleaning, granite polishing, granite leveling, and granite sealing.

 

We, at The Floor Cleaning Experts, provide incredibly thorough and high quality  Granite Restoration in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

Types of Natural Stone Floors - Travertine

Travertine: Travertine is a sedimentary limestone that is formed in mineral springs. Pure travertine is very light colored. The darker colors are formed by mineral impurities in the travertine. Travertine floor tiles may be unfinished, honed, or highly polished depending on the stone. Travertine has a tendency to form holes as it ages. These need an epoxy or traverfil patch. Travertine floor maintenance includes: travertine cleaning, travertine leveling, travertine polishing, travertine sealing, and travertine hole patching

 

We, at The Floor Cleaning Experts, provide incredibly thorough and high quality Travertine Restoration in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

Types of Natural Stone Floors – Marble

In this series I will explain the types of natural stone

Marble:

 

Marble is metamorphosed limestone re-crystallized by heat and intense pressure. Marble floor tiles are hard and durable and can be repeatedly restored to beauty with marble restoration and marble polishing. To have its full beauty a marble tile floor needs to be perfectly level. Marble floor leveling involves grinding the marble floor level with diamond grinding plates. The marble is then polished to the desired luster. Marble powder polishing brings to marble floor to a high sheen. Marble floor maintenance includes: Marble cleaning, marble leveling, marble honing, marble polishing, marble powder polishing, and marble sealing.

We, at The Floor Cleaning Experts, provide incredibly thorough and high quality Marble Restoration in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

Grout Cleaning and Sealing, Grout Staining, or Grout Replacement. Which is the best solution for your floor?

Grout Cleaning and Sealing, Grout Staining, or Grout Replacement. Which is the best solution for your floor?

When I’m asked to stain grout I always ask why. Most of the time the reason is that, either the customer doesn’t think the grout will get clean or that a darker color is the only way to keep it looking as nice possible.

The Floor Cleaning Experts have cleaned over 1,000,000 feet of grout since 2004 and one thing we’ve found is that grout cleaning can restore grout to original condition no matter how dirt. Proper sealing can keep even bright white grout looking clean with proper care, there is only one good reason the change your grouts color and that is taste.

Changing your grout color can be done two ways: Grout staining or grout replacement. Grout staining is a lot less invasive then grout replacement but a lot less durable as well.

Grout Staining involves cleaning the tile and grout to clear the pores of the grout so the stain can penetrate. The grout stain is then painted into the grout lines and let to sink into the grout. The colored sealer only penetrates 1-3 millimeters into the grout and is vulnerable to harsh cleaners and direct sun light.

When a color stained grout floor gets dirty it can only be safely cleaned with mild detergents and a low pressure cleaning. Cleaning with a high heat high pressure system and restoration detergents can cause the color stain to lift out of the grout lines like strips of paint. Once this happens the grout needs to either have a grout stain reapplied or the color seal needs to be completely cleaned off.

Grout replacement involves cutting the old grout out of the grout joints and replacing it with freshly mixed new grout of the desired color. Properly sealed this will give you a long lasting easy to clean tile and grout floor. Any time you have it cleaned it will go back to looking like new.

If grout replacement is so good why do anything else. The mess is the short answer. All of the grout must be cut from the floor. The Floor Cleaning Experts use multi-master with the vacuum attachment, but a lot of dust is still kicked up when regrouting a tile floor. Proper care needs to be exercised to ensure the dust doesn’t contaminate your air handling system.

So what is so bad about the grout you have now? Most people wanting to change grout color are doing it to make it easier to take care of. Keeping the color you have and restoring it to brand new with a full restoration grout cleaning and then sealing it properly will do that with a lot less money and headache the recoloring grout.

The key to keeping grout looking good is using a good sealer and applying it properly. The Floor Cleaning Experts use a Flourochemical sealer that is good for 3-5 years and a solvent sealer that permanently seals the grout and comes with a 15 warranty.

If you still have questions feel free to call me at 727-399-8803.

Cleaning Up When Fido Gets Sick On The Carpet

Ripley, my golden doodle, has a very sensitive stomach and has given me a few choice practice clean up cases on my one wool rug. Whether it is vomit or fecal material the process is the same.

