On travertine we always use either truck mount or portable machine with the spinner. We do cleaning before any restoration work. It will suck up all the dirt and loose material from those holes and you can proceed into filling right after floor dries. If we have to do restoration, we use strong alkaline cleaner, if we don't than we use neutral ph cleaner from SCC. It is simple and fast process. If you don't have the equipment, then hire somebody. Stay away from carpet cleaning truck mounts, they are usually less powerful and don't have good water heat at large water flow to be effective.

One critical thing that nobody mentioned - use the hottest water you can get for that king of cleaning, it helps a lot.

Adam Bartos
BiO Tile & Grout Restoration

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 10:05 PM, stuart rosen <mail@stoneshine.com> wrote:
There are many good alkaline cleaners out there.
SCC has one .
You can shop them around and see which one you like.
I don't want to sound like a sales guy but MB-2 is an excellent grout and tile cleaner.
The ph is 12.5 strong-its safe to use on stone and will strip light coatings.
55 gallon drums are priced very well.
I have heard viper venom can etch some stones.
 

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 10:37 PM, Baird Standish <bairdstandish@gmail.com> wrote:
Many thanks. stu, what would you consider a good alkaline cleaner?  I typically use NCL Hurricane, which is neutral (I think) and not alkaline. I have used alkaline cleaners that have etched travertine - too high on the phone scale I guess. 


________________________________________
From the desk of
Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists, LLC
15 West Highland Ave. Suite E
Philadelphia, PA 19118

On Apr 28, 2015, at 9:40 PM, stuart rosen <mail@stoneshine.com> wrote:

You can search it online
we buy it from a local company who sells detergents to commercial laundries.
If you buy it in 80 lb barrels it is way cheaper than a branded product and you add other detergents.
I think we do like 4-5 scoops of sodium percarbonate to a scoop of detergent.
But you can always just use a good high alkaline cleaner.

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Fred Hueston <fhueston@gmail.com> wrote:
sodium percarbonate is oxyclean

On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 8:43 AM, stuart rosen <mail@stoneshine.com> wrote:
Nice-That is a great job-client must have been thrilled.
That is an old travertine floor which is way more difficult to clean than a more modern travertine floor in a residence.
The floor Chris did is basically unfilled.
Clients generally want to keep that look but will always ask to fill the bigger voids leaving alone the smaller ones.
The more modern floors(filled travertine) are generally easier to clean-once they have been extracted and any open voids filled you can continue honing doe the desired level.
Yes Roger if you use a lot of tide with bleach- the house will smell like the washing machine overflowed.
It is a great cleaner though-when I use to clean those trucks my hands were like surgically clean-however they stayed red for days.
In place of those products and even oxi-clean products we make our own mix of sodium percarbonate and commercial laundry detergent. Sodium percarbonate is oxygen bleach which is the main ingredient in most of those oxy-type cleaners.
It is easy to work with,effective and has no bleach odors.

You can google it up-we have even used it to poultice large areas on floors.


 

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 4:21 PM, Chris <csantospago@gmail.com> wrote:
Baird, yes I cleaned and extracted twice. Then I made the 1st cut with vortex red dot and they extracted the slurry. 
Next day I did grout repair. 
3rd day I used 220 diamonds to clean up the excess grout and finished with #1 vortex

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 22, 2015, at 2:35 PM, Baird Standish <bairdstandish@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe stupid question, but do you clean (get truck mount guy in etc.  ) before or after any honing and/or polishing?

—
Sent from Mailbox


On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Chris <csantospago@gmail.com> wrote:

Just did an 800 sq ft travertine floor that was installed in 1920 and was really dirty. I used Stu's technique and hired a truck mount extractor company to work with me for half a day for $300. Floor came very nice. Some of the big holes remained a little dark but I ended up filling them in when I did the grout repair. Customer was very happy.
Some before and after pics


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Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 22, 2015, at 1:20 PM, John Freitag <jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com> wrote:
>
> We can first with a good alkaline cleaner and brush then mix oxi-clean and
> hot water mix the oxi-clean 2 to 3 scoops per 5 gallon of water, allow to
> dwell then scrub and vac. It you have mold then use a bleach solution.
>
>
> John E Freitag
>
> John E Freitag
> Owner/Director
> The Stone & Tile School
> Office 407-567-7680
> Cell 407-615-0134
>
>
>
>
> www.thestoneandtileschool.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-manager@stoneandtilepros.simplelists.com
> [mailto:list-manager@stoneandtilepros.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Stuart
> Young
> Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 6:39 PM
> To: Stone and Tile PROS Technical Support
> Subject: Soil in pits.
>
> Does anyone have a method for removing the soil in the pits of travertine,
> and porcelain made to look like travertine?
>
> Stuart
> Santa Fe Floor Care
>> On Apr 21, 2015, at 5:26 PM, Stuart Young wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> <photo.JPG>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
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Frederick M. Hueston
www.stoneforensics.com
office             321 514 6845      
See my specialty products at  www.godrfred.com
 
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