Maintaining marble, granite and terrazzo

Who this guide is for

This guide is for facility managers, cleaning contractors and maintenance teams looking after marble, granite, basalt, terrazzo and other natural stone floors: in shopping centres, airports, shops, lobbies and corridors of office and public buildings.

It covers cement-based terrazzo. If the stone chips are set in resin, the floor is epoxy terrazzo, and the epoxy floor guide applies. Polished concrete follows a very similar programme, described in the concrete guide.

How to recognise your floor

• Marble and other natural stone: slabs with natural veining and shifts in colour, often polished to a high gloss. In traffic lanes, micro-scratches appear over time and the shine fades.
• Terrazzo: stone chips set in a cement binder and ground to a smooth surface, as tiles or poured in place.
• Untreated granite and basalt: hard stone with visible grains, as tiles with grout joints or a plain surface, with no protective layer.
• Treated granite and basalt: stone protected by a coating or impregnator. The manufacturer specifies only gentle daily maintenance for it.
• Damaged floors: micro or deep scratches, stains, or orange peel, a wavy, uneven surface.

The stone and terrazzo programme

The programmes follow the manufacturer’s table of methods. Marble, terrazzo and untreated granite share the same maintenance; only restoration differs, and you choose it by the type of floor and the state of the surface.

On marble and other natural stone, Hybrids 400 remove micro-scratches and Hybrids 100 deep scratches. On terrazzo, Hybrids 400 remove orange peel and Hybrids 100 deep orange peel. From the starting grit, continue in sequence up to the grit you want.

Restore untreated granite and basalt with RG 400 on tiles with grout joints, or with the tougher HD 400 on a plain surface. For treated granite the manufacturer specifies only daily maintenance with RG 3500 and burnishing with RG 8000.

What you need

• The scrubber-dryer or single-disc machine you already own. For restoring with Hybrids, a scrubber.
• A velcro pad holder, which the manufacturer recommends for best results.
• Pads in your machine’s size: 5" to 28", and 36" and 48" for High Performance and Heavy Duty.
• For restoring, 5" (127 mm) Hybrids discs and a carrier pad, for example 20".
• A high-speed burnisher for optional burnishing.
• Clean water, no detergent.

Step by step

Restoring marble and terrazzo with Hybrids

1. Sweep the floor and remove coarse dirt.
2. Space five Hybrids evenly on a 20" carrier pad and fit it to the scrubber. Use a pressure of at least 40–45 kg.
3. Choose the starting grit by the floor’s condition: Hybrids 400 for micro-scratches or orange peel, Hybrids 100 for deep scratches or deep orange peel.
4. Make 3–4 passes with water, each in the opposite direction to the last, overlapping 25–50 mm.
5. Autoscrub between grits and check that the cut is even. Continue in sequence up to the grit you want.

Restoring untreated granite

1. Fit RG 400 for tiles with grout joints, or HD 400 for a plain surface, to a scrubber-dryer or single-disc machine.
2. Work with water, in several passes, until the surface is evenly clean.
3. Pick up the dirty water with a scrubber-dryer and check the result.

Deep cleaning, gloss and daily maintenance

1. Deep clean the floor with HP 800. Make more passes on very dirty floors.
2. Upgrade the gloss with HP 800 and/or HP 1800: on more worn floors, start with HP 800 and continue with HP 1800.
3. For daily cleaning, fit HP 3500, or HP 1800 in tougher conditions, centred on the velcro holder. Clean with water only, one pass a day.
4. For even more gloss, burnish occasionally or daily with RG 8000 or HP 3500 on a high-speed burnisher, with a slightly wet pad.
5. After work, rinse the pad and let it dry.

With High Performance pads, the manufacturer states that results can be seen in as soon as 10 days, with maximum gloss usually reached after 30+ days of routine cleaning.

In practice

Shopping mall, marble. A cleaning contractor cleaned the marble floor daily with HP 3500 and water. According to the manufacturer’s case study, instead of 480 conventional pads and 2,080 litres of detergent concentrate a year, it used 146 Suprashine pads and no detergent. Yearly costs were 49% lower, and the floor went from no gloss to high gloss.

Airport, granite. A dirty granite floor was cleaned without chemicals on a scrubber-dryer: first deep cleaned with HP 800, with the case study showing the floor after 5–7 passes, then the gloss was upgraded with HP 1800 and the floor cleaned daily with HP 3500.

Terrazzo in supermarkets. A producer of cement-based terrazzo tiles introduced a new maintenance protocol for supermarkets with these floors: daily cleaning with HP 3500.

Cleaning contractor, very old marble and hydraulic tiles. With HD 400 for stripping and extreme cleaning, HP 800, 1800 and 3500, and Hybrids, the company added floor restoration to its services.

Common mistakes

• Detergent out of habit. The diamonds work mechanically, so the manufacturer recommends detergent only in extreme cases.
• Too fine a pad on a damaged floor. HP 3500 is a daily maintenance pad. Remove scratches and orange peel with Hybrids first.
• Skipping grits with Hybrids. Continue in sequence to the grit you want, and check between steps that the cut is even.
• Hybrids on a high-speed machine, or with too little pressure. Hybrids are for low-speed machines only, scrubbers for best results, at no less than 40–45 kg.
• Coarse pads on treated granite. For treated granite the manufacturer specifies only daily maintenance with RG 3500 and burnishing with RG 8000.
• Epoxy terrazzo on the stone programme. If the chips are set in resin, the manufacturer does not specify restoring with coarse pads. Follow the epoxy guide.
• Burnishing dry. Slightly wet the pad on a burnisher: no dust, longer pad life and a better gloss.

Next step

Find the pad and size for your machine in the pad finder for marble and stone; for terrazzo choose terrazzo, and for granite untreated granite. If the floor needs restoring, or you are not sure what stone it is, send us an inquiry describing the floor and the machine. We suggest the pads, sequence and size, and send you an offer.