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Mark
Mark is the founder and lead content planner here at HowToCleanStuff.net. He spent 4 years as a professional carpet cleaner followed by a career providing professional cleaning services to businesses and residential homes.
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We had a floor like this in a place where I worked, and it’s a total pain. You have to sweep the marble floor every day, and mop it with plain water once a week because cleaning products will eat holes in it. And then you have to dry the marble after you mop it, because you can’t let water set on marble.
The first thing you should do with a marble floor is seal it. The sealant will make it a little slicker than it would be otherwise, but it will keep the marble from getting stained. If your floor has wax on it and the wax is dirty, you can get a special wax remover to take the old wax off so that you can reseal your floor and put on a new coat of wax.
Everything stains marble. Wet a piece of paper towel the size of the stain with water and a little peroxide, then lay it over the stain and come back in a couple of hours. The stain should come right off.
This only works on stains made by food or plants. Make a paste with chalk dust and hydrogen peroxide, then put the paste on the stain and leave it there overnight. You might want to cover the paste spot up so that no one steps in it. Wipe the paste off in the morning (no more stain!), wash the spot off and then dry it. You can do the same thing for grease stains, but instead of peroxide mix the chalk dust with clear fingernail polish remover, the kind that has acetone in it.
Don’t take chances! If you really want to keep your marble floor nice, use a cleaner made especially for marble. Marble is so delicate, and so many things can hurt it, it’s better not to experiment with things to get it clean.
Use liquid hand soap in a mop bucket with hot water and microfiber mop. Make sure the mop is really squeezed out and just mop away; finish with a dry microfiber mop and they shine like glass. Try it!
Careful, first, you need to accurately ID your stone: Is it marble, granite, limestone, basalt, onyx, honed slate or what?
Secondly, for general cleaning, a NEUTRAL (pH 7) cleaner like dish-washing soap with cool water (just a bit) is always quite safe.
Third, do you have just residue? An “etch” into the surface itself? Or, a true stain of color? The issue may be polishing rather than just cleaning; or, the stain may be deep enough to require a “poultice.”
Sometimes it simply pays in the long run to simply call a professional. Check the BBB, and the Marble Institute of America for referrals.
How soon after a white marble floor is put down should you seal it?
I have a marble foyer. It is been in the house about forty years. Many stains, including pet stains. What can I clean it with? I have tried Clorox and many other cleaners with no luck. Help please!
How do I clean an old, dirty, cracked marble floor?
My supplier is adamant that you should never use soap of any kind on marble. He says it builds up a damaging and unsightly residue over time. So now, it appears that only water can be used and even then, only if it’s dried afterward. Wish we knew all this before we installed the stuff.
Can you use ‘floor wipes’ containing Limonene on marble floors?
Gina,
If the floor wipes do not say that they are safe to use on marble or natural stones, it probably is not safe to use.
Limonene is the primary odor constituent of citrus and citrus cleaners are not recommended for marble as they can etch or dull the stone.
Acme How To says, “Marble, however, is especially sensitive to acids, and while a citrus/d-limonene solution may seem like the natural choice to counteract grease, it could in fact damage the natural surface of the stone.”
Furthermore, many of the marble cleaners that I have found claim to be ‘pH-balanced for marble’ or have a ‘neutral pH.’
Source: Acme How To – How To Remove Grease and Oil From Natural Stone
Source: Wikipedia – Limonene
Source: HowToCleanStuff.net – How To Clean Marble
Source: HowToCleanStuff.net – How to Clean Marble Flooring
Can you clean marble with soap and bleach? That’s what my boss said to clean with.
Paulette,
In general, it is not recommended that you clean marble with bleach. Extremely diluted bleach is sometimes recommended as a stain remover for marble, but regular use of bleach is not recommended for the stone. Also, if you are mixing bleach with anything (including soap), first make sure that the soap does not contain ammonia.
Source: Victoria and Albert Museum – Cleaning Marble
Source: StoneCovers – Marble Care & Maintenance
Source: Marble Institute of America – Getting to Know Your Stone
I used hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and vinegar mixed together in a paste and scrubbed it on the grout in the tile. I didn’t have to put in barely any effort to get the grout looking brand-new shiny white. After, I mopped it up with warm water and wiped it over with a terrycloth to buff out all of that baking soda and it made it look brand-new.
Can I use a steam cleaner on my marble floor?
Janette,
Steam cleaners are generally considered to be safe to use on marble floors. However, it is always a good idea to test a new cleaning product on a small, hidden area first.
Source: The Flooring Professionals – Steam Cleaners, Steam Mops and Swiffer Cleaners
Source: eHow – How to Steam Clean Marble Floors
Source: Making Lemonade – 8 Amazing Uses for a Steam Cleaner