With stone becoming more and more affordable every day, it is important to know how to maintain your various types of counter tops, flooring, and other stone products. Often used on table tops, shower stalls, and other areas – granites, marbles, lime stones and the likes are becoming part of everyday home care. Here are some basics for your stone cleaning.
Basic everyday maintenance:
• Regularly dust the surface
• Clean the surface with a few drops of neutral cleaner, stone soap, or mild liquid dishwash detergent and warm water
• Use a clean rag
• Rinse the surface thoroughly after washing with a soap solution and dry with a soft cloth
• Too much cleaner or soap can leave streaks or cause a film
• Do not use products that contain lemon, vinegar, or other acids
• Do not use cleaners that contain ammonia
• Do not use scouring powders or liquids: these products contain abrasives that could scratch the finish
• Blot up spills immediately
• Sealing is recommended every 6 months to a year, depending on your stone and type of use. Follow manufacturer’s instructions
Polished floor care:
DO damp-mop your floor regularly. Don’t use just water: it won’t cut through soil and will leave streaks. We recommend using a solution of water and “Mb-1”, Marble, Granite and More Floor Cleaner, in the proportion indicated in the bottle’s back-label. DON’T rinse. The formulation of Mb-1 includes specially selected inorganic salts that are meant to be left on the surface of the stone and act as moisturizers, as well as optical brighteners. When used in the right proportion and with the right means, Mb-1 will leave your floor totally streak-free and it will actually enhance the shine of your floor!
DON’T damp-mop your floor using a solution of water and stone soap. Like any other soap, stone soap WILL leave a hard-to-remove deposit on the surface of the stone. Always use a pH neutral floor detergent, opposed to soap.
DON’T damp-mop your floor using a solution of water with a commercially available cleaner, unless its label specifically indicates that its use is safe on natural marble (cultured marble is not marble: its manmade plastic material). Worse yet,
If your floor is in a foyer, or any other room with direct access to the outside,
Shower stall care:
DON’T use any cleanser, either in a powdery or creamy form.
DON’T use any generic soap film remover, such as ‘TILEX SOAP SCUM”, or “X-14 SOAP SCUM”, or the likes on your polished stone shower stall.
DON’T use any generic mildew stain remover, such as “TILEX MILDEW STAIN REMOVER”, or ‘X-14 MILDEW STAIN REMOVER” or the likes on your polished stone shower stall.
DON’T use any magic self-cleaner, such as “Scrub-FREE” and the likes, or any harsh disinfectant, such as “LYSOL”.
Clean your shower stall daily. The easiest way is to use one of those windshield-cleaning tools (the one with a scrubbing net on one side and a squeegee blade on the other side). When eventually you notice an accumulation of soap film (especially on the lower part of the walls and on the floor pan) that looks and feel like wax, use “Mb-3” Soap Film Remover. To clean it off, Mb-3 was specifically formulated to be effective at doing the job of cleaning soap scum and hard mineral deposits, while not interacting with the chemistry of natural stone.
DO clean the mildew stain with “Mb-9” Mildew Stain Remover. This product, too, has been formulated to be safe on natural stone, while very effective at removing mildew and other biological stains.