South Bay Stone Cleaning: Hire a Professional

Do you want to clean your stone surfaces yourself?  You might want to rethink that prospect...

Professional Stone Restoration and Cleaning in Manhattan Beach| 310-545-8750

Stone Cleaning:  Don't Put Your Stone in Peril

What do marble, limestone, travertine, granite, and slate all have in common besides the fact that they are all stone types?  They are all expensive if you have to replace them. But what does replacing have to do with cleaning your stone yourself?  Well, for one, without meaning to, you can severely damage your stone if you don't know what you're doing.

One popular home cleaning blog gushes about the cleaning effects of white vinegar, especially on surfaces like marble.  While a bit of white vinegar is good for cleaning hardwood floors, or some forms of tile cleaning, it should never be used on a stone surface such as marble, limestone, or travertine.  If you do use it on these stone types, you run the risk of permanently damaging your stone.

How Can Vinegar Hurt Marble, Travertine or Limestone?

Limestone, travertine, and marble are all part of the calcium carbonate family of stone.  As a result, they are extremely susceptible to anything acidic.  According to legend, when Hannibal was marching on Rome, the Romans blocked the passes of the Alps with boulders made of limestone.  Hannibal poured casks of vinegar on them, and dissolved the stone away.  While that story may or may not be true, the fact is that acid and calcium based stones do not and should not mix.  So how do you clean your stone yourself.

While we can't stress the importance of hiring a professional stone cleaning service to clean your stone, there are some simple do it yourself tips to clean your stone yourself between visits.  So here is a to do list and a do not do list.

Do:

• Place throw rugs or mats at the entrance of each room that has stone floors.  These rugs or mats will help to stone grit and dirt from scratching your surface.
• Use a soft cloth dust mop or a soft bristled broom to clean your stone floor.
• Damp mop your stone floor once a mop then blot it dry with a clean white towel.
• Consider get stone sealing done after it has been cleaned.

Don't:

• Wet mop your floor.  If your stone is wet, you have a good chance of microbes damaging the stone surface, or of trace amounts of chlorine causing the same effect.
• Use harsh chemicals or anything acidic on your stone.  This includes cleaning solutions such as bleach or ammonia, but it also includes common items such as coffee, orange juice, vinegar, and red wine.  If you spill anything like this on your stone, clean it up immediately.
• Use any household cleaners.  In addition to harsh chemicals, a lot of polishing products also contain wax and oil, which can dull the surface of your stone.

As you see, stone is surprisingly sensitive.  So take no chances.  Call a stone cleaning service in Manhattan Beach.
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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 - Why You Should Hire A Stone Restoration Service in Manhattan Beach (Contd.)

A professional stone cleaning service in the South Bay
has a lot of know-how to bring to any natural stone project.

Stone Restoration in the South Bay of Los Angeles | (310) 545-8750

Stone Cleaning Services and Their Skills

As we covered previously, they know how to assess the current condition of your stone. Do you even know the current condition of your stone surface? Studies show that an average person will not know when there are defects. You may also not know if there are special cleaning procedures required.

For instance, a stone with minor cracks might end up cracking even more if it is not properly cleaned. You definitely do not want to end up with damaged stone  just because you did not know the condition before cleaning them.  That's another service a stone cleaning service will do.

There are special skills that professional cleaners use to assess damage. They also may use various tools just to be sure about their assessment. Considering that you do not always clean stone, you definitely do not have such equipment in your house. Even if you got some, you might not know how to use them properly. In case there are cracks, the stone should be replaced or at least, filled before any cleaning can commence. This helps to prevent water and debris from infiltrating the pores of the stone because it will spread below the surface cause even more damage. Uneven tiles should also be flattened to prevent them from cracking.

Stone Care Experts Know Precautions to Take

Precautionary measures help you to avoid accidents when doing stone cleaning. Accidents can cause damage to property and injuries to cleaners. There are many reports of people who incurred serious injuries when cleaning. In as much as accidents can happen even to experienced cleaners, a professional knows how to avoid them and so, they are likely to be safer than you. Some of the common accidents include falls due to slippery floors, cuts because of sharp edges, and harm because of harsh chemicals contained in some cleaning detergents. All these are major risks that the average home owner may not know how to avoid.

