Spring Lake NJ Travertine, Slate, Limestone Refinishing & Marble Polishing & Sealing

On July 4th weekend you may have had a great time hosting but now you are left with the clean up. After you clean and put everything back together you suddenly realize those marks and stains on the marble island in the kitchen or on the travertine in the backyard by the pool. First you panic then you get a hold of yourself and see what you can do. After trying all your stain removal suggestions from well meaning friends and trying various cleaning products it looks like you just made the stain worse or larger. So finally reality sets in and you are thinking you will have to replace it or live with it. But then you call the tile store and they tell you just to call a professional marble and natural stone restoration guy who could get  that ring mark out and make the stone look brand new as if nothing ever happened. He can hone wth diamonds to fix your marble.  So you ask for some phone numbers of marble refinishing companies or you just google Jersey Shore Travertine emergency. Then you start getting a list of websites for local ems so you realize I better get more conventional and specific so you type in Limestone Refinishing Company or Professional marble stain removal company and lo and behold you find this post. So feel free to call us at (732) 994-9681. We look forward to helping you and and restoring your natural stone and sanity. Grout Works of Central NJ services the entire NJ shore area including Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Wall, Manasquan, Brielle, Belmar,...

Staten Island NY Tile & Grout Cleaning & Sealing

Why does grout get so dirty and black and generally the tiles are clean?  Grout lines are generally  lower than the tiles. Due to this dirt can get stuck in it. While washing a tile floor in your kitchen, foyer or bathroom you may not even clean the grout at all. Even worse,  you may be pushing the dirt from the tile floor into the grout lines. But it really goes further than that. Once dirt collects on the grout it will not remain on the surface. Grout is porous and will absorb the dirt and filth fairly quickly. Then you are left with stained grout. It is much more difficult to clean stained grout and it loses that clean fresh new look. The solution is two fold. First of all if you seal your grout properly it will not stain as easily or as bad. with a Grout Works Color Seal it will not stain at all.  Second of all you must clean the tile floor in a proper fashion. In future posts we will discuss the proper method for cleaning tile and grout properly. Click here to check out our gallery. Grout Works of Central NJ is a local professional tile and grout cleaning service company serving most of NJ as well as parts of NY including Staten Island...

Staten Island NY Marble Polishing Limestone Travertine Refinishing Service

Marble, Travertine & Limestone as well as other natural stones require proper maintenance. Usage of cleaning products that are compatible with natural stone is very important. Just because a product is all natural or “green” does not mean it is suitable for marble, limestone or travertine. In fact vinegar is extremely harmful for use on calcite stones such as marble, limestone and travertine They also require professional refinishing occasionally by a Professional Natural Stone Restoration company since these stones are soft and scratch easily. The first step in professional restoration is to hone the stone with diamonds to remove scratches and marks.   After that the stone could be polished with polishing compounds just like the factory to produce a shine from the stone itself.  Some stones look nicer unpolished with a more natural matted look which is called a “honed finish” Stones like travertine and limestone and sometimes marble as well will be in a honed finish as opposed to a polish finish. We offer to polish or hone the stone as well as various customized finishes like a muted polish or a high hone where there is a subtle shine. Many of our customers ask to have their stone sealed. However generally they do not realize the limitations of a sealer. In fact a sealer only helps prevent colored stains on stone not the more common etches from improper cleaning products or scratches. We do offer to seal marble, travertine and limestone when necessary but educate our customers on the benefits and limitations of sealers and sealing natural stone. Many times we get phone calls to clean marble or travertine. Usually the issue is...

How to pick, choose, customize or change grout colors

Choosing the right grout color can be trickier than you think. You take the grout sample chart or grout sample sticks and put them  next to the tile. Should be simple right ? Wrong ! Many grouts do not look the same as the stick. A slight variation can totally ruin the look of your tile floor, shower or backsplash. This issue is especially common with darker grout colors. As a general rule the grout itself will look slightly lighter than any sample chart or stick you may  be using. Sometimes you may pick the right grout color but it still does not look right. There are a number of reasons for a grout color not looking right. 1. It was not mixed well so the pigment was not evenly distributed. . This will be evident if some places of grout are darker and some more faded although it is all the same color. 2. The thinset underneath the tile is peeking through and distorting the color of the grout. This is especially common when the color of the thinset and the grout color is very different like gray and white. 3. The grout got dirty from construction dust like sheet rock. This will generally lighten grout that was suppose to be dark. No matter what the cause of an improper grout color it can be resolved. The simplest fix to grout is to clean it. if grout cleaning is not enough then the grout can be stained or colored to the appropriate color. If grout coloring or grout staining is not effective or appropriate for the circumstances ( which can...

Fair Haven NJ Slate Restoration Cleaning Sealing & Color Enhancing

Last week we worked on this beautiful slate floor in a Fair Haven NJ home located on the Navesink river in Monmouth County. Over time plenty of dirt can accumulate on a slate floor since it has clefts and many times is highly absorbent in the stone itself. This can result in an accumulation and build up of dirt that requires professional cleaning to restore its natural look. Flagstone and slate floors many times need to be sealed to prevent staining into the stone as well as bleeding the color out of the stone. Many times slate and flagstone look nicer when color enhanced which gives it a slightly wet look which brings out the color of the stone and gives off a richer appearance as in this picture. Some people prefer a glossy finish which can be achieved with topical sealers or finishes that can provide a real shiny wet look to the floor. A big benefit of slate over other natural stones like marble, limestone and travertine is its resilience and the fact that it is not acid sensitive so it is a practical alternative for a place of drinking and dining like a bar indoor or outdoor as well as for a kitchen.  Be sure to check out more information on our stone restoration services at www.groutworksnj.com/marble We are a local NJ service company serving Fair Haven, Little Silver, Red Bank, Middletown, Colts Neck, Rumson, Oceanport among many other NJ...

Colts Neck, Marlboro Morganville NJ Limestone & Travertine Refinishing & Marble Polishing

Marble, Travertine & Limestone as well as other natural stones require proper maintenance. Usage of cleaning products that are compatible with natural stone is very important. Just because a product is all natural or “green” does not mean it is suitable for marble, limestone or travertine. In fact vinegar is extremely harmful for use on calcite stones such as marble, limestone and travertine They also require professional refinishing occasionally by a Professional Natural Stone Restoration company since these stones are soft and scratch easily. The first step in professional restoration is to hone the stone with diamonds to remove scratches and marks.   After that the stone could be polished with polishing compounds just like the factory to produce a shine from the stone itself.  Some stones look nicer unpolished with a more natural matted look which is called a “honed finish” Stones like travertine and limestone and sometimes marble as well will be in a honed finish as opposed to a polish finish. We offer to polish or hone the stone as well as various customized finishes like a muted polish or a high hone where there is a subtle shine. Many of our customers ask to have their stone sealed. However generally they do not realize the limitations of a sealer. In fact a sealer only helps prevent colored stains on stone not the more common etches from improper cleaning products or scratches. We do offer to seal marble, travertine and limestone when necessary but educate our customers on the benefits and limitations of sealers and sealing natural stone. Many times we get phone calls to clean marble or travertine. Usually the issue is...