Marble Polishing Fernandina

Marble Polishing Fernandina

 

Installing a perfectly flat floor (one without lippage) is next to impossible for most installers. Even slightly uneven tile levels can effect floor restoration. If there is excess lippage, and the floor is polished, the high edges will become glossier than the middle of the tiles. If the customer wishes to have a hone finish stone floor the floor has to be ground nearly completely flat to eliminate variations in finish on individual tiles.

When a customer wishes to have a floor flattened, we have to go through a grit progression.

We start with a 50 or 100 metal bond diamond, and work our way up to a resin bond usually starting at 60 then 200, 400, 800 followed by a polish finish if that is desired. The floor we are showing in the photographs below was taken to a 220 grit. The customer wanted a hone finish.

Stone after 50 grit metal bond honing pass.
During this cut we are not trying to remove every bit of lippage. This will happen as we proceed through the diamond grit progression.

These are the metal & resin bond diamonds used to grind or hone a natural stone floor. The diamonds are embedded in either metal or resin. The metal are far more aggressive, and the resin (in stages) remove the deep scratches they make during the initial cuts.

50 Grit metal bond cut.Notice the deep scratches from the diamonds. These are removed with subsequent finer cuts. Also notice the low areas the diamonds are unable to touch. On tiles that dive, these are impossible to remove if they are too deep. 50 grit scratches.With the metal bond diamond disks (often referred to as delippage tools) we are removing the uneven edges by grinding them down. Notice the deep scratch patterns that will be removed with subsequent honing cuts.
After 100 grit metal bond cut, 50 grit scratches begin to disappear. 100 grit scratches are clearly visible, but not as deep as the 50s. After metal bond honing cuts, we start resin bond. After all our diamond honing cuts we use honing brushes to give the floor a beautiful honed finish.

Honed finish. Floor completely flattened.

I would like to dedicate this page to the great stone genius Maurizio Bertoli. Maurizio taught me a great deal about stone and if I hadn’t known him I think I would never have fully understood stone refinishing.

Maurizio was tragically killed in an auto accident in 2008. Shortly before his death a consumer from Jacksonville emailed him to find out who to use to refinish his floor. He referred me to do the work. The result of that call is the job pictured here.

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I am the owner and founder of Fabric & Tile Masters and have decades of experience with all of the categories I write about. We refinish stone walls, counter and floors every day.

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