FAQs

Q

What is required to schedule service and how soon can I expect service?

A.

Generally, your stone restoration professional will ask for a minimum charge deposit. Without a commitment from the customer (deposit), customers may decide to change days or cancel appointments. Lost days of work cost professional restoration companies too much money to schedule work without deposits. Generally your scheduled service date will be within 1 month due to our busy schedule. Often, however, the greater the need, the sooner we can get you scheduled.

Q

What is marble and natural stone restoration?

A.

Marble and stone restoration is the art of restoring your natural stone surfaces to like-new.

Restoration of stone is the restoring of worn stone– marble, travertine, granite, etc. — to the state in which it was installed. It may also entail the altering of the stone’s surface to match a desired finish of the installation’s owner or management. In some cases an owner may desire a polished finish to be changed to a honed finish or vice versa.

Q

How is stone restoration different than cleaning and janitorial services?

A.

Restoration is a process that can only be done by a professional stone restoration company. A maintenance, janitorial, carpet or grout cleaning company will not have the proper tools or experience to restore natural stone. This is not said to be critical to these types of companies. The investment of knowledge, equipment and experience needed to understand and work with stone properly is greater than what these average companies company can afford to pay for qualified technicians to stay with the company. We have found out that these companies have a very high employee turnover rate so you never know what kind of experience you will actually get.

A qualified stone restoration technician will on the other hand, be too busy to do routine maintenance work which pays much less then they can make working with stone. It is like asking a Mercedes mechanic to fix bicycles for the same wages. Looking at it from reverse, would a bicycle shop owner pay to keep a Mercedes mechanic on duty until a customer with a Mercedes came in? Only a Mercedes dealer (or specialist) is going to be able to warrant keeping a technician with the specialized knowledge, tools and equipment on payroll as customers will be more regular and make the investment worthwhile.

Q

What is involved in stone restoration?

A.

Restoration of polished marble or natural stone involves the removal of scratches and/or damage from the surface of the stone by means of mechanical abrasion. This is also known as diamond grinding, honing or sanding.

Natural stone reflects light and does not need a topical coating or wax to achieve this desired finish. It only needs a series of diamond grits used in the proper order by a master technician who is experienced in their use. This followed by a careful polishing technique that can only be learned from experience. There are many different types of stone in the world Marble, Granite, Limestone, Sandstone, Travertine, Terrazzo, etc. Each stone acts differently to polishing compounds. A master technician such as those at Classic Marble & Stone Restoration know what polishing techniques work with different stones and what doesn’t. Example, you can not use the same polish on granite as you can marble and vice versa.

Restoration of a polished or honed finish involves using a series of diamond abrasives up until the desired finish is achieved, and a final polish if that is what is desired.

A flamed finish Granite can be restored using the same technique used in the factory processing of the tile or slab. This is a controlled burning of the stone so that the crystals “pop” creating the unique finish.

As you can see, the restoration of each separate stone surface will involve several different methods and techniques.

Q

Is stone restoration messy?

A.

A restoration professional will also take care to protect the surrounding surfaces from damage. The diamond grinding technique involves some amounts of water and this could be damaging to wood and carpet if measures were not properly taken to ensure the water’s use was kept to a minimum and protection against splatter is used.

Q

What can I expect?

A.

You can expect to have your stone looking like new again and to be provided with proper maintenance instructions for long term care. Scratches, etch marks and wear can be removed. Also advice on how to avoid any future need for complete restoration.

Q

How is the job charged?

A.

Stone restoration jobs are usually charge by the job. Square footage pricing is not practical. Each type of stone will present its own unique challenges as will the consumer’s desired result for each surface. Many aspects need to be taken into consideration, such as where in the building the stone to be restored is located, water and electricity supplies available, etc. Regardless of the cost, it is always less than the price of replacement and most times you will have an installation that looks as good as, if not better than new.

Q

How long does stone restoration take?

A.

Each type of stone and the desired finish for each as well as the size of the job will set the pace for the length of time needed to complete a project. If you are looking to restore over 200 sq ft of any stone, chances are you are looking at more than one day realistically. More can be done in one day, but not with the proper set-up and protection of other surfaces. The staff at Classic Marble & Stone Restoration will not rush a job to get in and out as fast a possible. We take our time to make sure the you the customer get the best quality job possible.