Based in Maple Ridge · serving Vancouver & the Lower Mainland
Mon to Sat, 8 to 6
Based in Maple Ridge · serving Vancouver & the Lower Mainland
Mon to Sat, 8 to 6
Marble floors
A marble floor goes dull long before it wears out. Foot traffic drags grit across it like fine sandpaper, and the wrong cleaner takes off whatever shine is left. The stone underneath is almost always fine.
Free estimate, on site, with no obligation.
Three different things do it, and they need different amounts of work.
Etching is acid: wine, a spill from the kitchen, a cleaning product that should not have been used on stone. It leaves a mark that reads dull against the floor around it, in the shape of whatever sat there.
Scratching is grit, dragging furniture, and cutting directly on your stone counter. Thin lines running in one direction that catch the light at an angle, worst near doors where sand comes in on shoes.
Traffic wear is the big one on floors, and the one people notice last because it happens so slowly. A path forms where everyone walks, door to kitchen or door to elevator, and it goes flat while the edges near the walls keep their shine for years. That contrast is the tell.
Most floors we see have all three at once, in different proportions.
Not sure whether a mark is an etch or a stain? They need completely different work. Our etch removal page goes through how to tell them apart.
These get used interchangeably and they should not be.
Honing is the diamond stage. Progressively finer diamond abrasives take the surface down past the damage until the floor is level again. Run wet, so the grit leaves in the slurry rather than into your air. This is the step that does the actual work.
Polishing is what follows. A polishing powder worked in with water and buffed until the stone reflects.
Refinishing is just the whole sequence described from the other end, and on stone it means the same thing as restoration. Worth saying because on wood floors refinishing means sanding and then coating, and stone takes no coating at all. Anyone treating a marble floor like a wood floor leaves you with a topical sealer that peels, yellows or turns slippery inside a year.
You choose where it stops. A high polish is brighter and shows the veining. A honed matte finish hides daily traffic better, which on a busy entry is often the smarter call. We will tell you which we would pick for your floor and why.
Lippage gets fixed at the same time if you have it: tiles that have settled unevenly so you can feel the edges underfoot. Grinding flat takes the floor back to one surface rather than a grid of tiles.
Need help with marble floor polishing?
You do not need to do much before we arrive. Move the small things off the floor and clear a path.
Dust free throughout. Water holds the dust down and what is left is captured at the tool. That matters in an occupied home and it matters more in a lobby with people walking through.
On how long it takes: it depends on size and damage, and anyone who answers this without seeing your floor is guessing. A small area can be done in a day. A large floor can run to a week, with hardwood and carpet protected throughout. Your quote carries the real number before anything starts.
One honest note about the result. Your floor comes back looking like your marble at its best, not like a showroom slab. Where it had character before, it still has character. What goes is the dullness, the traffic path and the ring marks.
Need help with a marble floor?
778-862-4998
Your entry takes a beating your kitchen floor never will, and a lobby is a different problem again.
A home floor dulls slowly and fairly evenly, concentrated near one entry or in front of the sink. A lobby floor dulls in a path, fast, right where people walk, while the stone near the walls stays glossy for years. That is grit doing it: sand and street dirt tracked in on wet shoes from October through March, ground in under every step.
For a building, that changes the answer on polish against hone, and it changes how often the floor needs attention. We work around the building rather than the other way round, including overnight and in quiet hours.
Yaletown, Coal Harbour and False Creek, where the towers from the boom years have floors now 15 to 30 years old · the West End and its older highrise strata with marble lobbies · Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, Point Grey, Kitsilano and Dunbar, where character homes still have their original marble entries and terrazzo · West Vancouver and the British Properties · North Vancouver, Burnaby, the Tri-Cities, Richmond, Surrey and White Rock · the downtown hotel core, and Whistler for commercial work.
What moves the price: the size of the floor, how bad the damage is, the stone itself and the finish you want. The on-site look and the written quote are free and the quote is emailed to you afterwards. Our pricing page has the breakdown.
Before
After
Marble floor, West Vancouver. Before in the afternoon, after that night.
Before
After
The hall in the same house, three days later.
Before
After
Marble entry hall, Vancouver. Before in the morning, after that afternoon, from the same spot by the stairs.
It depends on the size of the floor and how deep the damage runs, and nobody can answer it properly without seeing it. A small area can be a day. A large floor, or one where the wear has been left to run, can take up to a week, with hardwood and carpet protected the whole time. The real timeline is in your quote before anything starts, rather than being discovered halfway through.
Move the small things off the floor and clear a path, and that is about it. We walk the floor with you first and show you what is actual damage against normal wear. Then the damaged layer comes off with a diamond hone, run wet, and the finish goes back on afterwards. The whole job is dust free, so your home or lobby does not turn into a building site, and you get a walkthrough before we leave.
Grit, and volume. From October through March, sand and street dirt come in on wet shoes and get ground into the stone under every step. A lobby adds luggage carts and hundreds of people a day on top of that. It is why entrances dull in a path while the stone near the walls stays bright, and why the entry usually needs attention long before the rest of the floor does.
Clean it properly first, with a pH neutral cleaner made for natural stone. If a film lifts, that was residue. If the floor still looks dull once it is clean, the finish itself has worn down and cleaning will not bring it back. On a floor in daily use, that is nearly always the answer. Look for the traffic path: if the middle is flat while the edges still shine, that is wear, not dirt.
Yes. We cover Greater Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, including North and West Vancouver, Burnaby, the Tri-Cities, Richmond, Surrey and White Rock, plus Whistler for commercial work. The same dust-free setup travels with us, and the on-site look is free wherever you are.
There is no schedule, it follows the traffic. A quiet home floor can go years between visits. A lobby taking hundreds of people a day through a wet Vancouver winter needs it far more often. Watch for the path forming while the edges stay bright, and for marks that no longer wipe away. Between visits, a pH neutral cleaner protects the finish you have and anything acidic shortens it.
Send a photo or call. We will look at it on site and tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.
Free estimate. No obligation.
