At this property in Fife, I was asked to restore not a tiled floor, but in fact a solid black Marble lamp base. The lamp base was particularly by scratched and damaged as a result of a lack of care and consideration by a removal company. It’s a shame to see such a high-quality item suffer this kind of damage; nonetheless, I was keen to help with restoring it back to looking its best.
I arranged to collect the base the next time we were working in the area of Fife, a historic area of Scotland which houses St. Andrew’s, one of the world’s oldest universities. The customer and I agreed that I would drop it back a week later following the restoration.
Restoring the appearance of the Marble (and other high-end stones such as Limestone) commonly requires a process known as burnishing.
To begin, we applied to the base the first of a set of four six-inch burnishing pads. This pad, which had a Coarse grit, was fitted to a small handheld buffing machine and used to burnish the Marble with a little water for lubrication. I then worked my way through the pad system to apply Medium, Fine and Very Fine grit burnishing pads. The process gradually improved the appearance of the base, managing to remove some of the lighter scratches; however, it became clear that more work was required to fully complete the restoration.
To take the restoration process a step further, I went on to use a set of four diamond encrusted hand burnishing blocks, which were applied to the Marble in a similar way to the previous stage. I followed up with another application of the six-inch burnishing pads: a process I’m happy to confirm successfully removed all scratches.
The base was then given a final polish and sealed using Tile Doctor Shine Powder (a sealer in the form of a crystallising powder) to seal the stone and provide the extra gloss look shine and durable finish requested by the client.
The customer was delighted with the results when I returned the Marble lamp base a week later. While it’s unfortunate that the base was damaged so badly to begin with, it’s certainly comforting to know that these valuable stone objects can be restored fully with the right methods.
We were delighted with the work which transformed our bathroom and kitchen; indeed they both now look brand new.
They came and did the work as planned. Suggested a few changes that were smart, and carried out the work vert neatly. Very satisfied with the job.
Arrived bang on time and worked tirelessly all day. The bathroom practically looks brand new. I confess I was slightly sceptical beforehand but I’m really impressed with the results.
An absolutely excellent job done by Thomas Wilson. Very professional and lovely to have some clean tiles again. Many thanks. I’ll happily recommend Tile Doctor and Thomas in future.
Thomas was really friendly and professional, and did a fantastic job on our flagstone floor. Thank you so much – it looks fab!
