Tile and Stone Maintenance
This month, The Kitchen Design Centre of Manchester, Blackburn and Colne, offer their top 5 picks for new work-tops in a guest blog.
It can be difficult to choose a worktop for your kitchen. After all, it’s arguably the most noticeable kitchen design feature and getting it wrong will affect the entire room.
That’s why Kitchen Design Centre is here to help with the top 5 kitchen worktops for 2013…
Copyright Ian Taylor and The Tile and Stone Blog.co.uk, 2013. See copyright notice above.Granite has become a very popular natural stone used in our homes. One of the main reasons of this is that it just looks so luxurious but it’s also very heard wearing and relatively easy to keep clean. Granite worktops and countertops are now quite ubiquitous in many homes across the world and granite floor tiles are increasingly found within houses.
Granite itself is found in many countries but the most commercial quarries for this igneous rock are found in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, India and in African countries such as Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola. As a material it was used in construction by the Ancient Egyptians and the Red Pyramid of Egypt is famous for the light crimson hue of it’s exposed granite surfaces.
Popular types of granite – black galaxy granite is one of the worlds most popular choices although it’s very success is causing a problem in that you need to be sure of it’s quality. Black Galaxy is mined in Andhra Pradesh, India and can be broadly split into 3 types – these being large specked black galaxy, medium specked and small specked – depending on the size of the ferrous rich Enstatine, gold colored specks. Originally this granite was known as Star Galaxy and since the volume mined from this location is relatively low, it does not reconcile to the number of dealers purporting to sell it. Care is therefore needed when buying it.
Most sky blue granite varieties are mined in Brazil and Zambia. The best quality material has a medium to fine grained crystalline groundmass composed of blue, white, and black crystals. In some varieties there are additional greenish colored crystals as well.
Homogenous blue granite varieties tend to be expensive and are typically mined in Norway and the Ukraine. Granite colors of blue homogeneous stones range from light to dark blue with many hues and shades in between. Homogeneous blue granite is used on both interiors and exteriors. This stone is used for flooring, facings, countertops, and in luxury furnishings.
Copyright Ian Taylor and The Tile and Stone Blog.co.uk, 2013. See copyright notice above.Michelle asks: “I had black granite floor tiles put down in my bathroom recently and they were sealed after they were put down but i have just noticed several splash marks that will not wash off. The only cause I can think of is that when my husband was painting he washed brushes out in the sink and this splashed onto floor. Could this have caused it and can they be restored or will I need to replace the damaged tiles.”
Here’s our response:
Without knowing the precise nature of the splashes it is difficult to advise, but any impregnating sealer will be beneath the surface of the stone, so it will not stop splashes from getting onto the surface and a fraction of a millimetre into the surface itself. In fact the sealer will hold a splash at the surface longer than it would be there if it were not sealed, allowing the water to evaporate and leave behind what ever was dissolved ion the water (e.g traces of paint). It could equally be hard water deposits from plain old water, or if your husband used a spirit/solvent based paint brush cleaner then it could have got deeper, through the sealer.
I would first try a basic high alkaline cleaner like Xtreme Clean with the addition of some Microscrub to help it get into the surface. If is it is hard water deposits, then a slightly acidic cleaner like Phosphoric Acid Cleaner may be required. Hope this helps
Copyright Ian Taylor and The Tile and Stone Blog.co.uk, 2013. See copyright notice above.Well the answer is if you want to protect your stone floor from staining then you really should seal it. One key thing you should do is to test your stone for porosity. To do this, add a few drops of clean water to your stone floor and if they are absorbed, the stone is porous.Sealing a stone floor gives you something called “reaction time” in that you have an opportunity to react and wipe up any spillages and any stain producing contaminants before they seep deeper into the stone. Anything that is water-based will be kept at the surface where they can be cleaned up a lot easier also. You typically have spent a lot of money on a stone floor so using a relatively inexpensive (in comparison to the cost of the stone) sealer will help ensure you get the most our of this significant investment and help keep your floor looking fabulous for many years.
If you have a polished stone floor like marble, honed limestone or granite then we would recommend using something like Sealers Choice 15 Gold.
If you have a textured stone floor such as sandstone or rustic slate for example then we would recommend using something like Seal and Finish Low Sheen.
Copyright Ian Taylor and The Tile and Stone Blog.co.uk, 2013. See copyright notice above.
© 2024 The Tile and Stone Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Reader’s Comments