What’s new in Marble and Natural Stone Polishing and Restoration: Part 1

Sungloss Marble Restoration Company’s President, Mike Pavilon, is currently attending the Stone Expo 2011 in Las Vegas. The show is numero uno in educating the industry on the latest methods and products available in the natural stone restoration industry. One of the results of attending the show over the years is our knowledge of different methods and approaches for multiple varieties of stone, including serpentine, granite, soapstone, limestone, onyx, slate, marble, terrazzo, and sandstone, to name a few. We even have a lot offer (and some tricks up our sleeve) when it comes to concrete and silestone, both of which are less ‘stone’ and more stone-like building materials that are encountered more and more frequently in residential and commercial settings.

In recent posts on this blog, we delved into some history of how natural stone was maintained. In a coming post we’ll run down some discoveries Mike may have made at this year’s Stone Expo. Some of the more recent stone restoration history and advancements we didn’t expound on in the last posts is about advancements in chemistry. This writer is no expert in chemistry, but simply from an observational standpoint, the stone sealers and impregnators have made great leaps in the last ten years.

It used to be that when a sealer was applied in a residential or commercial setting, the users of the space had to be forewarned. The room had to practically be evacuated for hours until the smell of the solvent carrier evaporated. Sungloss Marble Restoration Company was lucky to find and start using water-based stone sealers and impregnators relatively early-on in their development. Some in the industry claimed water-based sealers were inferior, but any question along that line has been resolved in the interim. They deliver amazing performance. We try to always use water-based sealers (unless there’s a rare issue, or customer who insists), to help improve the immediate air quality (no solvents evaporating), and the overall air environment (water-based sealers meet Federal guidelines for low VOC emissions).

We hope to share some of the latest and greatest discoveries from Stone Expo 2011 with all our condo association, residential, real estate developer, contractor, federal and state building manager, and even CTA clients, in the coming weeks.