Starting with the first issue: it can be pretty darn difficult to truly know what kind stone is underfoot sometimes when we assess commercial and residential stone restoration projects. There are hundreds of trade names for various stones, coming from clever marketers, and quarries all around the world. We have seen a lot—common low quality tiles given poofy, classy names, and stone deliberately called the wrong thing (i.e. ‘granite’ that is not real granite). Our Estimating Team and Account Reps rely on their experience as well as client-supplied information to ID stone and plan its’ restoration. However once in a while, our technicians discover interesting problems or unusual properties that affect our typical grinding or polishing procedures and force a little improvisation.

The most recent stuff we’ve been working with is black limestone sometimes called Inca Gray and/or Lava Stone. Whether is comes from Mexico or China, or if it is actually basalt is still undermined. All we know is we’ve worked with this stone on a few recent commercial and residential stone restoration projects. Right off the bat we noticed this stone was very sensitive to different kinds of installation and construction materials, and appears to be quite porous. Without professional treatment (correct materials, installation, cleaners, and sealers) from the very start, we fear we may see more issues with black limestone in the future.

The second issue involves black stone in general, especially high gloss polished surfaces. Although black polished stone (marble and limestone especially) can be utterly brilliant and beautiful, their inherent properties of light and color reflection make them the best candidates to highlight blemishes and poor sealing jobs. Any imperfection, etch, scratch, excess sealer, even a few drops of spilled Coke left unattended, might show up as a white ‘blip’ on the surface. This is precisely why highly polished black marble can be more expensive to maintain—it has to be kept up meticulously more often than almost any other stone. Black granite has a host of other issues and properties, a lot of which we have written about in other blog entries, and really needs its’ own article. The rule of thumb for any black polished stone is to expect the maintenance to be at a higher level than other types of stone colors and finishes.

At Sungloss Marble Restoration, our experience with commercial and residential marble, limestone, granite, terrazzo, and other stone cleaning, restoration and polishing, makes us approach the black marbles and limestones cautiously, but confidently. We have seen enough in our 20-plus years of working in banks, lobbies, condominiums, office buildings, and other commercial spaces, to know how to maintain these (sometimes) tricky black stone surfaces.

The USGBC and the Girls Scouts are partnering to promote education about the Environment – “protecting it, preserving it, and understanding it.” One goal eventually is to build or certify more ‘green’ schools. Sungloss Marble has worked in schools on large restoration projects in the past. Our own green practices would have surely contributed to a LEED certification for restoration and reclamation, had certification been at stake. The most major school project we’ve done in recent years was refinishing multiple floors of terrazzo for the Joliet Public School system. It makes us feel especially good to deliver wax-stripped, restored flooring at a competitive value, with little impact on children’s indoor and outdoor environment.

Another high-visibility project we are involved in which affects a large group of the community, is our terrazzo restoration work for the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago. Thousands of people (veterans!) visit this hospital (hospital!) monthly, so we take this project very seriously and very much to heart. Not only do we strive extra to provide value and quality to the VA through satisfying our contract within allotted time and to high standards, but we especially are concerned about the indoor environmental impact as a result of our work. We make sure our processes meet our Green Mission Statement, by choosing techniques and chemicals that are water-based, or have as little impact on the environment as possible. In fact, we schedule Sungloss’ own U.S. Veteran, Eugene on the job to make sure the work is up to par.

It is our hope that our environmentally-conscious work restoring marble, terrazzo, and other stone benefits not only our business partners, but the community at large as well.

A condo board contacted Sungloss to help with their terrazzo lobby, with repairs and surface restoration. John Leonard, a member of our Estimating team, noticed this 40-year-old lobby needed help in a few different areas, including filling holes in the floor, and wet grinding to refresh and polish the surface. However, neither of those services was ready to go because of the wax buildup on the floor. We frequently see floors of different stone (marble, limestone, slate, granite, and terrazzo) in large and small commercial spaces that share this common issue.

The appeal of using wax on natural stone probably stems from its’ availability at cheap prices, coupled with ignorance of janitorial staff about wax’s long term consequences. You slap some wax down and bam—your floor is polished, sealed and good to go, right? But in the meantime, the mops that were used to apply the wax had to be rinsed off or disposed of. Where does that wax material end up? In our rivers, lakes, and water tables. Not to mention, over years of waxing, the natural tendency is for the old wax to get pushed to the edges, and build up in thickness until it wreaks havoc on the stone underneath. We have seen crumbling of terrazzo and bleaching of black marble, directly caused by wax buildup—and those problems cost the owners of the commercial building a lot to fix.

