Professional Stone Cleaning in Manhattan Beach: Hard Choices to Make

If your marble, travertine, or granite counter is looking less than stellar, you might want to call a professional stone cleaning service in Manhattan Beach.

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Why You Want a Professional Stone Care Service

Natural stone is a beautiful addition to any home.  Whether you have a marble shower, a granite countertop, or a travertine floor, anywhere that you have natural stone, you are adding a durable and classy touch to any room.  However, with that said, do not try to take care of your stone yourself unless you are 100% sure that you know what you're doing.  Why?  Because what you don't know can damage your stone as well as your pocketbook when it is time to replace it.

For example, most people don't know that natural stone is extremely susceptible to stains and damage if you spill certain things on it.  If you spilled red wine on marble for example, you can erode your stone to the point that it looks like it is dissolving.  Marble is fossilized limestone, and like limestone, it is chemically reactive to anything acidic including orange juice, red wine as we noted above, or coffee.  However, it's not just food and drink you might have to worry about.  Certain household chemicals are even worse for calcium based stone such as marble or limestone.  Bleach, by way of example, is an acid.  Ammonia, which is also heavily used in cleaning solutions is a solvent.  Neither of which is good for your stone.  Even if you do not damage your stone by using this, you run an additional risk of staining or discoloring your stone.  So what is the solution?

Stone Sealing: One Service of a Professional Stone Restoration Service

A professional stone restoration service has several tricks up their sleeve.  One of them is stone sealing.  Stone sealing uses a high-tech resin to seal your stone so that all of the pores of the stone are filled, which creates an impenetrable barrier between liquids and your stone.  This alone can help you to repel stains, but there are also a great many stone cleaning tips that a professional stone cleaner can recommend.

For example, did you know that simply putting a throw rug at the entry points of any room with a natural stone surface can help to trap sand, dirt, and grit that can scratch the surface of your stone.

That's the professional difference.  A stone cleaning service in Manhattan Beach will not only help you clean your stone, but keep it up as well.  

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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Natural Stone Care: The Expert's Guide

Natural stone care is all about CAMPS.  What is CAMPS? We're glad you asked.

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The First Steps of Natural Stone Cleaning and Care

CAMPS or Cleaning Appearance Maintenance Polishing and Sealing, are the ways that you can keep your stone looking its best.  Cleaning is not just about what you should do, but what you shouldn't do as well.  Regardless of the sort of stone that you have, never ever use harsh chemicals for stone cleaning.  Some stones are chemically reactive, particularly those in the calcium carbonate family of stone such as marble, limestone, and travertine.  Other stones such as granite aren't chemically reactive, however you can stain or discolor the stone permanently if you don't know what you're doing.
Granite is a composite stone, made of many different types of rock fused together.  It is one of the hardest stones around, and id remarkably diverse in the way it feels or look.  Granite can have all of the reflective qualities of polished glass, with the smoothness as well, or it can feel rough. Ironically, when granite feels the roughest is the point that it is most vulnerable to damage.  All stone is naturally porous, after all, and rough feeling stone means that it has likely never been sealed, and as such, anything spilled on it, even fairly innocuous substances such as toothpaste, cologne, or perfume can sink into the pores of your stone.   This in turn affects the polish and the shine of your stone.  Without proper maintenance, your stone will soon lose its appearance.  However, if you call in a company that does commercial stone restoration, they will most likely recommend that you seal your stone.  And we cannot recommend stone sealing enough. 

Why Should You Do Stone Sealing? 

Why should you do stone sealing?  After you clean your stone, sealing it helps it to not only stay clean, but it makes it easier to keep clean, particularly if an impregnating stone sealer is applied to the surface.  Stone sealant sinks into the pores and helps to form a barrier that makes it a lot harder for stains to sink in, and it also makes it easier to clean as well.  Even with stone sealer applied however, do not use harsh chemicals on your stone.  It could potentially eat away at the sealant barrier and ruin your stone. 

So remember, while there are several methods of natural stone care, we are a big fan of CAMPS.  Just a piece of advice from your friendly commercial stone restoration experts. 
Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Natural Stone Care Part 2: Granite and Slate

Part two of a series on natural stone care explores granite and slate.

What is Granite?

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Natural stone care always focuses on the type of stone first.  Granite requires different care than anything calcium based such as travertine, limestone or marble.  What is granite? According to this excerpt from WIKIPEDIA:

"Granite /ˈɡrænɨt/ is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock which is granular and phaneritic in texture. The word "granite" comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a holocrystalline rock. The term 'granite' also applies to a group of intrusive igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations on composition and origin. These rocks mainly consist of feldspar, quartz, mica, and amphibole minerals. These form interlocking somewhat equigranular matrix of felddspar and quartz with scattered darker biotite mica and amphibole (often hornblende) peppering the lighter color minerals. SOURCE ARTICLE

Granite, like all natural stone is very porous.  You may wish to seal your stone with an impregnating stone sealer to close up the pores, otherwise, you run the risks of staining your stone.  Regardless of whether your stone is sealed however, make sure you clean any spills immediately.  Granite is used around sinks, in kitchen islands, bathrooms, backsplashes, stone surrounds, and other areas of the home.  But what about slate?

Slate Cleaning Tips

Here are some tips on how to clean slate.  First off, regular cleaning. Remove any loose dirt first. The best ways? Use a duster, light broom, or dry mop. A few drops of a pH neutral dishwashing soap mixed with two cups of water makes an excellent cleaning solution because it is not chemically reactive. Don't use hard brushes though. Soft rags or mops work best. Towel dry when you're done.

So remember, know your stone. That way you the proper steps to take to keep your stone surround, backsplash or tile looking it's very best. This is the proper way of natural stone care.

This concludes part two of our series. For more information, please be sure to read part one and part three as well.

Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
http://www.morriscarpetcleaning.com