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Cleaning Tips Renovating Before & After

Sophie Paterson Project: restoration of a marble floor

Athena Stonecare Ltd

last year

last modified: last year

Surrey based Interior Designer, Sophie Paterson, approached Athena Stonecare to undertake the restoration of her natural stone. We not only restored her stone but we eased her worries over specifying stone for her own clients too.

Read more about this project over on the Athena Stonecare website.

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Comments (5)
Hi Kelly, Sounds like an exciting project! We sell a lot of natural stone and a lot of porcelain, and in our experience as long as laid and cared for properly, both can work brilliantly in a family home. Tumbled limestone and travertine can look amazing, especially if you are wanting a more rustic look. If you go for an unfilled travertine, we would highly recommend slurry grouting (filling in the pits and voids) so that it is easier to maintain and clean. It is really important with natural stone to seal it. We recommend sealing once before and once after grouting, with perhaps a third coat around busy thresholds or near ovens/dishwashers etc in the kitchen. The sealer we sell lasts around 5-7 years, so not something you have to do too often. In terms of cleaning, you need to ensure you use natural stone cleaners or pH neutral cleaners, so you don't strip the protective sealer, leaving the stone prone to staining. To clean, it's simply sweeping or vacuuming (without the beaters on) and mopping. The beauty of natural stone is it ages and settles into the home the longer it's laid. Porcelain is really hard wearing, and most don't need sealing, although you can always apply a coat of sealer after laying in order to give added protection and seal grout lines to reduce the chance of staining. We also have wood effect porcelain tiles, which are really realistic if you did want the look of wood. I hope this helps, but if you do want any more help or to chat through options, please don't hesitate to get in touch on 01509 234000 or email us on enquiries@floorsofstone.com and we can make some recommendations. We also offer free samples of all of our tiles. Good luck with your project! Sophie // Floors of Stone
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Hi, As per previous comments the style of the house to a certain extent dictates the material / look. Here are a few practical tips to consider: MARBLE / LIMESTONE Stone looks great but you must remember all stone / marble / limestone is porous and wet feet coming in through the front door "will" mark the floor. Ensure you allow for a large door matt, not ideal from a looks point of view but it will save the floor in the long run. Also consider the floor substrate, I'm assuming you have a wood floor on wood joists ? If so, the floor will move creating cracks in your new stone floor. I would advise spending a little on preparation. Take the boards up, cross brace the beams, apply a good quality ply on them then add an anti crack matting. This will give a good and stable surface to lay stone. Also consider floor heights, if other rooms are carpet there may be a height difference. WOOD FLOOR As with the stone you need a matt area to protect it as you enter. My preference is for an engineered board, i.e.. plywood with a layer of solid wood bonded to it. This gives you a more stable material less susceptible to moving, splitting, shrinking etc. When you use a wood floor try to store it in the room for a few days to allow it to get used to the temperature / humidity before fixing it. You will never stop a wood floor expanding and contracting, anyone that tells you differently is badly informed. My suggestion is to remove your skirting, lay the floor within 10mm of the wall and add a silicon or foam filler then put the skirting back on. This looks really neat and avoids those horrible beads you see on a badly fitted floor. PORCELAIN FLOOR Have you considered a fully vitrified porcelain ? You can buy these tiles in any size from 300mm sq up to 1700 x 800mm The new ranges from Italy mimics almost exactly the look of marble / limestone / wood...... A fully vitrified porcelain is the hardest wearing material you can buy, it will allow you to use strong chemicals to clean it and you can mop it. You can also choose matt or gloss..... slip rating may be important in a hall... If you really wanted to push the boat out you can have it flow cut with a water to inlay a design... GENERAL TIP FOR HALLS My favourite trick with a hall is to put a narrow border of a contrasting material around the outer edge then infill with the main material. Example 1 Use a brown marble around the border and infill with a light cream limestone. Example 2 Use a black marble around the border and infill with Carrera marble Example 3 Use a dark timber to the border and infill with a natural oak etc. Hope that helps... Martin www.angel-martin.com www.3dinteriorillustration.co.uk
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Hi there, If you looking for a real wooden floor with less maintenance we would recommend going for a lacquered finish, this can both come in a shiny lacquer and matt lacquer. When it comes to the lacquered finish the board would not even need to be consider sanded and revarnished for at least 10 year. After the 10 years this does not mean it needs to be done. This would be down to your personal preference. We have a couple of options in the Brushed and Lacquered whitewashed boards. We have a White engineered flooring in a lacquer finish it is our constance board We also have our Malmo board which is available in both 14mm and 18mm If you do have any queries at all in regards to the flooring please do not hesitate to get in touch via email or you can call us on 0141 887 5698. Kind Regards, Floor Monster Team
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I tested white porcelain with bright pink hair dye when I bought them for my kitchen and the dye just wiped off. In 7 years the white tiles have never stained. I've dropped a Le Crueset cast iron pan lid and the lid got damaged but not a mark on the tile. I've had some small chips at the edges when furniture has been moved over them but it is minimal damage and the furniture should have been lifted rather than scrapped across the floor. You can buy full bodied porcelain which where the colour of the tile is right throughout the whole tile and if you get chips, you should not see a variation in colour. I love porcelain and would not use ceramic after having it. The best place to go for it, is your local independent tile retailer, rather than the big stores like Topps and Tile Giant. Not all tilers are keen on fixing them it because they are harder to cut and drill than ceramics and they need diamond blades and bits which cost more. They are well worth the investment though.
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