welcome to the wonderful world of stone. When i first started, would have problems like that a lot. But i learned that the powder I was using was too hot, ( i was using that Hertron junk)..I switched to true 5x powders, I will only use Italian Craftsman 5x powders, much easier to work with.

I always use an alkaline natural stone cleaner to neutralize the acid of the powder polish, not a neutral cleaners.

#3 and probably most importantly, each stone varies in how sensitive it is. A lot of time with a limestone or similar type stone, you dont really use much water at all, just mist the water and almost just do a dry polish. It just takes time and experience to learn what to do. It could be the photo, but it didnt really look like crema marfil to me, looked more like a limestone due to the color, most crema marfil has more of a yellow hue to it. And to be honest, some stones are so acid sensitive you just cannot use a powder polish like 5x...thats why i keep a bucket of Eastern Marbles 52b in the van, its a non acidic (tin oxide) compound.

my main suggestion is to cut back on the powder and not use so much water and see how that goes..

From: Eric - DGG <eric@dirtygroutguys.com>
To: Restoration and Maintenance <sccpartners@stoneandtilepros.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 8, 2012 9:09 AM
Subject: [sccpartners] 5X Slinger

Trust you all are having a fine Easter weekend.

First marble polishing job since being trained by John & Butch in beginning of March. 320 sq Crema Marfil foyer, powder room & hallway. Seemed like a nice simple first job. Right.

The prescription was 220, 400 & 5X polish. Everything went fine up until the polish. After drying there appeared to be splash etching marks on the stone. My first assumption was that the mix ratio of the neutral cleaner was too light, so I quadrupled it. Repeated the polish which removed the etch marks, only to have new ones appear.

Okay, so maybe using the pump sprayer to lay down the neutral barrier wasn't such a good idea, even though it appeared flooded. Switched to the academic bucket & mop method. Took extra care to lay it down thick. Yet still the marks appeared.

The only other variable was how I removed the slurry. Used both wet vac & our truck mount spinner. Neither seemed to make a difference.

I even tried just doing 10 sq at a time before extraction, as opposed to the normal 20. Same problem.

http://bit.ly/HoGh4T

Not a great photo, but the etch marks should be obvious.

I was even sparing on the 5X as I discovered that the one pound container we had was only going to cover 250 sq.

I know I'm a newbie, but this is ridiculous. Any clue as to what I'm doing wrong?

Eric Lewis

DirtyGroutGuys.com
West Chester, PA 19380

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