cleaning and sealing slate floors showers and countertops: Orange County

 We love working on slate because we can show what sets us apart. We use the best machinery, products and scrub brushes to achieve our desired results. Most of all we feel like you can really see our years of experience coming out in the work we do when it comes to cleaning slate floors. We really do make the colors pop like you see in the pictures. We prefer in most cases to use a penetrating sealer if our customer likes the natural look because their is almost no maintenance.

Penetrating sealers look good and natural, but don’t provide a shiny floor. Many people like the natural look and are not looking for a shiney floor so for that reason penetrating sealers are the best choice when a shine is not required. The reasons we like penetrating sealers so much is they never need to be stripped out later,You can go year after year, just cleaning and coating, because penetrating sealers do not cause build up.

A water base acrylic provides a good shine and can be coated through out it life, but will need to be stripped out, approximately 1 to 4 years, if maintained well I have seen acrylics last as long as 10 years but that’s under the perfect conditions. Enhancer makes the floor quite dark and it seems to have a shorter life than some of the others. Oil-based acrylic is a a better choice in many cases it last longer and brings out just as much color.To remove old finish from slate we use a buffer or sometimes a steam machine. We will help you to make the best choice for your floor.

 Before we removed all the old finish on this beautiful slate floor we taped off all the carpit. The walls we are careful not to hurt and clean when where done. Then we cleaned the slate and prepared the floor for sealer.   this is after we finished removing old finish cleaned and sealed the slate. now it looks amazing but more inportantly it’s going to hold up for a long time to come. 

 Slate

Slate is a fine grained metamorphic rock that splits into thin smooth surfaced layers. It is caused by strong compression causing fine grained clay flakes to regrow in planes perpendicular to the compression. When expertly cut by striking parallel to the foliation with a specialized tool in the quarry, many slates will form smooth flat sheets of stone which have long been used for roofing and floor tiles. Slate has a very unique mineral composition that consists of quarty and muscovite or illite, often along with biotite, chlorite, hematie and pyrite. The tiles of slate are often used for interior and exterior flooring, stairs, walkways, and wall cladding. Tiles are set on mortar and grouted along the edges. A sealant would then be used to improve durability, increase stain resistance, reduce surface smoothness, and reduce efflorescence. Efflorescence by definition is the loss of water(or solvent) of crystallization from a hydrated or solvated salt to the atmosphere on exposure to air. On porous materials efflorescence may present a cosmetic problem only, but can sometimes indicate serious structural weakness. In conclusion, slate is a beautiful natural stone that can add elegance to any room, but also needs to be cared for properly. Whether you have a new slate floor that needs care or an older slate floor that needs to be restored to new; Pacific Carpet & Tile Cleaning in Orange County Floor Restoration knows slate.