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As beautiful as marble flooring looks in a house, it is equally important and a bit hard of a task to maintain its beauty.
We buy the floors thinking it would be durable especially with kids in the house.
But to no avail.
And worse of all when we try to clean the stubborn marks and stains, they just don’t go away.
After reading this article you’ll know some of the best ways to remove marks and stains from your marble to make it neat and clean again.
Quick Tips Before We Begin Cleaning Marble Floors:
1. Make sure the solution you use is pH neutral
Knowing the pH of any solution lets you know if it’s an acid, a base, or neutral.
But you wonder why.
Why are we discussing this instead of directly talking about how to clean the marble?
Because there are different types of solutions and they react differently on a marble.
And if you clean the marble with the wrong pH solution it may affect the marble in a negative way.
With that being said, all marbles are made of calcareous stones.
Which contain calcium carbonate.
And it is found that any calcareous stone if in contact with acid reacts negatively and harms the material.
So, what should you do about it?
And what solution should you use to clean your marbles?
Whenever you are going to use a solution.
Just check its pH level.
It’s usually written at the back of a product.
The pH level must be above 6 and less than 8.
Any solution within that level works best for the marble.
2. First dry sweep before using any wet liquid.
There may be sand or dust present on the marble.
And if you try to clean it directly with any solution or liquid, chances are it may scratch the surface.
The same goes for vacuuming the surface.
The vacuum wheels can also scratch the surface of the marble.
The best way to remove any dust particle or sand is to carefully dry sweep the surface first.
Remove small particles like dust and sand and then move on to using any solution.
3. Use distilled water and sweep the remaining dirt
Distilled water is pure from any mineral or other impurities.
So, pour it down onto the marble and sweep it.
This will make sure that any other dirt is also cleaned off from the floor.
With all that being said.
Here is how to clean your marble for everlasting shine:
- Mud cleaning
A lot of times we enter inside our house with muddy feet.
Or shoes filled with dust and dirt.
This leaves a big stain mark on the marble which is very hard to remove.
Muddy and messy footprints should be removed as fast as possible to prevent the insidious grits from scratching the marble.
The first thing you should do is use a paper towel and wipe the floor.
This absorbs all the muddy stains which are still wet.
Then add a pH neutral cleaning solution in lukewarm water and start rubbing on it slowly with a sponge.
After that take a dry cloth and soak all the water.
Repeat the process one more time for better results.
- Oil Cleaning
A lot of times hard substances like oil, milk, creams, etc. fall on the marble.
This quickly erodes the top surface of the marble and leaves permanent stains.
It happens because marble is a calcium carbonate and is very soft and porous.
So, it easily erodes with any kind of acidic substance.
In this case any kind of oil or thick substance like milk, creams, etc..
What to do about it?
To truly be successful you need to draw the oily or thick substance out of the marble.
So, begin with a soft substance on the pH such as the mixture ammonia and acetone.
Which is almost neutral on the pH scale.
After doing that rinse the surface with warm water.
And then dry it with a cloth.
- Etch removal
Etching happens when marble comes in contact with acids.
It could be as simple as lemon.
They eat away the marble exposing an inner surface inside the marble.
Which isn’t beautiful, smooth, or shiny.
It makes your floor look dull and gloomy.
Some easy ways you can create etch on your marble without even knowing is –
When you clean marble with acidic cleaner, using foods like lemon or orange on marble, etc…
What should you do about this?
First of all, just dry clean the surface.
You don’t want any dirt there.
Then add a polishing powder on the etch mark.
Mb11 polishing powder will work fine.
You want the entire etch mark covered with the powder.
Then take a spray bottle and spray water 2-3 times on the mark. Just to dampen it a bit.
Now spray the towel 2-3 times and start scrubbing in a circular motion.
Do it for 1-2 minute and the etch mark will slowly start to get away.
Finally clean the marble with Marblelife Marble cleaner.
And then use a dry towel to dry it out.
- Floor scrubbing
Scrubbing the marble floor is one of the best ways to remove hard stains and dirt.
Which are stuck inside the inner surfaces of marble for a long long time.
Scrubbing the marble not only removes those hard-to-remove stains but also sanitizes your floor from any bacteria and dirt.
Anytime there’s a hard stain on the floor bacteria accumulates quickly on it.
And also leave your floor victim to scratches.
To make sure this never happens again.
Simple tools you will need are a brush, soap, and water.
Make sure the soap is pH neutral and the water is warm.
Now begin the cleaning process by first diluting a mixture of pH neutral substances and water.
Ammonia and acetone will work in this situation as well.
Now use a sponge and start rubbing the solution in a circular motion.
Do this for 10 minutes.
Then take a dry cloth and soak in the water.
After that, if you see that there are still stains left.
Repeat the process one more time for the best results.
- Removing soap scums
Soap scums are white or grey thick layers that are stuck on walls and surfaces of the shower and bathroom.
But how is it formed; you wonder?
It happens with the reaction of the soap and mineral or the tap water that is being used at that time.
Now you might be wondering, heck… I don’t want to clean this.
But if soap scum is mistreated or left to grow.
Then after some time they become molds or mildew and almost ruins the marble.
Take half a cup of ammonia into 1 liter bottle of water.
And rub the surface clean.
This will make sure the soap scum is removed.
Summary
This article focused on helping you solve any kind of marble stains you might have in your home.
I hope it was helpful in giving you knowledge about how to remove marble stains and discoloration.
Most importantly hopefully it made you aware that there are different types of marble stains and they require different solutions and different approaches.
Marble is a very costly material and is considered a luxury in many homes.
Yet they are highly porous materials and get dirty very quickly.
Even a little reaction with lemon or orange can discolor it.
That’s because marbles are made from calcium carbonate which is a very porous substance.
And as discussed in the article above, never clean marble with an acidic solution.
This should be one of the foremost lessons you should take from this article.
An acidic solution will ruin the surface of the marble and do more harm than good.
And try to use distilled water for cleaning than mineral water.
Because a lot of marble stains when cleaned with mineral water may not go away.
Since mineral water has a lot of other substances mixed as well.
But if you clean the marble with warm distilled water, it’ll give its best results.
Also, make sure that you dry clean the surface of marble before applying any solution or wet liquids.
That way you remove any dirt or dust from the surface.
And protect the floor from any scratch or etching.
When it comes to what kind of pH neutral solution you should use for marble floors?
A solution of ammonia and acetone will work best.
Since ammonia’s pH level is 11.4 and acetones is 4.7.
Together they give a highly neutral and light solution that makes sure that the marble’s surface isn’t exposed to any hard substance.
It will also work best with any kind of rough stains like stains of oil, milk, or creams.
Please comment below and let me know what kind of stain does your marble has and how do you plan on cleaning it.
