Limestone Cleaning in Leigh on Sea, Essex

Leigh on Sea is a small but wonderfully diverse area which is close to our heart. It also happens to be where we are based.

So it’s always a pleasure to provide our specialist Limestone Cleaning Services to members of the local community.

The floor in our article had only recently been sealed, according to our client. Unfortunately, it suffered a spill of a strong cleaning chemical, which stripped part of the applied sealer.

In addition, there were scratches on the stone that, although fairly shallow, drove our client mad.

When I assessed the floor, she was at the stage of regretting ever having the floor fitted in the first place. My goal, then, was to change her mind and deliver a beautiful floor she would enjoy looking at.

To remove the chemical marks, it was necessary to lightly resurface the stone. This is what we term "stone deep cleaning."

Deep stone cleaning is sometimes mistaken for complete grinding down of the stone; however, in most cases, this is not necessary.

We find that the majority of stone floors under 10 years old in residential properties can be effectively deep-cleaned, sealed, and polished. This eliminates the need for messy, invasive procedures such as grinding the stone.

We use specialist machines that can be weight-adjusted to suit the degree of deep cleaning required.

In this case, the majority of the floor surface was deep-cleaned using the machine's lowest weight setting.  Then the weight was increased to remove the light scratches from specific areas.

The process is tackled in stages, firstly using a coarse diamond pad to remove surface sealers and soiling.

The second stage is repeated with a less coarse diamond pad and so forth.

Once the floor has been cleaned and finished with a fine pad to slightly hone it, a stone sealer is applied to impregnate the raw stone.

The sealer penetrates the stone and protects it from staining without altering its appearance.

As you can see in our finished floor photo, the stone is polished. This isn’t achieved with a sealer. We don’t recommend using glossy type surface sealers on stone, as they tend to give an unnatural look to what, after all, is a natural product.

We do sometimes come across stone floors that have been treated with these types of sealers, and we start by assessing what they are and then removing them.

The stone floor in our photo has been polished using a natural process that enhances the depth of the shine achieved by the three-stage deep cleaning.

Once the floor cleaning, sealing and polishing is complete, we always neutralise the stone and remove any surface residue.

Then, adding a small amount of stone soap to the final wash helps with the final stage: high-speed buffing.

A separate machine is required for the final process, as the heavy-duty stone-cleaning equipment doesn’t have the speed to apply the final polish.

The process is highly specialised and should only be undertaken by a professional floor cleaning company with a proven track record.