First, put on your gloves and remove as much of the material as possible. A pooper scooper or a spatula is handy for those really messy jobs. Being real thorough here will make ever everything else easier down the line.

You will need two rags, a towel, and something heavy. Wet one with very hot water. Then take the hot soggy wet rag and blot the stained area until the stained area is wet. Then blot with the dry rag to remove remaining material. Repeat until the area is clean or material stops coming up.

Now place the folded towel on the wet area and put something heavy on it. As the carpet dries any remaining material will transfer into the rag.

If this doesn’t solve the problem and you don’t want to shoot the dog, call the Floor Cleaning Experts 727-399-8803

Tampa Limestone Cleaning Restoration and Sealing

How to Remove Red Wine From White Grout

Red wine and white grout are a very dramatic combination. Sealed or unsealed, red wine will stain white grout. Sealed grout will keep the stain up at the surface making removal much easier.

Blot up the spilled wine getting the grout as dry as possible. Then mix a little neutral floor detergent according to label instructions and pour on the stained area. Brush into the grout lines and then blot up the detergent. Rinse with clean water and let dry.

That will get rid of most of the stain. When the grout is dry use a fresh bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide, fill the gout joint with the peroxide and let it sit. As it dries the remaining stain will fade.

If you have a stain you can’t remove call the Floor Cleaning Experts at 727-399-8803.

St Petersburg Travertine Polishing & Sealing Before and After

Travertine polishing is one of my favorite jobs. The travertine floor sealer we use enhances the colors in the travertine while our travertine polishing process brings a bright even shine from the travertine floor.

This St Petersburg travertine polishing and sealing job was on the 8th floor of a condo overlooking the Gulf and the intercoastal waterway. The travertine floor was dull and dirty with muted colors.

We thoroughly cleaned the stone by scrubbing a detergent into the stone and then rinsing with a hot water extraction tool. Travertine cleaning gets the embedded soils out of the stone and grout and gets the travertine ready for polishing.

Our high speed travertine polishing process polishes the travertine to a bright even shine.

Travertine is very porous and need to be sealed with a good. We used Drytreat StainProof and Enhace plus to seal this travertine floor.

The Enhace Plus deepens the colors in the travertine floor while the Stainproof sealer permanently bonds to the molecular structure of the travertine. Drytreat Stainproof comes with a 15 year warranty when applied by a certified applicator like the Floor Cleaning Experts.

For a free floor evaluation and exact price quote call Floor Cleaning Experts at 727-399-8803

Outdoor Travertine Paver Sealing Testimonial

Outdoor Travertine Paver Sealing Testimonial

This outdoor travertine paver floor was sealed with Drytreat Stainproof and Enhance Plus. Sealing travertine pavers with Enhance Plus deepens the color of the travertine paver and takes away the slight chalky look unpolished outdoor pavers have. The Stainproof sealer bonds to the molecular structure of the travertine paver making the travertine paver permanently water resistant.

If you keep water from penetrating into the travertine paver you prevent efflorescence, mold/mildew growth, staining from spills, etc. Sealing travertine pavers with Drytreat Stainproof also makes the stone resist the penetration and adhesion of oils. Everything is kept at the surface of the stone where it is easy to wash off.

Floor Cleaning Experts is a Drytreat Certified Applicator and provides a 15 year warranty on the Drytreat Stainproof Sealer.

Any questions please call me at 727-399-8803

Floor Cleaning Experts First Terrazzo Restoration and Polishing Video

This St Petersburg terrazzo restoration job responded well to our full terrazzo restoration process. We used metal bonded diamond discs on a dual plenary grinding machine to grind the terrazzo smooth and level. The terrazzo floor was then polished with resin diamond polishing discs to 800 grit. To make really shiny terrazzo we use diamond embedded polishing pads on a high speed polisher.

As you can see we get a clear bright shine without using crystallization acids that can break down and weaken your terrazzo floor. We get our shine from diamond grinding terrazzo smooth and then polishing terrazzo to a hot shine instead. This type of terrazzo polishing takes more work but is the most durable and environmentally friendly way to polish terrazzo.

The Floor Cleaning Experts provides cleaning and polishing of terrazzo as well and full terrazzo restoration. Call us at 727-399-8802 for a free quote or with any questions.