Checkered Passed

November 18, 2009

Sure it looks nice, but so did the DeLorean. Those sleek lines on a stainless-steel body, though, never made it any faster than the domestic speed merchants from Detroit, and the looks were no help in the fuel-economy department.

In the longevity factor of the granite/marble (OK, technically Crema Marfil is a limestone, but bear with me here) floor, the lowest common denominator determines the floor’s fate. In any application, the granite will wear like a Vera Wang on Catherine Zeta-Jones (beautifully). In most applications, the marble (especially Crema Marfil) will be worn out quicker than Paris Hilton’s welcome at rehab.

So how does one handle the maintenance and restoration of these precarious and paradoxical partners?

The answer: carefully. As in most stone situations, a written paradigm can prove presumptuous and problematic. A solution lies in the many situations you may find yourself in, and/or the extent you’re willing to go to solve it. Or, more likely; the extent that customers are willing to dig into their wallets for you.

We have encountered checkerboards on many occasions, and dealt with it in the following ways:

• RUN! “Discretion is the better part of valor” – Anonymous

I’m not advocating cowardice here, but even The Gambler knew that, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away, and know when to run”

If you sense a situation where your customer is going to want you to take responsibility for their actions (as in coming back for free because they’ll never be happy, or not want to pay what it’s going to take), then you need to hightail it. If, however, you can educate them that maintenance and/or restoration will never be a cheap proposition (nor easy), then you can “hold ‘em” and play it out.

• Grind. “Fortune favours the bold” – Virgil

If you think that the granite is going to need some work, or that the damage to the softer stone is intense, you can grind the whole area. If it’s been ground in place (or restored before), lippage shouldn’t be a problem – however, the soft/hard transitioning will be a headache.

You’ll need to focus more on the granite than on the softer stones. How can you do that? Well, rather than look at the floor and see squares, turn 45° and look at diamonds. Now, add extra weight to your machine and try to spend the bulk of your time on the granite, and the softer stone will take care of itself.

If you spend too much time going back and forth, your machine’s extra weight and diamond pads will dig into the softer stone, causing divots. Also, the increased friction from the softer stone against the resin diamonds will cause the machine to stutter or bog down, increasing motor wear, diamond wear; you’ll also cause jagged scratch patterns in the granite making it harder to get a factory polish.

You’ll notice that the harder, dense granites tend to not grab your diamonds as much as the softer stones. This is also a reason for extra weight, to prevent the resin pads from hydroplaining on the water lubrication. Take your grits up to as high as you can go, and then polish the marble with a marble compound and the granite with a granite compound.

• Spot grind. “Why do more than you have to?” – Me

If only a few tiles of the softer stones are damaged, why grind the whole floor?

The neophyte desire is to grind everything, every time. Experience, however, has taught me that A) you don’t always have to, and B) not all customers want to pay for the hassle it will take to do the job 100 percent.

You can save yourself days by getting down on your knees with an angle grinder. Just tape off the granite (so you don’t hit it when your hand slips – and it will, believe me) and hone out what you need; then, polish the floor with a marble compound.

You may find that the marble compound brightens the granite as well. It’s not because there’s any magic dust in the compound; it removes any build-up of hard and/or dirty water left on the granite from daily mopping.

• Polishing Compound. “Because life doesn’t have to be about grinding” – A Wise Old Pro

Yes, sometimes, you can just use a good old-fashioned polish compound. As noted earlier, it can also spice up the granite, but mainly this is a spruce-it-up maintenance item only. Polishing compounds will not remove all scratches, no matter what you’re told. But when there are few (if any) scratches, you can always just polish.

Yes, even though an architect’s idea of a “classic” look may be more-overused than my choice of words beginning with “P” earlier, you can still salvage a few bucks out of it and make your customer look good in the process.

Over the years, you can also use a variety of the above options to “mix it up” a little. One year you can try option 4, and the next option 3. And if you have no experience whatsoever in restoring granite, then perhaps option 1 is your best play; you can gain more experience and come back to win another day.

After all, Will Rogers once said “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” In this case, let the bad judgment be that of whoever chose the two stones to be together in a heavy traffic area.

Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone Care, a Huron Park, Ontario-based stone-cleaning and -restoration company servicing all of southern Ontario. Tom offers corporate and private consultations, serves as a trainer for the Marble Institute of America, and is also on the organization’s board of directors. McNall can be reached at stone_rx@earthlink.net.