Hi Guys,Anthony at Marble Maestro posted the following that I think no one saw and I think it merits discussion: (By the way, Fred is writing an article about this as we speak...)-->> Tony, and all. I would love feedback on this next one. Tell me your experience, that you don't agree, that you agree, that you have seen differently but tell me something, because Tony's questions worries me quite a bit.
This industry has taken quite a turn in the last decade. More and more subgranites and submarbles as I call them, are being filled with a glue or resin. Sub because when extracted from the ground they can have many opened veins and little holes .One way they fill a the manufactures, they go through heat, lamps or lets call it an oven, stone gets hot, and a filler is applied. The stone is perfectly polished and you have all the holes and fissures filled to a perfect shine and very even fill (no dips).
My discovery. Here I get a 5000sqft home to repolish, various areas. Complete lippage removal in most areas, except the master washroom that is quite beautiful so I only powder polish it. I spent 3 weeks grinding and polishing every room to near perfection, one of my best jobs. The master washroom I spent 30min to an hour for a fast polish. Doesn't it look worst than when I started. The customer is so upset he wants me to rip the marble out and redo his washroom.
It was settled by discussion, but the drama got me to explore the situation a little further.
I found a virgin tile, and it looked perfect, the back of the tile was covered with some solidification material, some resin and marble dust. Sometimes they also put a fiberglass type mesh.
I grinded it off to see the stone bare and what I found was a marble that had a fissure issue to the same consistency as a Travertine. The reason my polish looked bad is as many of you know, polyester fills never really shine like a natural stone. So the look was sort of high shine, mid shine in a tiger pattern.
In the same month I hit 3 more jobs of this nature all with different stones.
We are headed towards a very different future in polishing. If anyone is working on filling techniques and wants to share notes contact me.
To answer your question Tony, you can buy from Tenax or other glue manufactures a liquid filler resin. It's the same consistency as a new bottle of honey. You hone the granite down to a metal bond, allow for all the humidity to exit. You apply it to your whole surface, and allow it to dry then hone and polish it. You usually have to repeat it twice. Hard as heck to do because conditions have to be very controlled or else the glue doesn't dry, or dries too fast to the point smoke is visible.
That doesn't work you can always do what we use to do when 100$ for glue was too expensive. Crazy glue and a razor blade and patience. Make sure you label the crazy glue bottle with a more suitable name, Stone glue or Fissure Filler.
Anthony Masecchia
Master Stone Consultant
Marble Maestro tm
6615 Papineau
Montreal Quebec
H2G 2X3
514-777-7797
514-904-1815
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