Own home with renovation of natural stone – instead of new installation

Have you just bought or inherited a house or apartment? Your own home – a long-awaited dream has come true. Anyone who has just fulfilled this dream is looking to the future with worry lines due to the extreme rise in building prices and interest rates. After all, the home should reflect personal taste without compromise. With regard to cost-saving renovation, the potential of existing materials can also be unleashed and given a new lease of life.

Floors are used on a daily basis, which in the long term shows in the form of signs of wear such as scratches, footprints and stains. Who wants to have stains on their floor when they move into their new home? The only solution is to remove the floor! Or not? Fortunately, signs of wear can be removed from many floors by sanding. If you like the material, you can renovate in a cost-saving way.

The grinding process is particularly suitable for so-called soft natural stone floors such as marble, Jura limestone or terrazzo. In principle, sanding is even possible on hard stone floors such as granite. To do this, it is first necessary to completely remove any carpet residue or adhesive residue. This may be the case if a stone floor is revealed under a carpet, PVC or linoleum covering during modernization. The best way to remove these is with Lithofin LÖSEFIX. Another case in which the sanding of existing floors is suitable is when the appearance of the surfaces is to be adjusted due to an extension or expansion of the living area.

Once the floor is exposed, the sanding can begin. The best way to do this is to use a floor sander with a planetary system and finish the corners and steps with a hand sander with an angle grinder using the dry sanding method. This type of sander is suitable for larger areas. The machine, which weighs around 130 kilograms, is suitable for professional use and requires experience to achieve the best results. Depending on the material, the sanding pads must be selected with the appropriate thickness and grit. A few millimeters are sanded off in several steps. In this way, scratches, matting and wear and tear are removed. When using the wet sanding method, the process is usually even relatively dust-free. Soft types of stone such as marble or limestone can be polished to a high gloss. Polishing a laid floor back to a high gloss is also a good idea if the living space has been extended. Old floor coverings are sanded and the entire surface is then polished again to create a uniform appearance. This gives the factory polish of the new flooring a more brilliant appearance.

Natural stones such as limestone or marble are acid-sensitive materials. Fruit acid or carbonic acid from cola, sparkling wine, juices or similar can lead to dull spots on the materials. These so-called aggressors should be removed from the surface as quickly as possible and wiped off to prevent damage. If you wait too long, the acid eats into the stone and becomes noticeable as a dull spot. This can only be remedied mechanically by polishing. If red wine has leaked, this poses a particular challenge. In addition to the matt stain, the red dye must also be removed. Lithofin KF Schimmel-Ex, a chlorine-based cleaner, can be applied with a reaction time of 10-20 minutes. The colored residue can then be removed by rinsing with clear water. Acid rarely penetrates several millimeters deep into the stone. It often combines with the lime in the material and forms a matt finish on the surface.

Occasionally, laid surfaces sink and the joints no longer form a plane with the tiles or the laying work has not been carried out with particular care. The joints usually become rough and interlocking is clearly visible. In this case, a so-called surface sanding is required. The first step is to grind the surface down to the lowest point of the joint using a coarse, metal-bonded tool. Then you work your way forward piece by piece and compact the floor and joint. The result is a flat surface of the stone slab with the joints so that they are no longer visible.

Defective joints can also be replaced at this stage. Care must be taken to use jointing material that is suitable for grinding. Coarse-grained jointing material is not suitable. Ideally, appropriate grouting materials should have no grain at all. Open-pored travertine can also be filled. On the one hand, synthetic resins can be color-matched to the stone and polished. In this way, the color of the fillers does not stand out too much. On the other hand, it is possible to fill the open pores with white cement, which has been matched to the color of the natural stone using mineral color pigments. However, this option is only recommended if no polishing is intended. This is because the cementitious areas cannot be polished and would remain dull in appearance and therefore not form a uniform surface. Further finishing is then carried out with resin-bonded diamond tools. All grit levels should be used when sanding and no grit level should be skipped. This is the only way to achieve a perfect finish.

Repair grinding differs from the above-mentioned surface grinding in that the surface has visibly deeper joints even after grinding. When viewed in a reflection against the light, this would therefore be interrupted by the serration. This is due to the fact that the material is only ground down in the tenths of a millimeter range in order to mechanically remove minor matting or scratches.

Smaller sanding jobs can be carried out with the single-disc machine. A diamond pad is attached to the underside of the single-disc machine for this purpose. Depending on the supplier and system, the pads for the five sanding steps are sorted by color, have the grit levels in their name or are simply numbered consecutively. In general, the pads should always be used from coarse to fine. Consequently, care must be taken during processing to ensure that no grit levels are skipped. The single-disc machine is also ideal for cleaning with a nylon pad or for polishing work. With a weight of 40-60 kilograms, it is quite compact and can be easily transported and operated by one person. A single-disc machine also works using the wet sanding method. It is important to ensure that sufficient water is added to the tank so that the diamond particles are cooled. The machine is then moved slowly and crosswise over the areas to be polished. The slag is then extracted after each step to prevent diamond particles from remaining on the surface. If a stain is to be partially processed, a slightly larger surface should still be processed. In this way, visual differences can be evened out.

To remove residues of the sanding sludge, carry out a basic cleaning with Lithofin MN Basic Cleaner. A dilution of up to 1:10 is recommended. The freshly cleaned floor is sensitive to stains immediately after sanding and cleaning. In order to reduce the sensitivity to stains and also to protect against soiling from oil and grease, treatment with an impregnation is recommended. Treatment with Lithofin MN Fleckstop is suitable for the processor. For regular cleaning, optimum results are achieved with Lithofin MN Wipe Care. This special cleaner for natural stone floors cleans without forming layers and can be used without wiping.

The two most important cleaning agents for freshly sanded and impregnated floors are an alkaline cleaner for occasional basic cleaning and a mildly alkaline maintenance cleaner for regular mopping. Lithofin provides you with the care set including care instructions, which contains the products Lithofin MN Basic Cleaner and Lithofin MN Wipe Care.

If you want to restore a floor that is in need of renovation and are looking for a company to carry out the work, you can turn to your local Lithofin professional partner with confidence. The network specializes in this type of work and is available with expertise and experience. With the appropriate machinery and grinding machines, Lithofin professional partners create individual offers for the customer, which are adapted to the existing conditions and achieve the best possible result.

You can find more information here.