Travertine Tile Polishing Process

Travertine tile is a beautiful stone with so many amazing qualities. You need to ensure you take care of a natural stone properly. Travertine, even though it is a dense stone, can get damaged. Etching, scratches, and dullness are all things that can happen over time if you don't maintain your travertine tiles. 

Regular deep cleanings and sealing are not the only things most travertine floors need. A lot of the time, you need to consider honing and polishing. Honing and polishing help remove damage and increase the density of your stone floors, especially if you have a softer travertine tile.

You may be wondering what honing and polishing are. Well, let us tell you...

Honing is a light wet sanding process.

With honing, we use diamond resin pads. These pads will remove etching and scratches. You may be wondering what the difference is between etching and scratches. Scratches are pretty easy to understand, but etching is a bit different. Etching can be caused by spilling something acidic on the travertine, leaving an oil substance soaking into the stone and using the wrong cleaning products. Typically you can see a cloudy or hazy-looking area that is etching.

Depending on how nasty the scratch is or how intense the etching is, we will use anywhere from one step of the honing pads up to three steps. The different honing steps provide different results and can achieve either a satin finish or a semi-gloss finish when we are done with them. Honing pads also prep the floor for polishing.

Polishing is a process to bring out the natural shine.

For polishing, we can achieve different shines in a couple of ways. Polishing happens after we have cleaned and honed but before we seal. The most popular way to polish travertine is by using a polishing powder or compound with a polishing machine. The compound or powder is spread across the floor and activated when we start the machine. Once wet, the powders will react with the calcium in the stone, bringing out the natural shine. We use a weighted polishing machine that we pass over the areas many times to bring out the shine. The machine creates a slurry-like substance, but no worries, we will extract all the slurry without leaving any chemicals on your travertine. As the powder water and calcium in the stone are buffed, the travertine becomes more reflective(shiny) and dense. Leaving you with beautiful floors that are stronger than they were when we started.

Using polishing powders and or honing pads on softer travertine tiles will help your stone floors last longer. Making soft stones dense will help prevent future damage and staining. Many customers only know they have a soft stone once they get a professional service company to identify this for them. 

Honing and polishing sound very intense and can take longer to complete than a clean and seal, but it is worth it in the long run because you are protecting your travertine floors and prolonging the life of them. After we have finished honing and/or polishing, we always recommend sealing to help prevent staining and discoloration. The sealers we use are penetrating sealers that absorb into the stone and clogs the pores from within the stone and do not sit on the top of the stones.

As you can see, honing and polishing travertine can seem confusing, but they are very easy to explain and do wonders for your travertine flooring. For more information, check out our website www.travertinecleaningaz.com, or call us anytime at 480-352-2987.

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