How to Remove Scratches from Stone Floors

stone_floorAll types of natural stone floors are prone to scratching, some more and some less. Nevertheless, there are ways to deal with them and to help prevent them. Make sure you read the following tips for removing scratches from your stone floor so that you can do it safely and efficiently:

How to deal with slate floors

Slate floors are prone to easy scratching. These scratches usually don’t disappear after being washed with soap and water. They may need to be carefully buffed with the help of scouring pads. This must be done on a wet floor! Buff off layer by layer and keep wetting the treated surface. Do this for smaller scratches.

Slate floors with larger scratches can be treated by disguising the scratches. Use an enhancing sealant or mineral oil to deepen the colour of the lines. This will allow for the scratches to blend into the rest of the surface and will be less visible. These colour enhancers can be applied annually to keep the floor looking good and without scratches.

… or harder stone floors

Harder stones are harder to scratch, but also these marks are harder to treat. Granite is one of the hardest stones commonly used for stone floors, marble is medium hard and soapstone is soft. Be careful with dragging furniture or heavy objects on floors made of soft stone.

Scratches on soft stones are easier to occur and easier to be removed. Mineral applied with a little pressure can resolve small marks. For slightly deeper ones, use 300 grit sandpaper, and for even deeper scratches – 100 grit sandpaper. Carefully sand off the top layers. Finish off by applying mineral oil.

Another potential quick fix to scratches on harder stones is to try to buff them with dry steel wool #0000.

If your dark granite floor gets damaged, you could use a permanent or a paint marker of the same colour to try to disguise the scratch. This thought simply hides the makrs rather than resolve the problem.

For serious scratches on hard stone floors, such as granite and marble, it is recommended that you hire a reliable stone floor cleaning company to repair and restore the problem. Professional hard floor cleaners have the proper equipment, tools and solutions to sand out the scratch, colour it and seal it. This is usually cheaper and definitely less of a hassle as compared to replacing or sending the stone to be resurfaced.

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