When you use some detergents, you might cause the stone tiles to be slippery and this is one of the reasons why you might be injured in an accident. Because of this, professionals know the right gear and the right cleaners to use during their work. If you start cleaning in your normal overall or apron alone, chances are that you will not be well guarded when an accident occurs. Since they have been doing this job for a while, and they have been trained about safe practices, you can be sure that they know how to stay safe.

We will continue this more in the next part of this article, but for now, know that a commercial stone restoration service is the best organization to call for stone care.

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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Stone Cleaning in the South Bay: A Chronicle

As a commercial stone restoration service in the South Bay, we have a lot of stories to show about what people do to their stone.

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Stone Cleaning: Do it the Right Way

For example, we had one of our customers call us in a panic.  Her toddler had spilled her sippy cup filled with orange juice on a marble floor.  A lot of other people would have laughed, but we didn't.  We told the customer to wipe it up immediately, and we came down to check out the spill.  She was lucky, the spot had stone sealing done. But what if it hadn't?  Well, something as simple as orange juice can eat away at marble, limestone, or any other type of calcium-based stone.  But it isn't just what you spill, it is how you clean your marble floor that matters as well.

If you use any harsh chemicals such as bleach or ammonia, you can damage your stone, and literally dissolve it.  That's why you need to know the right way to clean your stone.  The best way is to hire a commercial stone restoration service.  But here is a list of do's and don'ts to help you.

Do:

• Sweep with a straw broom.
• Put rugs or mats at the entrances of every room that has marble flooring.
• Clean those rugs and mats periodically.
• Damp mop.
• Get stone sealing done

Dont:

• Use vinegar or anything acidic on your marble floor.
• That includes bleach, ammonia, or any harsh or acidic compound.
• Wet mop ever.
• Leave spills to settle into your stone.

The Importance of Good Natural Stone Care

Good stone is expensive. You could easily spend thousands on your floor. It is far cheaper to take care of your natural stone rather than having to replace all of it later on. If you take care of your stone, it can last for decades or even centuries!

Start by finding a commercial stone restoration service in the South Bay. Why? Well, services such as ours have years of experience. We know what to do and what not to do with your particular stone type.

We also can give you some tips and pointers to make sure that you keep up your stone floor between our visits.

So remember, your home is an investment, and so is your floor. So if you have any sort of natural stone in your home, make sure that you take care of it. Schedule an appointment for commercial stone restoration today.

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

Commercial Stone Restoration in the South Bay (Contd.)

There is a difference between stone cleaning and professional stone cleaning.

Stone Restoration in Los Angeles | (310) 545-8750

Professional Stone Cleaning and Restoration

As we covered previously, stone cleaning doesn't just extend the life of your stone accents, it also increases your property's market value and make sure it looks best. Other than that, here are some of the main reasons why stone cleaning is important:

2. It maintains your home's clean appearance
With a clean stone floor, done by a professional stone restoration service,  it will be easy to achieve a clean home appearance. Even a relatively clean house could appear uncared for with a dirty stone flooring. Apart from looking dirty, walking on a dirty floor would also feel gross. However, with stone cleaning, maintaining a clean look is much easier, not to mention it also removes dirt and dust fairly easily.
3. It actually saves you money
With regular stone cleaning, there is no longer a need for complicated cleaning agents and maintenance procedures. Also, you don't even have to bother about replacing damaged or cracked stones due to massive dirt buildup. This allows you to save a lot of money in the long run, considering that the cost involved in repairing broken or cracked surfaces is often high.

Why You Should Call for a Professional Stone Cleaning Service

Although it's possible to perform a DIY stone cleaning procedure, the techniques involved in a professional stone cleaning service are much more complicated and effective than regular DIY cleaning. Not to mention, the results might be a far cry from that of a professional's. Which is why, if you want to achieve the finest results, you should consider hiring the services of a professional cleaning service. Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Experts have the right equipment for the job
Proper stone cleaning requires the right tools to achieve optimal results, but professional cleaning equipment aren't available to most homeowners. Without the tools, it could take a lot of work cleaning a stone flooring without any guarantee of excellent results or even basic safety during and after the job. Cleaners which you can buy from a local store may work on your stone flooring, although it won't be to a degree which a professional cleaning will.
2. They have the right expertise
Despite having the right tools and equipment, you still won't be able to achieve excellent results if you don't have the right techniques. A professional stone cleaning service which has been in the industry for many years already has the required knowledge, expertise, and techniques to pull off a perfect stone cleaning job.

