Dear All,

I have been lurking in the background for a while and have finally come back to contributing to this section of TilersForum!

All we (my company) do is restoration, cleans and seals, polishing and maintenance of floors. We see a lot of floors every year. All sorts of stone types, ages, finishes and locations.

If you are choosing a Contractor to do restoration/maintenance/polishes/etc work on your floor(s) please, please, please, please get references, be they trade or domestic customers. Check them out.

We are having to put right more and more jobs that have gone wrong, the wrong sealants used, sealant applied over dirty floors or that have not been completed properly or to the customers satisfaction. These jobs are being undertaken by under trained and under experienced people. 'Having a go' isn't good enough when treating £10,000 worth of marble wall and floor tiles.

Even yesterday, I went to see 70m/2 of open-faced travertine that had not been cleaned properly, but had been sealed over. The person who did it is not getting paid, but the poor customer is having to go through all of the process again. It is not doing our trade, or industry any good.

Basically, get references, ask to see recent work (which is theirs), see testimonials, speak to other people in the trade if you can.

You wouldn't want someone with a sand filled sponge scrubbing the black paintwork of your nice new Range Rover (if you had one!) would you? You've got to know what you are doing.....

*steps off soapbox*

I promise to contribute more restoration based threads from now on!

Thanks for reading,

Tom
Floor Restorer

I Second the above.. well said that man

Originally Posted by Floor_Restorer

Dear All,

I have been lurking in the background for a while and have finally come back to contributing to this section of TilersForum!

All we (my company) do is restoration, cleans and seals, polishing and maintenance of floors. We see a lot of floors every year. All sorts of stone types, ages, finishes and locations.

If you are choosing a Contractor to do restoration/maintenance/polishes/etc work on your floor(s) please, please, please, please get references, be they trade or domestic customers. Check them out.

We are having to put right more and more jobs that have gone wrong, the wrong sealants used, sealant applied over dirty floors or that have not been completed properly or to the customers satisfaction. These jobs are being undertaken by under trained and under experienced people. 'Having a go' isn't good enough when treating £10,000 worth of marble wall and floor tiles.

Even yesterday, I went to see 70m/2 of open-faced travertine that had not been cleaned properly, but had been sealed over. The person who did it is not getting paid, but the poor customer is having to go through all of the process again. It is not doing our trade, or industry any good.

Basically, get references, ask to see recent work (which is theirs), see testimonials, speak to other people in the trade if you can.

You wouldn't want someone with a sand filled sponge scrubbing the black paintwork of your nice new Range Rover (if you had one!) would you? You've got to know what you are doing.....

*steps off soapbox*

I promise to contribute more restoration based threads from now on!

Thanks for reading,

Tom
Floor Restorer

Good Post! Unfortunately the majority of jobs that go wrong on these type of floors are down to lack of knowledge. It is very important for fixers to realise that Natural Stone fixing is different to tiling and therefore requires a more knowledgeable approach with regards to things like type of adhesive coverage, grout, sub floor preparation, decoupling membranes, rigidity of floor, expansion joints and ultimately sealing. All too often I go in to look at problems with the floor and more often than not you stand and admire the standard of the fixing and the whole job has been let down by the application of the wrong sealer or even worse the right sealer incorrectly applied. If in doubt Test! Test! and Test again and get the customers approval.

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

Originally Posted by Floor_Restorer

Dear All,

I have been lurking in the background for a while and have finally come back to contributing to this section of TilersForum!

All we (my company) do is restoration, cleans and seals, polishing and maintenance of floors. We see a lot of floors every year. All sorts of stone types, ages, finishes and locations.

If you are choosing a Contractor to do restoration/maintenance/polishes/etc work on your floor(s) please, please, please, please get references, be they trade or domestic customers. Check them out.

We are having to put right more and more jobs that have gone wrong, the wrong sealants used, sealant applied over dirty floors or that have not been completed properly or to the customers satisfaction. These jobs are being undertaken by under trained and under experienced people. 'Having a go' isn't good enough when treating £10,000 worth of marble wall and floor tiles.

Even yesterday, I went to see 70m/2 of open-faced travertine that had not been cleaned properly, but had been sealed over. The person who did it is not getting paid, but the poor customer is having to go through all of the process again. It is not doing our trade, or industry any good.

Basically, get references, ask to see recent work (which is theirs), see testimonials, speak to other people in the trade if you can.

You wouldn't want someone with a sand filled sponge scrubbing the black paintwork of your nice new Range Rover (if you had one!) would you? You've got to know what you are doing.....

*steps off soapbox*

I promise to contribute more restoration based threads from now on!

Thanks for reading,

Tom
Floor Restorer

A nice post.

Also worth noting that it's always wise to use good well known products that have good backing from the manufacturers of them. Some people seem to skimp on sealers when they've spend thousands on floors.

Amen, Or at least go and get properly trained if you are going to attempt to restore a stone floor.

Knowledge is everything. Its good that you trained yourself properly before start anything.

Hi Tom
Nice to see someone cares about there trade and the customers

Do you carry out work in the cornwall area

IM tile and stone cleaner