Natural stone sealing, cleaning, and maintenance.

When choosing natural stone, whether it is for a floor, wall, entrance way or for simply wanting a product of beauty to enhance your lifestyle. Our resident expert Kevin from Merlin should be your first point of contact when it comes to looking after your investment, your stones beauty, and maintaining its ambience.

Kevin has the skills to bring stone surfaces back to life especially when they are looking dull and perhaps are looking a little worse for wear. Kevin has been consulted widely from architects, building owners, government departments, tile companies and many homeowners enquiring and wanting his expertise regarding issues that they have and providing a sound solution to their issues.

He says that stone has a personal appeal, and the selection of the chosen stone reflects the image that the end user wants to convey. Once Kevin is consulted, he likes to spend time with you and discuss all the options available and will maintain a connection with you to ensure that the absolute best outcome is achieved.

Many times, to keep stone looking its absolute best is just a matter of giving the stone a deep clean to remove any soiling that has penetrated its surface and then sealing the stone to prevent any further contamination of it.

The photos to the left are a perfect example of what can be achieved with the correct know how and products. The owner of this commercial floor had been attempting to remove the rust coloured stain from these tiles and had exhausted all avenues that were available to remove this blemish. The only option going forward was to remove the stained tiles and replace them. This was an option that didnt sit well with the owner as the original tiles were now discontinued and this meant that miss matched tiles would have to be the replacement.

After a quick visit from the Team at Merlin the correct product was identified to remove the stain and as you can see the floor was returned to its natural best.

Graffiti has become a real problem as once paint has been sprayed onto a stone or tile surface it is incredibly difficult to remove the paint and restore the surface back to its best. A case in point was the Remembrance Wall dedicated to the victims of the Christchurch earthquake. Paint had been sprayed over an area of this wall and had penetrated the stone. Contractors had tried to remove the paint however it was less that successful and the only option was to leave the wall in its compromised state or replace the stained stone. Kevin was consulted over this, he made recommendations to return the wall back to its pristine condition and following his guidance the wall has once again returned to the perfect condition it once was.

Quite often there is no need to replace worn, slightly damaged or badly soiled stone tiles as there are many and varied ways to bring the stone back to its original condition. Stone by its very nature is a long-lasting medium and maintenance is the key to keeping it in top condition and looking as good as the day they were laid.

Concrete sealers

If you look at the two photos to the left you will notice the clear/white patch in the middle of the floor. The owner of this floor had complained that their commercial cleaners mopped and washed the floor in this Gym on a nightly basis, however the floor always look dirty and unhygenic to the owner.

Merlin was called to evaluate the floor and the cleaning system that the commercial cleaners were using. A spot clean was done and it is plain to see the difference in the cleanliness of the floor. The clear/white patch is the spot that was treated by Merlin and it is quite visible how the rest of the floor showed just how ingrained the dirt was. This floor will respond to a deep clean and once clean the floor would be sealed to keep out future dirt and grime.

To ensure future contamination ingress into the surface of tile and concrete surfaces does not occur, a coating or a sealer is applied. There are two types of sealers/coatings, one is water based and the other is solvent based.

Water based Sealers.

These water-based sealers penetrate the surface of the concrete to provide protection for the surface of the concrete. Concrete surfaces by their very nature are porous and by putting a sealing barrier over the concrete means that rusting, water, and other fluids will not penetrate the surface. Water based sealing products are visible which means that water will not penetrate the concrete. The main reason for preventing water penetrating into the surface of the concrete is that being porous and when in a freezing environment, once water freezes and penetrates the concrete it then expands in can pop off the top surface of the concrete. You then get that pitted look if the unsealed concrete is exposed to frosts or extremely cold conditions.

Solvent based sealers

To ensure that contamination ingress does not occur into the concrete, a coating is applied. This coating can be clear or coloured depending on what is required. To obtain the desired wet look, which is popular today on driveways, you need a decorative sealer with a solvent base to give a wet look, colour or to have a natural look.

This sealer also provides you with protection from contaminants seeping into the concrete. Of course, with contaminants such as oil or other staining type liquids it is essential that you remove the contaminants as quickly as they are noticed. With the solvent sealer it will hold out contaminants and it will provide a lot longer protection than a water-based sealer will.

Marking of the concrete would also be reduced with the use of a sealer. Depending on what environment you are trying to protect would be determined as to what sealer would be recommended. You would want a solvent-based sealer for a topcoat of the concrete. This topcoat, which is sacrificial, will wear off over the course of a year or so and will need to be reapplied to maintain the integrity of the concrete.

This is the main difference between the two types of coatings, the solvent based sealer will need to be reapplied annually whereby water-based sealers are penetrable and need less maintenance.