Travertine and Teragren Synergy Bamboo Floors

[NOTASOUTHERNBELLE]

I am desperately seeking information on maintenance and products to use on our travertine and Bamboo floors. What are the best products to use :?: Buff or not to buff :roll: Cleaners? Sealers???? Boss says they want them to "Shine, Shine, Shine"!!!!! Okay!!!!! Hey Rocky, Nothing up my sleeve...and.... Presto!!!!! HELP!!!

 

[sweendogg]

First off, Travertine is really not a stone that tends to shine.. Its usually honed and it can be polished.. using diamonds, addtional resins and polishing powders, but its not a job for the faint at heart. It should be sealed with a penetrating stone sealer, leave the floor finish off of it. It will only make it look terrible in 10 years time and travertine should be a lifetime floor.

Now how about a little more info. Is the travertine honed, polished, tumbled, chisel edged?? In most cases maintenance should be daily or weekly dust mopping/vacuuming. Damp mopping using a neutral pH cleaner like Stone Tech's stone and tile cleaner. and You can use a white pad on a 175 to give it a good sheen. If its polished, there are pads you can use to help maintain it like Monkey's or other stone encrusted pads at the right grit level.

The bamboo again should not have any finish applied. A good neutral cleaner, or more specifically use a cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. And again a white pad on a floor machine will help bring out the natural sheen.

 

[J Scott W]

Here is a link to download my basic manual on stone care. It covers processes and procedures for travertine and other natural stone.

Stone Care Reference Guide

I agree with Randy's comment that travertine is not expected to really shine. It can often be brought up to a gloss level equal or higher than the original installation, but if they wanted shine, they should have selected a different stone.

Bamboo comes in an assortment of styles and ways it is cut. Most can be cleaned similar to wood floor. Just be aware that some bamboo floors are even more sensitive to moisture than hardwood. So, be careful to not use excess mositure.

Wood floor cleaning with a white pad under a rotary floor machine. Low mositure rinsing. Apply a finish for wood floors.

Provide me your mailing address and I will send you a DVD on wood floor care than will be helpful in maintaining bamboo floors.

 

[NOTASOUTHERNBELLE]

Thanks Guys!!!! Looks like we are on the right track so far. The hard surfaces were supposed to be my department (carpet and upholstery)-then they transferred them over to the housekeepers-now they want my input (9 months later). The bamboo looks alot better after being buffed, but they are talking about sealing the travertine :roll: i am with you on the natural stone-there's got to be something else we can do that won't reflect poorly on it in the long run. Thanks again for the tips shiteatinggrin -love the web site you sent me to.

 

[Hoody]

Here is a link to download my basic manual on stone care. It covers processes and procedures for travertine and other natural stone.

Stone Care Reference Guide

I agree with Randy's comment that travertine is not expected to really shine. It can often be brought up to a gloss level equal or higher than the original installation, but if they wanted shine, they should have selected a different stone.

Who is Randy ?

 

[NOTASOUTHERNBELLE]

Specifics on the travertine-it is honed and polished-apparently only one coat of stone sealer was applied after installation-10 months ago.

 

[sweendogg]

So is some honed, some polished? And for a sealer.. it should still look like natural stone with no coatings on it, other than the mechanical honing or polishing performed from the factory. Depending on how much maintenance you get into, you may want to see about doing some ridealongs with a local stone crew to get a handle on stone maintenance and restoration style cleaning.

 

[boazcan]

Speaking of travertine. What would you do with this honed travertine? There are a few spots where a bottle of cleaner etched the stone and left a mark by the toilet. Also, a few spots in the LR (not pictured) where stone was etched from consumer using tilex to clean. Would a 400 or 800 grit monkey pad take some of that out w/o adding any shine?

 

[sweendogg]

It depends on how deep the etching goes, and how far you want to go with your honing. Alot of the factory honed travertines are honed with lower diamond grits like 200's but at pressures excceeding thousands of pounds. They are usually filled, ground, honed, filled again and a final honing to try to eliminate as many of of the subteranian pores that are characteristic of travertine. Though often when trying to hone, more of these pores are exposed which necessitates needing to fill after honing and touch up honing. Not to mention that honing on site usually can NOT reproduced a factory hone and often will increase the shine so attempting to concentrate on one area results in an uneven appearance.

 

[boazcan]

Thanks David. I was thinking of scrubbing it all with a 400 grit pad and then steam. Don't want to "shine" it. Clean it, remove some minor etching.

I was planning on using some poultice on the marks in the bathroom.

 

[juniorc82]

if the bamboo has a finish on it you may be able to put a polish down on it . Jon don has some hardwood polish for about 12 bucks a quart

 

[sweendogg]

Even the 400 can put a higher shine on it than factory hone. If they have a spare tile, test on it with some etching and your pad.

 

[boazcan]

David - Have you ever tried adding some poultice powder to your cleaner for tough areas to agitate with a wihite while cleaning?