Professional Marble & Natural Stone Restoration — Gold Coast · Brisbane · Sydney
Surfaces
Correction & Repair
Natural stone we restore
Compounds & treatments
Restoration
Stripping failed topical coatings, polymer gloss and old sealers back to raw stone so the surface can be read and restored.
From our work
Existing coating removed, followed by diamond grinding, progressive refinement and mechanical polishing.
The problem
Topical coatings are sold as an easy answer to dull stone, and they do look convincing at first. They are also a layer of plastic sitting on the surface, and they wear through where people walk. The result is glossy at the edges of a room and cloudy in the traffic lanes, and it cannot be spot-repaired because the boundary between worn and unworn always shows.
Coatings also trap what is underneath. Moisture, staining and previous damage are sealed in, and the stone stops behaving like stone — it can no longer breathe, and on some substrates that causes further problems.
Multiple layers accumulate over years as each failure is answered with another coat.
What gets established before any work starts
These decide the method. Answering them wrong wastes an entire stage.
Approach
Described as a set of judgements rather than a fixed sequence, because that is how it genuinely works.
Removal method is chosen for the coating and the stone, and tested before being applied broadly. Chemical stripping suits some coatings; mechanical removal suits others, and on softer stone the wrong choice damages the surface.
The stone is brought back to a raw, uncoated state so it can be assessed honestly. Only then is a restoration method chosen, because until the coating is off nobody can see what they are dealing with.
Residue in joints and at edges is dealt with specifically. Stripper that has run into grout lines and dried there will show through any subsequent finish.
What replaces the coating is a deliberate decision. Often the answer is a mechanically polished stone surface with an impregnating sealer, which cannot wear through in the way a topical film does.
Not every stage applies to every job. Which are used is decided at assessment.
Practicalities
The details that affect how the job runs, and that are easier to plan for than to discover midway.
Limits
Stated plainly, because finding out on the day suits nobody.
Evidence
Documented jobs, with the stone, location and condition recorded.
Questions
Common signs are a gloss that looks like it sits on top rather than coming from the stone, a finish that is bright at the room edges and cloudy in walkways, and scratches that appear white rather than showing stone. It is confirmed by testing a small inconspicuous area.
Generally no, and that is the point. The alternative is to bring the stone itself to the finish you want mechanically and then use an impregnating sealer, which soaks in rather than forming a film. There is no layer to wear through.
Technical guides
In-depth guides to individual problems this service addresses.
Related
Stone floors levelled, refined and finished on site. The finish is the stone itself, not a coating laid over it.
Drawing organic, oil, rust and mineral staining out of the stone rather than sealing it in.
Chips, cracks, holes and lippage. Structural and cosmetic correction of damaged stone rather than replacement.
Send photographs and a short description and you will get a straight answer about what the surface needs — including if the answer is that it does not need us.
