central london | Marble Tile Cleaning and Polishing

My client asked me to take a look at a very dirty Marble Onyx countertop in her home in Hampstead which is located within the London Borough of Camden. Interestingly, Hampstead is home to more millionaires than any other area of the UK so if you’re going to find bathrooms of this standard this is the place.

Marble Onyx Countertop London Before and After Cleaning

This particular worktop had been heavily soiled by roughly fifteen years of soap scum and old sealer. It would take a thorough clean as well as a fresh seal to get this countertop back to looking its best. Marble is a fantastic type of stone which has, throughout history, been used to forge beautiful, yet resilient surfaces.

Cleaning a dirty Marble Onyx countertop

I immediately set to work cleaning the countertop using a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. Pro-Clean is an alkaline product and therefore suitable for use on natural stone, meaning that, along with Marble, it is also suitable for use on Limestone, Granite, Slate, Travertine, and others. After leaving it to dwell on the surface for a short period of time, I began scrubbing the solution of cleaner into the Marble, and gradually the years of soap scum, old sealer and ingrained dirt began to come off. It was amazing just how quickly I was able to remove many years of muck with a bit of elbow grease.

Following this, I rinsed off any excess cleaning product with clean water and then left the surface to dry, before I began the process of burnishing the Marble countertop using small six inch burnishing pads starting with a coarse pad and then moving up to super fine. After the burnishing process was complete, I gave the surface a rinse followed by an additional polish with a buffing pad until the shine was fully restored to the worktop.

Sealing a Marble Onyx countertop

After ensuring the countertop was fully dry following the cleaning and burnishing processes, I set about providing the surface with a fresh seal. My choice of sealer was Tile Doctor Colour Grow, an impregnating sealer which is designed to both provide durable surface protection, whilst also intensifying the natural colours within the stone. I applied a layer of Colour Grow carefully to the countertop, and the Onyx shades within the Marble really came to life once again.

I was very happy with the results overall, as was my client. It is very rewarding to think that hard work can go a long way to quickly restoring a surface which had been hidden for so long by many layers of muck.

Source: Professional Tile, Stone and Grout Cleaning service in Central London

Stripping a Tumbled Marble Floor

To treat the Limescale I used Tile Doctor Grout Clean Up which managed to remove most of the scale and to remove the remainder I steamed the tiles using an Earlex Steamer and carefully scraped any remaining Limescale residue away with a Stanley window scraper. To restore the marble itself I used Tile Doctor burnishing pads to re-polish the tiles using 17″ pads on the main area and 8″ pads on a hand-held Clarke polishing machine in the corners. These diamond encrusted pads come in a number of different colours and are applied one after another with each pad being a finer grade than the last. After thoroughly rinsing the stone again and removing the waste water with a wet vacuum. As the marble was naturally fast drying I used an Earlex heat gun to speed dry the floor and repeated this after lunch to ensure the floor was entirely dry before sealing.

Sealing Tumbled-Marble Tiles

Once the Marble tiles were dry I started to seal them using two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer which is a great choice for natural stone as it enhances the natural colours in the tile as well as providing stain protection.