Formed on reefs of calcareous shells and material, the limestone floor enhances the look and design of your home. It can be tiled on your walls and the floors of your home or they can also be used for your countertops but unfortunately, the soft calcium-based makeup means that your limestone floor can also be scratched very easily. The wrong type of cleansers and a vacuum cleaner with a beater bar or just the dirt from outdoors getting tracked inside can all scratch your limestone easily. While the larger and deeper scratches must be buffed out by a professional person, there are a number of ways you can remove or disguise any minor scratches at your home by yourself.
Steps & Items Needed To Remove Scratches And Polish The Limestone Floor
If you want to remove scratches from your limestone floor and also want to polish it by your self then you just need to collect certain items and follow the steps afterward. Also, read the tip and warning section because it will help you in this process:
Things Needed For This Process
- Mineral Oil
- Soft Cloth
- Color Enhancing Sealer
- 100-Grit Sandpaper
- 300-Grit Sandpaper
- 0000 Steel Wool
- Shine-Enhancing Sealer
5 Easy Steps For This Process
After gathering all the required items, now you need to follow the given steps carefully:
- First of all, you need to erase the look of any scratches in the dark-colored honed and the tumbled limestone with the help of mineral oil. You need to soak a soft cloth in the mineral oil and then you simply need to rub and then blot the applied oil into the scratch on your limestone floor. The mineral oil will easily penetrate your stone and making the scratch disappear from view.
- After that, you need to apply some water to the scratch affected area on your limestone floor and see if it disappears or not. If it does, then you need to apply a coat of your color-enhancing stone sealer to your limestone floor. The sealer will easily deepen the color of your limestone floor the way that the water does, erasing and hiding the scratch.
- You also need to buff out slightly any deeper scratches with the help of 100-grit sandpaper. Follow this with buffing with the help of 300-grit sandpaper now. The next thing is to rub the mineral oil or color-enhancing sealer into your buffed area to hide any scratches from your floor.
- The next thing is to buff out any scratches in lighter-colored limestone gently with the help of 0000 steel wool. Use your steel wool dry and work it very slowly over the surface of your limestone floor, blending the scratch affected area into the rest of your stone.
- Finally, you have to apply a coat of your shine-enhancing sealer(polish) to the already polished limestone floor that has been scratched. Shine-enhancing sealers will easily amplify the glossiness of the surface of your stone. It will easily fill and even out any surface imperfections, including any type of scratches. When the light hits the surface of your stone, the scratch will be less noticeable.
Warning And Tips For This Process
- Do not try to buff out deep scratches in your stone. Deep scratches will require your entire stone to be ground down and refinished. If your limestone floor has multiple or deep scratches then you need to contact a professional stone restorer for an evaluation.
- Never use green scouring pads on your limestone floor to buff it, green scouring pads will worsen the scratches in your stone.
- Always test these techniques on a loose piece of limestone floor or on a piece in a hidden or inconspicuous area before trying it in any visible area. Not all limestones floor have the same strength or surface texture. What may remove the scratch from one limestone may further damage another. Always test to make sure that you will not further damage the stone before continuing your work.