You’re Going to Tile Over What - Part II

Carlo Americo Odella, President Europamerican Tile & Marble

Marble is a fairly soft stone and the way that it is sold here it is most often sold in a highly polished state. The problem is that the shine comes from water pressure and diamond “sandpaper” that polishes the stone much like you might polish wood. There is nothing on the marble to prevent it from returning to it's natural unpolished rock state except daily or at least every other day care! If not lightly mopped to get any grit that might have come onto the marble from shoes, the marble will be slightly scratched when the grit is walked upon on the marble. The result is that light will not deflect properly and the marble will become “unpolished” or dull! The only way to make it shiny again is with water, or chemicals and polishing. This most often should be done by a professional and is fairly expensive. In our experience, it is often almost cheaper, and a better long -term solution, to use polished porcelain installed directly over the old marble. The polished porcelain that we use is usually 18x18 or larger so that there will be less grout on the floor to maintain and the porcelain being much harder than the marble gives a better long term solution to having a shiny elegant floor!