So when it comes to small and large commercial lobbies, it pays to think about the overall impact a maintenance plan can have. If it only involves the bare minimum in materials and upkeep, it may hurt down the road when floors covered with years of wax start to need costly restoration. The alternative is a natural polish that is maintained by a natural, neutral stone cleaner, with periodic touch-ups to the polished surface. There is no need for wax…in fact almost no need for any chemical except a natural mild soap.

On a related note—more detail to come in coming weeks, but Sungloss President Mike Pavilon and Vice President Lisa Park just wrapped an interview for an article with Green Building and Design Magazine. When the article comes out we’ll be sure to post a little piece about it.

For starters, the knowledge and attentiveness of our Account Representatives and Estimators bring to a project is the foundation of a good client experience. We strive to address all concerns and educate our clients on how they should (and should not) go forward with a stone care project. While a majority of projects fall under common categories of needs, we have our share of unusual client requests and interesting challenges, all of which we work as hard as possible to satisfy.

The preparation of a job location is another service step that is sometimes not fully understood. Whether in a corporate, commercial, or residential space, precautions must be taken before stone care work can begin. Since water is used with a rotary machine and wet grinding produces stone slurry (dusty water, basically), plastic sheeting, masking tape, and tarps are put up anywhere water will splash. Furniture is also relocated. The preparation for a complicated restoration job can sometimes be a significant portion of man-hours in relation to the entire job top to bottom. Below, you can see two Sungloss Technicians, Rodney and Alex, and the protection they used in a recent marble polishing project.

Whether a big job or a small job, Sungloss treats every job the same in terms of preparing thoroughly, both mentally (working to meet all client’s concerns) and also on-site protection. These are both ways we add value for our customers.

Marble restoration project with plastic protection featuring Rodney and Alex

Lisa renewed our knowledge base at the trade shows and reported back on all the new stone care and maintenance products on the market. It is educational opportunities like the shows in Las Vegas that have lead to some of our past decisions on the products we use. For example, our almost exclusive use of only water-based stone impregnators and sealers for the environment’s sake. It is developments in the industry like water-based products, natural orange-based cleansers and wax strippers, and low-VOC sealers, which help Sungloss achieve our Green Mission Statement.

Of course, networking is always a benefit of attending trade shows. The opportunity to reconnect face-to-face with our educational and industry affiliates, the Marble Institute of America, was delightful and helped reinforce our relationship with the MIA’s high standard of quality. No report from Lisa on the nightlife networking that may or may not have occurred in Vegas however. For now, she’s keeping true to their motto!

World of Concrete 2010

Jim Hieb (Marble Institute of America) and Lisa Park (Sungloss Marble Restoration)

Las Vegas at Night

Although it seems common sense, rags are the single biggest item we reuse. During a typical stone cleaning and sealing project, enough rags to fill a garbage bag may be used. What to do with that bag? Wash them! These all-cotton rags can be used at least two or more times, if properly cared for. And on top of that, they are sourced from clothing that is recycled to start with. When we buy the rags sometimes you can see t-shirt slogans peeking out from within the bundle! You wouldn’t think, but the clean cotton rag can be one of the most important tools in finishing a marble, granite, terrazzo, or other stone restoration project. So many times we are called to assist contractors or stone installers who have issues with their penetrating stone impregnators and sealers. We’ve seen these problems stem from the sealer applicator in a few cases being wrong for the application—for example a roller was used and the sealer went on too thick. After stripping the floor and analyzing the situation, what applicator do we determine is best?—cotton rags. Simple and effective, and natural as well.

Not every tool we use can be sourced from natural places. Plastic sheeting and tarps are used at every jobs to protect home and property owners’ baseboards and adjacent walls. However, we are not above cleaning and re-using plastic when it is not stretched or torn. In fact, the tarps are washed, but they will not re-enter a customer’s home or business unless they are dry and free of any residue. Customer respect is a primary tenant of Sungloss Marble Company’s operating manual—we will take any and all precautions to make our customer’s experience only about the beautification and restoration of their natural stone.

Besides these tangible items, we also pay close attention to an oft-overlooked detail about our vehicles: the tire pressure! Making the investment in indicating valve stem caps was one of the best in Sungloss’ history in terms of the return on investment. These caps tell when our tire pressure is falling below the recommended pressure. However, by keeping the tire pressure at optimum, our vehicle gas mileage is as good as it can be while maintaining the health of the tire (over-inflation of tires might get you better mileage but it will make the ride very stiff while wearing out the tire, and even lower tire grip on the road). All that saved gas not only adds up to money in our pocket, but also less demand for oil. Think of what would happen if all of us kept our tires inflated!