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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Stone Cleaning in Los Angeles: What to Do, What to Avoid, and Who to Call (contd.)

Professional stone cleaning and restoration is all about knowledge.

Professional Stone Restoration in Los Angeles | 310-545-8750

Commercial Stone Restoration in Los Angeles

As we covered previously, never try to clean stone tile yourself.  Some stone is fairly durable, however, other stone is surprisingly easy to damage.  Most stones that are calcium based fit into this second category.  Calcium based stones are limestone, marble, and travertine.  If you spill anything acidic on these stones, you can start to crumble the stone.  And we're not just talking about actual acid.  Things that you find normally around the house are dangers to your stone.  Coffee, wine, vinegar, bleach, and orange juice are just some of the many things that damage calcium-based stone.

A professional stone cleaning service in Los Angeles will know things like this, from an article on Wikipedia on Limestone:

"Some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i.e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters (groundwater that Calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits an unusual characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities (such as clay, sand, organic remains, iron oxide, and other materials) will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces. Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock. When conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures." [READ SOURCE]

Limestone is a very sensitive stone.  Even water can potentially dissolve it.  One thing to thing about is getting stone sealing done.

Why You Should Get Stone Sealing

Stone sealing helps to protect stone from stains and damage.  The stone's pores are filled with a transparent sealer.  It gives the stone a nice sheen and makes it liquid proof.  Stone sealing is only one of the many services that a stone restoration service will offer.  They offer stone polishing as well.

Each type of stone requires a different level of care.   Your professional stone cleaning service will know what to do and what not to do.

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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Stone Cleaning in Los Angeles: What to Do, What to Avoid, and Who to Call

Stone cleaning in Los Angeles is based on knowing what to do, knowing what to avoid, and most importantly of all, who to call to get it done.

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Los Angeles Stone Cleaning Services

First off, unless you are 100% sure of what you're doing, never try to clean stone tile yourself.  Some stone is fairly durable, however, other stone is surprisingly easy to damage.  Most stones that are calcium based fit into this second category.  Calcium based stones are limestone, marble, and travertine.  If you spill anything acidic on these stones, you can start to crumble the stone.  And we're not just talking about actual acid.  Things that you find normally around the house are dangers to your stone.  Coffee, wine, vinegar, bleach, and orange juice are just some of the many things that damage calcium-based stone.

Simple, go out and buy a household cleaner to clean your stone, right?   Oops. It has a trace amount of bleach as part of the ingredients.  Or on the flip side, it contains no bleach,  and it offers to polish your marble to the shine of a mirror.  How it does it is that it is made of wax and oil.  For a while, you'll get the polish that it claims on the label, but as the wax and oil accumulate, it will also accumulate dirt and grime.  Your polish will fade, and you'll be left with a dull floor.

Hiring a Stone Cleaning Service Makes Sense Economically

You have to look at your money as an investment.  How you invest your money determines the success or failure of any project.  Hiring a stone cleaning service in Los Angeles makes sense economically.
For one thing, you get more for your money.

In addition to safe and effective stone cleaning, they can also help with stone restoration.  They can give you tips to help keep up the shine on your stone between visits.  And of equal importance, they can apply impregnating stone sealer to help protect your floor. Even though it appears solid, stone is actually quite porous.  It's a good idea to apply something to it that will stop it from eroding or crumbling.  Why does this matter?  Well, depending on your floor, replacing your stone can be anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars.  Wouldn't you rather take care of your stone floor so that it can last for years or even decades?

The right service can help.   The best service to get is one that does commercial stone restoration in Los Angeles.

