We have to say that our first stone polish job probably wasn't the best one to cut our teeth on. Due to numerous problems with the builder, floor installation company, floor itself and equipment failures it has been more challenging than we could have prepared for. The only people who truly came through for us was Rick and Dave. Rick for his initial suggestion and advice when we purchased our cimex stone kit and Dave who selflessly spent at least an hour and a half filling us in on what our classes didn't tell us, but also talked us through what to do next with our hand polisher problem.

Tomorrow we are going back to the same job to try to finish the edge work that we couldn't complete before. We have had more problems with two other vendors, one local and one out of state. We have been sent the wrong replacement equipment, the wrong diamonds and with the last vendor an order that we need for tomorrow didn't even go through.

So far the only vendor we are impressed with is Rick. So a BIG THANK YOU to Rick and Dave for just being there to support us when we really needed it the most. You guys are great and you have done so much to put us at ease with how to handle this job. I just hope that the next one goes a little more smoothly. But I guess if you must finally jump in a just do it, this one has certainly taught us a more than we could have ever learned in a class. Murphy's Law -- For your first job -- If it can go wrong it will.


-Jeanette

Post Script: I will say that removing the lippage on floor went very well with the Cimex. The final finish on the majority of the floor came out beautiful. We recieved many compliments on the results. I couldn't imagine doing this job with a regular swing machine. As for the edges, well that is to be continued.

Jeanette

Thank you for your kind words. I think it is unbelievably impressive when a woman takes the initiative to delve into stone restoration. No it’s not that I’m saying it’s a “Man’s Business”, what I am saying is that historically speaking only men have been involved with it. And you have shown as well as a woman out in CA, that not only do I have a great deal of respect for but so do others in the industry, that woman can do this type of work and do it well. What it takes is someone that is able to give a great deal of attention to detail. Is willing to learn. And is will to try new things and apply themselves. You have done all of those things and more. Keep up the GREAT WORK and don’t ever hesitate to call when you need help. Keep in touch.

David Gelinas
Marbleguy
1800MARBLEGUY.COM

Dave, you're alright I don't care what Rick has said about you! LOL

Anyway, so you wanna hear about our resolution to the edging issue with our nightmarish job?

We went back yesterday and this morning with a complete new set of resins. I worked on the left over scratches with our new hand tool and at least got the stone smooth. The shine however didn't come back no matter what I tried. I would slow the rpm down - I tried to speed it up - I even went up to a 3500 grit. Well, nothing seemed to work. The color didn't recover either. So we used a little enhancer and blended it in. Believe it or not it really looked good if not great in some spots when we were done. Grant you it's not perfect, but it's also not so noticable either.

While I was there working on the edges last week during the whole "builder's rushing us" fiasco, I also sold an enhancer seal to the homeowners. We're scheduled for that one next week. I charged 1.50 per square foot for that service. That'll be a nice little bit of pocket change after loosing our shirt on lippage removal.

All-in-all it was a good learning lesson. As a matter of fact today we just went to quote another hidiously poor travertine install job. This one was a LOT worse than the one we just did. After going through what we just did, we knew enough to recommend just replacing the floor or if he still wanted us to try to fix it; it would cost $12 per sq ft and him signing away that we are not responsible for basically any poor results of the tiles. If he goes for it, fine we'll give it a shot. If not, that's okay too.

Again thank you Dave for all your help. I'll have before and after pix next week.

-Jeanette

Jeanette

I feel the same way. I just looked at a job Fri., bad trav install just over 2K. I gave them a price of $9 a foot for lippage removal plus $1.80 to seal. When you consider a job like this one nationally would be somewhere around $12-15 per foot my price is actually a little on the low side. If they go for it great, if they don’t great. Two weeks ago I did a job in a man’s house that is undertaking the second largest construction project ever attempted in my area. He gladly paid me a little under 6K to powder polish & seal his trav floors in his house. It all boils down to you get what you pay for. This gentleman was very impressed with the work as well as with my crew, he had no problem paying for it; that other job remains to be seen.

David Gelinas
Marbleguy
1800MARBLEGUY.COM