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.

Simply speaking, wet grinding stone is akin to sanding a wood floor. The stone is ground by pads of industrially produced (man made) diamonds, filtered in the same way grits of sand are filtered for sandpaper. The pads are affixed underneath a machine designed to evenly apply rotation and pressure on the floor, and supply a small amount of water during the grinding process. This is the difference between sanding a wood floor and wet grinding a stone floor – the water traps the stone dust and leaves it suspended in the water for easy squeegeeing or wet vacuuming.

The thickness of scratches is relative in the eyes of the beholder, but we can tell you some basics about scratch removal. In softer stones (almost all but granite) fine scratches develop over time with foot traffic (debris or sand tracked in), vacuum cleaners, wheeled equipment, etc. A moderately significant scratch would be one you can actually feel with you fingernail. Anything deeper than the thickness of a business card is considered a ‘deep’ scratch.

When a floor is ground to specifically remove scratches, removing the thickness of a business card (approximately .012 to .014 inches) is not harmful to the integrity of the surface, nor is it noticeable height-wise. When deeper scratches are a problem, there is a limit to grinding, when the structural integrity of the stone can become affected, or the area with the scratch will actually be noticeable lower (ground down) than the surrounding tiles or stone.

Lippage is a term describing the phenomenon when a tile edge is crooked or uneven, and does not line up flat with the adjacent tiles. This can be remedied by grinding too, although it is usually harder to remove than scratches. The severity and individual configuration of each affected area needs a talented professional’s hand to grind the tiles (not too little or too much), to blend edges in hopes of achieving the most uniformly ‘flat’ floor possible. This process is frequently done with heavy rotary machines as well as handheld machines, or even handheld diamond pads for fine work. We’ve seen the whole spectrum of lippage (from hardly any to a disaster) and the final results will be on a spectrum as well. Some lippage may still remain, but the overall impression is more uniform than before…it all depends on the severity of the problem.

When it comes to scratch removal or lippage removal, our commercial clients including banks, hotels, developers, construction companies, and designers to name a few, have seen first hand how Sungloss adds quality to their commercial stone environment through restoration.

The EPA is a great source for getting basic questions answered about the world of green building. Their ‘Frequent Questions’ and ‘Why Build Green’ sites contain answers that form the foundation of understanding the world of green building. One of the things that this author sometimes forgets is the equal weight between indoor and outdoor environments, and the need to preserve and improve them both. As the EPA site says, “the built environment has a vast impact on the natural environment, human health, and the economy. Potential benefits of green building can include…improving overall quality of life.”

The U.S. Green Building Council is another leader in the field. Sungloss Marble Company is a proud member of the USGBC and participates in educational opportunities provided by them. The Vice President of Sungloss Marble Restoration, Lisa Park, is currently taking LEED certification classes to eventually become credentialed in LEED (follow the link to read more about LEED). The USGBC is all about stimulating excitement, green growth, and even competition in the industry, through saturation of information.

As Sungloss continues out mission in small ways every day, these two agencies work on a grand scale inspiring us all to move to green practices. The present and future “overall quality of life” depends on it.

Sungloss Marble Restoration hopes to lead by example in our own way. We have sung the praises of ‘restoration instead of new installation’ in previous blogs. We use water-based penetrating stone sealers instead of high-voc products. Our efforts are a portion of actions builders, designers, and homeowners can take to make environmentally impacting choices. BuildingGreen.com offers more action in other arenas.

Under BuildingGreen.com’s “Resources and Materials” heading, there are topics related to (but not limited to) our business of marble, granite, limestone, terrazzo, and other natural stone restoration and maintenance. For example, articles on Recycled and Salvaged Materials, and Efficient Use of Resources. We’ve written before how refinishing natural stone is a value-rich option that sometimes saves otherwise-good natural stone slabs or tiles from the dumpster. Besides stone-centric information, much more information on their site is not related to stone. However, we encourage our customers to investigate this rich site to learn ways to lower energy costs in all arenas.

This part of BuildingGreen.com’s mission statement is inspiring:
“Promote the health and prosperity of the company and our employees, owners, associates, and customers; and model socially and environmentally responsible business practices and corporate citizenship.” Coincidentally, while doing more reading on the subject of encouraging green building and green thinking, we ran across a very useful blog called greencollarblog.org. It’s job-centric focus might help those interested, land a job doing the kind of socially responsible environmental work BuildingGreen.com’s mission statement refers to. We encourage you to check it out!