About Sungloss Marble Co.

Specializing in the polishing, wet grinding - which creates no dust-cleaning, honing and sealing of natural stone surfaces in the Chicagoland area.

A member of the Marble Institute of America, National Association of the Remodeling Industry, and the Better Business Bureau, among others, Sungloss is committed to the professional servicing of stone surfaces such as walls, countertops, floors and facades for commercial, residential and post-construction customers.

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Sungloss Marble Co. News & Advice

Limestone Cleaning, Marble Cleaning, Granite Cleaning and Maintenance Tips!, January 9th, 2012

The goal for this blog, is to provide education and tips about natural stone care and maintenance, polishing, cleaning, sealing, and honing, as well as explore ways we all can contribute to a greener world. We want to share a few perrenial natural stone maintenance issues with you this time.

Murphy’s Oil Soap, and Flax Soap, are both common examples of vegetable oil-based soap. Murphy’s Oil is mainly intended to clean sealed wood floors. Although they claim no residue is left behind when used properly on wood surfaces (although some wood professionals disagree), when used on natural stone floors such as marble, granite, terrazzo, limestone, or slate, we have seen disastrous consequences. The vegetable oil residue over time imbeds into the pores of the stone. This process is invisible, and the use of Murphy’s Oil Soap is impossible to detect without a verbal acknowledgement by the caretaker. However, when we’ve been hired to refinish, or seal a floor with this issue, the imbedded residue clashes with our processes and chemicals creating unforeseen problems. For example, the floor will not take a polish, or the stone sealer reacts with the residue and ‘blooms’ (white powder forms). Only after we realize why we’re having problems, can we address the issue by aggressively cleaning and stripping out all imbedded residue. We’ve said it before (and we’ll say it again) DO NOT use Murphy’s Oil Soap on any natural stone surface. Following our 20 years experience and the Marble Institute of America’s Maintenance Guidelines, we recommend a neutral PH rinseless stone soap, used with an unbleached clean nylon pad to clean stone.

Another item we wanted to talk about is what to do with pets during a stone maintenance project in the home. Pet owners know there are many indoor and outdoor dangers to pets (click here for a full list from the Humane Society). When contractors come into the home to do work, new dangers can sometimes be introduced. Sungloss Marble Restoration Company’s environmental motto is to use water-based cleaners and sealers at all times unless a specific circumstance calls for a solvent-based product (in which case we will only use low-VOC products). Our approach to having pets in the home during work is cautionary: even if only water-based products are in use, cats, dogs, or other pets should be strictly kept in another part of the house. While no offensive odors would be present with water-based sealers, accidentally ingesting any of the solutions we use would be bad for them (luckily we have never had any cases of this occurring). In the past when solvent-based sealers were required, the fumes have been harmful enough to recommend pets be removed from the house, or at least far enough away so as to not subject their lungs, which can be as sensitive as a human infant. Another more practical consideration is the fact strange people and noises in the house might confuse or rile up the pet. We’ve even had customers who chose to board their pets for the days we were hired for stone maintenance.

Check back next time for more tips from Sungloss Marble Restoration Company, serving Chicagoland’s terrazzo, limestone, slate, marble, and granite maintenance needs for over 20 years

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New Year, New Location! Same Limestone, Granite, Marble Restoration Value, December 13th, 2011

Sungloss Marble Restoration is moving!

We are expanding into a wonderful, larger space to better accommodate our personnel and equipment. The move will make us better than ever at bringing natural stone restoration value and beauty to our customers’ real estate properties, and improving curb appeal!

Please see all the information in our moving announcement postcard.

Happy Holidays and New Year from Sungloss Marble!

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Granite Cleaning, Granite Polishing, Granite Sealing, December 2nd, 2011

Although our name, Sungloss Marble Restoration Company, only contains the word marble, we also are granite restoration experts! We can bring new life to polished or honed granite lobbies, countertops, reception desks, and even exterior granite slabs.

Granite is somewhat misunderstood among the average consumer. Here are some basic granite talking-points:

Granite is a quartz-based coarse-grained igneous rock. It is much harder and denser than calcium-based rock like limestone and marble. It is finished with a variety of methods, including high-pressure polishing, sandblasting, and flaming.

Many of our clients including homeowners, condo boards, developers, construction companies, and Federal buildings to name a few, have hired us to spruce up their granite and improve the curb appeal of their property. The maladies of granite are similar to many other natural stone installations we see: polished granite floors get dull, granite countertops get unknowingly abused, and honed granite floors may look worse for wear due to imbedded dirt. Also, flamed or sandblasted granite often needs regular sealing to keep it protected and looking great.

There are myths about granite, too numerous to enumerate all here. We’ll just cut to the chase—granite needs upkeep! It is not a lower-maintenance stone, just a ‘different-maintenance’ stone. And the stone industry makes things harder for us and our customers when they take stone not technically classified as granite and call it ‘granite.’ Often we learned about unusual or unexpected properties of these “fake” granites in the midst of working on it—Black Absolute granite is the prime example. It took some elbow grease and consulting with our partners in the industry to come up with a multi-faceted approach to restoring and polishing Black Absolute when it first came up in popularity, because of the fact that some fabricators would infuse black dyes into mystery stone and call it black granite…but that’s a separate story.

When it comes to granite, Sungloss Marble (and Granite!) Restoration Company can add value to our customers’ granite floors, countertops, and installations, while dazzling their expectations as well.

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