If your surfaces are truly scratched, I'm not sure what a "deep chemical cleaning" is supposed to accomplish. I'm frankly not sure why you're involved. It's your builder's job to deliver a house with undamaged surfaces and in most places sealing them would be part of the deal.

I'm involved b/c it's my house, my kitchen, my bathrooms, my floors. While I understand that perfection is never possible I do want my house to be delivered to me in good condition. During the build we've been living about 200 miles away and not been able to be as hands on as I would have preferred and this is how, I think, the supervision of subs issue got away from everyone. If I or DH had been able to drop in every day or so to keep track of the process I'm willing to bet none of this would have happened since the we would have kept the construction supervisor on his toes. Nevertheless, this is where we are and I don't want to have anything done that will exacerbate rather than mitigate the problem we now have. I've told the builder I don't want anything done without clearing it with me first because we are certainly in a position where trust has been eroded. If anyone has an opinion on how we should or could proceed with this I certainly would appreciate it.

I left this one alone, because this is a question for a stone specialist, which I'm not. Hopefully, Stonegirl will see this because she's a wiz at this kind of stuff.

my florida buddy... I found some websites for you:
http://www.aldonchem.com/mt-limestone-marble-polished.htm

http://www.findstone.com/curelime.htm

http://www.poshfloors.com/limestone.php

Also, I did a search on the John Bridge Tile Forum worded,"cleaning limestone tile". Over 400 varying threads came up. I don't think it filtered that well so it may take some searching on your part.
Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: John Bridge Forum

Thank you for the help and sympathy. The findstone website led me to the Aldon systems site and I'm turning this over to DH to decipher as he is really the tech support person on issues like this. He has already corrected my use of the term polished limestone. Although the floor has a soft shine, or did have before the barbarian hordes spent months abusing it, DH says that it is honed and not polished. Apparently when I did my pre-selection testing on it I just assumed it was polished because acids removed the soft shine. Between DH and the Aldon website I've been set straight on that issue. Thanks again, and if anyone else wants to chime in I'll be glad to hear your thoughts.

I just pinged Stonegirl, so she should be popping in sometime soon.

Hi Seadog

Apologies for not replying earlier - we were out of the office yesterday and only came back late :)

I am a little leery of your contractor's "chemical deep clean" and seal regimen. What exactly does he mean by "chemical"? Limestones and marbles are notorious for their intolerance to harsh chemicals.

The role of a sealer is solely to prevent staining through absorption. They will not fill scratches or prevent wear and tear on surfaces either. I am having some doubts about the contractor's claims that dirt will "soak into the scratches". From what you are describing, it does not sound like he is very competent or knowledgeable on the care and rehabilitation of stone surfaces.

It sounds like your stone surfaces really do need a good cleaning, but I would look for a reputable stone restoration company and get a second opinion on what is needed for your particular case. Diagnosing problems with stone by internet descriptions only is almost like depending on WebMd for medical advice in an emergency situation. There are just too many variables to offer a proper opinion.

Where in Florida are you situated?

Hi flseadog,

I hope you don't mind me stepping into your thread, but I'm strongly considering a honed limestone in my kitchen remodel as well and weighing the pros/cons.

I'm hoping the assistance provided to you can help a Florida native(southwest coast, Venice Fl specifically) in the future. I'm planning to take precautions, but know it's a strong possible an accident may happen to mine in the process.

Best of luck to you with this.

thank you stonegirl for chiming in.

Something about the statments for her expert just was not sitting well with me and you nailed it.

James

Stonegirl, I'm glad this question popped back to page one as I missed it when you replied. Nothing has been done yet on our stone as we've been waiting for all of the other subs to finish punch list items so the stone wouldn't have anymore contractors dragging ladders, dirt and who knows what else over my floors. I really appreciate the advice and I'm going to push DH to get a second opinion. We both want to get this over with so we're just tempted to jump in and have the work done. Right now I'm not sure if I'm communicating what he said properly. He uses Stonecare Pro Signature products and he said he would use some type of machine with water that would not create any dust when he does the floors.

The limestone floors look really awful but the countertops look fine. It is only on close inspection that scratches are visible around sinks and faucets where the surface no longer has a polished appearance due to something heavy scraping across them. I really don't want to have the granite and marble counters polished in place because I figure I'll wait for that until I've really messed things up a few years done the line. I was just thinking that if the polished surface is gone then the fabricator's sealing has also been compromised. Since the price quoted for this work was so low at first I thought go for it. But, oddly enough one of the things that is scaring me the more I think about it is the $.75/sf cost because it seems so low. The countertops actually don't look bad but I don't want to leave them unprotected. Hope this makes sense.

bump

Hi Seadog

The Stonecare Pro range are really really good products and that is great. The fact that he says he will not create dust sounds like he will be doing some grinding and minimizing the airborne dust with the (wet) floor machine. That is great too. You really want the floor ground to get rid of the scratches - it is the only way they will come out.

I am concerned about the price too. What is the square footage in your house that needs refinishing and where in Florida are you located? I will see if I can get a hold of one of my friends down there and check the price for you, but I really need that info first.

As far as the scratches and their impact on the sealing is concerned: - The sealers that are applied after installation are impregnating sealers, which means that they absorb into the stone and work "from the inside out", basically. A surface scratch will have little or no effect on the efficacy of the sealer. There is also no impregnating sealer on this planet that will prevent scratching or wear and tear on any surface.

I would still get a second opinion, but by what you posted in the last message, it sounds OK. Just DO NOT let any guy talking about doing "crystallization" anywhere near your stone floors. Let me know the details I asked for and I will try find out what the cost in your area should be for the work concerned.

Thank you, Stonegirl. We are in central Florida about an hour south east of Orlando---kind of in the middle of nowhere but easy to get to for anyone in Orlando or on the coast from Daytona to Fort Pierce.

It sounds as if I don't really need to do anything to the countertops because they were sealed by the fabricator prior to installation. If I have it right, you are saying that the sealer can't be scratched off and is still there in the stone. In that case it seems that I should just take good care of my countertops until it's time to seal them in the usual course of events. But my husband says that the total cost of cleaning and resealing the counters now is about $150 so he wants to get it done anyway and that way he'll be sure that it has been done. We used 2 different stone fabricators as we were working with remnants for our bathrooms and whole slabs for our kitchen. Both of them did a really good job for us and we have no reason to doubt that they sealed the stone but we are a bit skittish about everything right now.

The limestone floors and our polished marble shower in the master bath (we got a really good deal on the 12 x 12 calacutta marble)were done by a different subcontractor and at this point we have no reason to believe he did anything properly. For cleaning and sealing the floors, the marble shower walls and grout the total estimate for that part of the job is $550.

Thanks for taking the time to help me figure this out.