Path Of Least Resistance (October 2006)

  Whether you’re honing, polishing or grinding, nearly every aspect of producing and, eventually, restoring natural stone requires the use of water. (Flaming is one of the few exceptions, but that’s an entirely different article.) And, water will follow the course (or path) of least resistance. This means that rather than taking the shortest course, water always tries to find a way to flow downhill.
  Water pushes through softer materials (like mud and grass) rather than through harder materials like rock; this is why rivers are rarely straight, and gives birth to the title “lazy river”. Now, when rivers get high enough (like after a monsoon or hurricane), the river can actually change its previous course, because the momentum of water flowing downhill with such strength will overflow normal riverbanks.
  This scientific fact can help us learn much about natural stone restoration. When we’re working the stone with water, the liquid doesn’t want to stay in the high spots. Depending on what we are doing to the stone, the water always seeks the path of least resistance. It will fill the grout lines first and flow to the lowest spot until enough volume allows it to overflow onto the tile or under cabinets, baseboards, etc.
  This should tell us to inspect all grout lines for areas of little or no resistance, such as cracked and/or missing grout. If we grind a floor with extensive water, and the water finds its way through the grout, under the tile, or seeps to a room (or worse yet, a condo) below, you could be in for many a headache.
  Tiles could eventually lift or even go dark from the moisture trying to escape, and this could prevent you from getting paid. If it’s the worse-case scenario of water going into a lower unit if you’re working in a condo or apartment, lawsuits are the fruits of not checking the grout beforehand. If the grout is terminal, as in cracked and missing everywhere, it’s best to replace it all beforehand.
  However, a note of caution here: If the grout and the tile are cracked everywhere, this should send up red flags that the floor was improperly laid and requires total replacement. You don’t want to take ownership of that problem; many a savvy contractor or homeowner will realize that they have a problem and would love for an unsuspecting contractor or their insurance to pay for a new floor because the restoration contractor agreed to “restore” their floor and the work created new problems.
  If all you’re dealing with are a few inches of cracked and/or missing grout here and there, simply fill with as close to matching color acrylic or silicone caulking and start working shortly after it skims over.  
  Why use caulking and not grout? Two reasons:
  1) Grout will take too long to cure before we can commence working on the stone; and
  2) There may be a reason the grout cracked in the first place due to deflection (insufficient support over a span), heat expansion or some other condition which makes replacing it with the same material redundant.
  Another possibility, knowing water’s lazy habit, is seepage under baseboards and cabinets. Remember back in grade school when they taught us that a mighty tree could move volumes of water through osmosis? Well, baseboards and cabinets can do the same. In fact, for some reason, plywood does this almost too well.
  It may surprise the average restoration person to know this, but many a high-end kitchen cabinet is nothing more than plywood with a very thin veneer of stainable material to make it look like cherry, maple or whatever today’s designers are promoting. Fabricators and installers should already know this.
  An additional potential problem, particularly in northern climes, is baseboard and floor heating/cooling vents. In the case of floor vents, with water moving downhill, this can create a particular mess in basements.
  So, how do we solve these potentially painful problems which can postpone payment and promote penalties?
  This is where, at our business, we take our WPA (Wetness Protection Act) to the next level. Our operation is all about production and quality. We use fewer men to attain better results as quick as possible.
  Putting our WPA into action may take a little bit of time in preparation; but, when it’s done, we get beautiful results with no customer complaints. As a bonus, they see our dedication to caring for their investments around their homes and businesses as well as their precious stone. And that speaks volumes to the high-end clients that we deal with.
  When grinding (using any diamonds), we run our planetary heads with not only splash guards, but also vacuum rings around the machines to get what the splash guards don’t. This captures about 99 percent of the water, and we use a constant water flow. This system alone saves the employ of one laborer who would just stand there with a vacuum all day and be out taking an unauthorized smoke break when you really need him. Our vacuum rings remove the slurry to a vacuum equipped with a pump-out, so we never need a stop to empty the area.
  Now, what if the power goes out? And, what happens anyway to that last one percent of water that the vacuum ring didn’t’ get? This is where we further protect our client’s property as a standard bit of insurance.
  First, we put up 4’ pre-masked painters tape all over. Even with the splash guard and the vacuum ring, we still get a few splashes up over where 2’ plastic with painters tape would be. Anyone with a lick of sense knows that blue painters tape wouldn’t keep out the moisture from a mouse’s sneeze; it’s designed to at least stick but not adhere to the wall.
  For this reason, we reinforce it with duct tape all over. (Is there any industry that doesn’t use this wonderful stuff?). This keeps the moisture out long enough for our technician to pick it up before it gets through the duct tape.
  If we’re just polishing with pastes and powders, or using honing powders, we use the 2’ pre-masked painters tape and use duct tape every 4’ and in corners to keep it from separating from the wall and lifting (especially if it gets caught in the vacuum wand).
  Don’t be afraid of water. It is our friend, as long as you keep it contained. Up here in The Great White North, we have even found uses for it when it gets hard and freezes. For that reason, 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 also offers corporate and private consultation, serves as a trainer for the MIA, and is also on the organization’s board of directors. He’ll present “Mixing Stone with Other Materials” on Nov. 9 and “Flooring Restoration” on Nov. 10 at StonExpo 2007 in Las Vegas. He can be reached at tom@greatnorthernstone.com