It was sorely needed, but it’s good to be back. (Man, do you know how hard it is to find a computer to check the board in the oldest city in the country?…LOL, LOL) My wife and I had a very nice time. Sorry the timing was kinda off, no sooner did I get that big job done and post and then I had to leave.

To Mike, Rich & Ed, you guys had asked a couple of Qs about marble that I didn’t get to answer before I left, if you want, go ahead & re-post or if you like give me a call at 727-896-0004.

An interesting point came up while I was away. I had to make a call to my Diamond supplier and during the curse of the conversation I mention that the gentlemen that came out to that job, George, said that he gets a production time of about 250 sq. ft. per hour with his single disk swing machine. My Diamond guys response was that is simply not possible, average speed is about 80 feet maybe 140 if your really good and every things going great. Quite honestly I don’t know who’s right or wrong be cause I don’t use a single disk machine, I use a Cimex. Either way I sure am glad that with my Cimex, George and I were consistently doing 250 sq. ft. in ten minutes. Of course, in all farness, on other jobs it has taken me 15 – 30 minutes to do that amount.

Gota go, drop me line or a post if you want.

David Gelinas

How did you learn how to do marble?

I’ve been doing hard surface floor care for about 17 years now and about 7 years ago I added marble polishing to the surfaces we offer. The way I got started was that I did a great deal of research and study on how to do it with various systems and once I felt that I knew enough about it I started doing it. Up till this point I have never gone through any structured schooling on it or taken any seminars. Quite a few of the people that I’ve spoken to feel that it is better to get a basic understanding about how to do it and then go and get some sort of training, if not, in there opinion it is that during the training/schooling you will probably be in over your head and wont fully understand what’s going on.

Keep in mind, if you are new to doing marble, you can get your self into trouble in some areas. So if you are considering doing marble please use lots of discretion and common sense if you don’t have any experience with it. It’s kind of funny, it seems that a lot of people that do marble don’t like to give out information. If you ever have something that you have a question about, I’ll be glad to help if I can, and if I don’t know the answer I’m sure I can find it for you.

David Gelinas

How about granite, Dave? Do you do that too?

I attempted to 'unhaze' a granite countertop to no avail. Used Granite Restoration Paste with a sander and steel wool pad. Nuttin'. Tried Granite Sheen - nuttin'. Ideas?

Scott

Scooter

For personnel hands on experience with granite, I have yet to have an opportunity. My understanding from more than one source, most of the time you end up with the same results as you experienced. It’s definitely an all together different beast. From what I’ve been told, granite takes an unbelievable amount of weight to polish. In the field it’s just about impossible to get enough weight to effectively polish a counter top, but for floors with the Cimex you could go as high as about 148lbs, plus head weight, plus 800rpms, so it should be pretty effective.

Most contractors will say to stay away from it and Negro Martina (Black) Marble. Of course, if you stay away from it you’ll never learn how to do it either. So I guess one approach would be to give it a try with a good price and no guarantee. Just ask around, get a good idea what’s involved and go for it. Most of the time that’s worked fairly well for me. It’s often exhilarating (Read: Nerve Racking). No in all reality a lot of the time it’s worked out well, I get to learn new things, add new services to the business and find new markets to go after.

With regards to your Q, do you know what caused the granite to haze? Could there have been a topical coating? Because granite is so hard, normally it’s hard to damage it when it’s a counter top, that’s why I’m curious if there was a topical coating that may have caused it. In addition if there was a coating the stone’s not going to respond with out first removing it.

David Gelinas

Thanks for the reply, Dave.

The homeowner claims that it was delivered and installed hazy. The installer tried to correct it - and was partially successful. We were called to see if we could get some of the worst areas any better. We couldn't. The next step, as far as I have heard, is to remove the tops and have them reground. Hiking a 150 lb Cimex onto the countertops is not an option.

It sure was a mess. That steel wool pad lasted all of 10 minutes and by the end disintigrated into a million tiny shards. According to the distrib., it shouldn't do that. But it was our first time so I'm not sure if it was something we were doing wrong. Regardless, the tops showed no sign of improvement after doing a 1 foot section for approx. 1/2 hour, so we gave up.

Scott

I've done a little bit of marble polishing and have attended a couple of seminars (not nearly as much as Dave). And I have always heard that granite is as hard as... well, er, uh, - granite.

Rick Gelinas

Soundas like your refreshed Missed you wit.and good advice next time get prmission from the board. LOL LOL

Slow Joe