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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Professional Stone Cleaning Services in Los Angeles (Conclusion)

There is a big difference between professional stone cleaning and a do it yourself job.

As we covered previously, the obvious benefits of stone cleaning services in Los Angeles is clean stone, tile, and grout. But there is also some health benefits as well.  Regularly cleaning your stone surfaces helps extend their lifespan and maintain their best condition. Besides, professional stone cleaning prevents constant breaking down of grout that is among the areas commonly affected by poor cleaning and maintenance. For easier cleaning, professional stone cleaners seal these grout lines to avoid staining and damage.

Professional Stone Restoration and Cleaning in Los Angeles | 310-545-8750

Stone Sealing and Grout Cleaning

- Stone sealing

After stone surfaces are thoroughly cleaned, the next step is sealing them. If you fail to seal your stone surfaces, you will be exposing them damage, stains, blemishes and much more. When you hire a stone cleaner to do the sealing for you will have a piece of mind since you will be prolonging the life of your stone surfaces as well as keeping them cleaner for longer. Besides, the sealing also plays an important role of keeping germs out.

- Repair

Repairing stone surfaces can prove to be a daunting task if you have never done it before or if you lack an experienced hand to guide you through the process. It is for that reason that most professional stone cleaning service providers also specialize in repairing stone surfaces.

- Guarantee
To be honest, not all stone cleaners will ensure their work because some of them provide common services. A professional stone cleaner should be able to do their job to their client’s satisfaction. If the customer feels that the job has not been done in the right manner, they should be willing to redo it over and over until they achieve perfect results.

Wrap Up:

Most homeowners find cleaning stone surfaces a walk in the park when dealing with small spills and ordinary dirt. Nevertheless, it might prove to be a difficult task to use the regular methods like mopping to reach the dirt and spills lying deep in the stone surfaces and along the grout lines. As such, consider hiring a professional stone cleaning service to get first class results. There are many online that provide their services today. Contact them today and begin the journey of getting back the original look of your stone walls and flooring in your home or property on the right foot! Hopefully, you have learned a few new things about why you should hire a professional stone cleaner and that you will hire one the next time your stone surfaces require stone cleaning.

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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 Restoration: Bring Back the Beauty of Your Stone (Contd.)

Natural stone care is a lot more than what to use on your stone and what not to use on your stone.  There is also the issue of what you do when your stone is clean.

Professional Stone Restoration and Cleaning in Manhattan Beach | 310-545-8750

Stone Cleaning:  Know What Works for Your Stone

Each stone type is different and requires different levels of care.  Marble can be ground down a bit and polished, for travertine, however, it's not that great of an idea.  As we said earlier, a lot of store bought products can actually damage your stone.

Stone cleaning does have some universal things that you can do. For example, you never want to wet mop. If you're using tap water, there is a good chance is has trace amounts of chlorine in it, and as such, it can damage your stone. Damp mopping is okay, as is using a soft cloth dust mop. Never use any sort of wax based stone cleaning product as wax can build up and leave ugly residue behind that will dull the finish of your stone.  You also want to make sure you ask your stone care service for tips to keep up the shine and polish between visits.  One thing that can help is jute rugs at each of the entry points to help trap fine grit that can abrade your stone.  Taking off your shoes is also a good idea, particularly shoes or boots that have any sort of spike or shank in them such as high heels or steel-toe boots.  But what about specific types of stone?  What other universally accepted things can you do to safely clean your stone?

For one thing, make sure that you consult with a natural stone care professional for tips that you can follow to clean your stone between visits.  One thing that he will most likely recommend is that you get stone sealing.

Why Should You Do Stone Sealing?

Why should you do stone sealing?  All forms of natural stone are very porous.  And these pores are vulnerable spots within the stone.  All if takes is a bit of damage inside some of the pores, and the next thing you know, your stone is damaged, and you'll have to go for stone restoration instead of merely cleaning your stone.  However, when your stone is protected with an impregnating stone sealer, the pores are filled with a quickly drying resin that hardens and protects your stone.  Stone sealer makes your stone liquid proof, which helps to protect it from damage.

So remember, you want to go with a professional. Only a pro will give you practical cleaning tips for your stone, as well as natural stone care tips to keep your stone looking it's best.

Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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Natural Stone Restoration: Bring Back the Beauty of Your Stone

Natural stone restoration brings back the natural beauty of your stone.

Get Professional Stone Care | Beach Cities (310) 545-8750

Natural Stone Cleaning:  Do it Safely

There is a lot of misinformation out there about natural stone cleaning.  A lot of store bought products will promise miraculous results, however, if you use the wrong product on your stone, you may find that not only did it not clean your stone, it damaged it irreparably.  What a lot of people don't know is that a great many natural stone types are surprisingly fragile.

Granite seems tough for example.  It makes up a good chunk of the Earth's crust, so it should be tough enough to take what you can give it  stone cleaning wise.  The problem with granite is that it is a composite stone.  As such there are some pieces of stone within the matrix of the granite that are softer and more vulnerable than others, particularly if there is any stone that is a member of the calcium carbonate family of stone such as travertine, limestone, or marble.

Stone Cleaning and Restoration in Manhattan Beach

The calcium carbonate family of stones includes marble, limestone, and travertine.  Like all natural stone, they add a touch of class to a home.  What a lot of people don't know is that all calcium stone is vulnerable to anything acidic.  Bleach, coffee, lemon juice, vinegar, orange juice, and red wine are just some of the substances that can eat away at stones like these.  Travertine has an additional problem.  It's not a solid stone.  It has natural gaps that are filled in with resin to make the surface more uniform.  So you could find the resin dissolving, and your $1000 travertine countertop looking like very cheap Swiss cheese if you make a mistake while you're cleaning it.  The same holds true for marble and limestone.  One of the many so-called cleaning authority websites out there states that it's a good idea to clean your marble with a mixture of lemon juice and water.  We're amazed they haven't been sued, but they have a good disclaimer, we guess.  For the record, if you try to clean your marble with lemon juice and water, even if it has had stone sealing done on it, you're not going to need stone cleaning.  You'll need stone restoration instead.

So remember, what you don't know can hurt you, or more accurately, hurt your stone.  You may consider hiring a professional stone cleaning service instead.

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

Stone Cleaning in the Beach Cities (Contd.)

What's the difference between cleaning stone yourself and calling a stone restoration service in the beach cities?  The level of service that you will get, for one thing, as well as a fair amount of safety.

Professional stone cleaning in South Bay | (310) 545-8750

Natural Stone Restoration in the Beach Cities

As we covered previously, what you don't know can hurt your stone, such as spilling orange juice, coffee or wine on your stone floor.  That's why you want to hire a pro to clean your stone.
A professional stone cleaning service in the beach cities will not just clean your stone, they will also tell you how to protect it between visits.  First off though, if they're any good, they will clean your floor thoroughly as well as remove any damages such as scratches, pits, or chips.  Once they have cleaned the stone surface, then they will most likely recommend that you seal your stone with an impregnating sealer.

Should You Opt for Stone Sealing?

Should you opt for stone sealing?  Absolutely.  Stone is naturally porous, and as a result anything spilled on it can sink into these pores and leave behind a nasty stain, making for a much harder stone cleaning job the next time around.  Once your service has completed restoring your stone, they will most likely tell you how to maintain your stone surface between visits.
For example if you spill anything, any spills should be mopped up immediately and blotted dry with a towel.  You should sweep your floor with a broom or dust mop and damp mopping with a mix of water and a neutral ph cleaner.  This will help to reduce blemishes and spots appearing. It is also a good idea to install a floor mat at the entrance of each room that has stone flooring; this will reduce grit and other things that can mar your floor's surface.  Above all else, he will recommend that unless you know what you're doing, don't try to do any sort of stone restoration on your own, you could damage your floor.
Ultimately, you want to take care of your floor regardless of what type of stone you have.  The alternative is way more expensive, namely having to replace some, if not all of your floor.  So get on the phone to a stone restoration service in the South bay area to make sure you enjoy your stone for years to come.
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Morris Cleaning & Restoration
1007 N.Sepulveda Blvd. #1204
Manhattan Beach, CA 90267
(310) 545-8750
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