Home / Services / Marble and stone care
Service
Marble and Stone Care in London
Almost everything that goes wrong with marble is one of two things, and they are not the same. A stain is something absorbed into the stone, and it can usually be drawn back out. An etch is chemical damage to the surface itself — and no amount of cleaning will touch it, because there is nothing there to clean.
What we do, by stone
Marble, limestone, travertine and onyx
These are calcareous — essentially calcium carbonate — and they react with acid. Lemon juice, vinegar, wine, descaler and most supermarket bathroom cleaners will etch them, often within seconds and usually invisibly until the light catches it.
- Routine cleaning to pH-neutral only
- Poultice drawing for absorbed stains — oil, wine, rust, organic
- Honing to remove etch marks and restore an even finish
- Polishing to the original level of gloss, where that is what the stone had
- Impregnating sealer applied and renewed on a schedule
Granite and quartzite
Silicate stones, far more acid-resistant and much harder to etch, but still porous and still capable of staining. We clean, draw stains, seal, and restore worn or dulled areas around sinks and hobs.
Engineered quartz
Resin-bound rather than natural, so it does not need sealing — but the resin is vulnerable to heat and to some solvents in a way the stone is not. We will assess heat damage and tell you plainly when it cannot be polished out.
Grout and sealant
Cement grout cleaned, and colour-sealed where appropriate. Failed sealant is identified and reported — replacement is a trade job, not ours.
How stone work is assessed
We identify the stone first. A great deal of what clients have been told is marble is limestone, and a good deal of what they have been told is granite is quartz — and the right treatment for one is the wrong treatment for another.
We then produce a written assessment: what the stone is, what has happened to it, what can be recovered and what cannot. Where restoration is involved we carry out a test patch in a concealed area and ask you to approve it before we go further. Honing changes a surface permanently, and nobody should be surprised by the result.
Restoration work is dust-generating and wet. We sheet and protect adjoining rooms, and for floor work we need the area clear of furniture and out of use, usually for a day or two.
What sealing does, and what it does not
An impregnating sealer sits below the surface and slows absorption. It buys you time to wipe up a spill before it soaks in. That is the whole of its job.
It does not make stone acid-proof. A sealed marble worktop will etch from spilled lemon juice exactly as an unsealed one does, because etching happens on the surface, above where the sealer is. Anyone who tells you that sealing prevents etching is either confused or selling you sealer, and this is the most common and most expensive misunderstanding in the whole category.
What actually protects marble is routine: pH-neutral cleaning, spills wiped rather than left, no acidic or alkaline product anywhere near it, and nothing abrasive. We set that routine up and then maintain it on the regular housekeeping visits, which is why most of our stone clients are retained clients.
When etching has already happened, the answer is mechanical, not chemical. Honing abrades the damaged layer away with progressively finer diamond abrasives until the surface is even again, and the stone is then polished back to the finish it originally had. It removes material permanently, and it is not something to attempt with a hand pad from a hardware shop.
Where we find this work
Bathrooms. The commonest job, and usually a combination of limescale on the fittings and etching on the stone beside them.
Kitchens. Marble and limestone worktops around sinks and hobs, where etching concentrates.
Entrance halls and staircases. Stone floors in period houses, where wear is uneven and traffic patterns show.
Lateral apartments. Book-matched stone and large-format slabs, where a mismatched repair is more visible than the damage was.
Pool surrounds and wet rooms. Where sealing schedules matter most and are most often forgotten.
Questions
Common questions
There are dull marks on my marble that will not clean off. What are they?
Almost certainly etching — chemical damage where an acid has dissolved the polished surface. It cannot be cleaned off because there is nothing sitting on the surface to remove. It is corrected by honing and re-polishing.
Will sealing my marble stop it getting damaged?
Sealing slows absorption and helps against staining. It does not prevent etching, because etching happens on the surface, above where the sealer sits. Sealed marble etches exactly as unsealed marble does.
How often should stone be resealed?
It depends on the stone, the finish and the use. We assess it rather than work to a fixed interval, and we test whether the existing sealer has actually failed before recommending anything.
Can you remove a stain from limestone?
Usually, yes. Absorbed stains are drawn back out with a poultice, chosen according to what caused the stain. It is slow rather than difficult, and may need more than one application.
What should I use to clean my marble day to day?
A pH-neutral cleaner and nothing else. No vinegar, no lemon, no descaler, no cream cleaner, no general-purpose spray. If you have a retained arrangement with us, we handle this and supply what is needed.
My quartz worktop has a pale mark near the hob.
That is likely heat damage to the resin rather than a stain. We will assess it, but we will tell you plainly if it cannot be polished out, because on engineered quartz it usually cannot.
Coverage
Where we provide this service
North-west
Next step