Contract cleaners today have a variety of opportunities to grow their business and increase profits with add-on services. One excellent, yet often neglected opportunity is stone-type surface floor care.

There is a growing and significant number of facilities with stone surface floors. These hard-surface floors are expensive to install. Accordingly, commercial owners and managers are eager to obtain skilled professional care for their substantial investment.

Contract cleaning companies often pass up lucrative maintenance contracts because they don't feel confident in their floor care skills. Their concerns are not without cause, since the liability of damaging an expensive stone floor may be much more prohibitive than the liability of damaging a less costly surface. There's a window of opportunity opening for contractors willing to learn about stone floors and how to maintain them. The service can be a very profitable added value.

Many surfaces, many settings
Stone flooring is found in a wide variety of buildings where a durable yet attractive surface is desired.

The first step in learning to maintain stone surfaces is to identify the floor type. Is the floor a natural stone or man-made masonry? Identifying stone type can be difficult at first; if in doubt, consult a certified stone care professional.

Popular natural stones used in floors include:

Marble: A hard and durable floor covering that, under normal conditions, requires little maintenance other than regular daily care. A naturally occurring stone, marble is a form of limestone that is hard enough to take a polish. Many grades and colors are available, from Sicilian white to Belgian black and the colors of Roman stone.

Granite: Granite is an igneous stone that has cooled into a hard compact mass. Colors range from dark gray to white and silver, with occasional shades of black, blue and green. Granite is one of the stronger stones, and, because of its tightly bonded atomic structure, one of the most durable.

Slate: A metamorphic rock composed of shale and clay deposits, slate has a very fine texture. Its colors vary from blue-gray and different shades of green to blue-green.

Sandstone: A sedimentary rock composed mostly of sand grains, sandstone offers a variety of colors. Red-brown is a popular shade, as well as light yellow, gray or blue.

Quartzite: Quartzite, formed from sedimentary deposits of sand grains, is much harder than sandstone. It contains minute flakes of mica, which reflect light and cause the surfaces to sparkle in appearance. Quartzite colors are gold and olive shades or silvery gray-green.

Limestone: Limestone is a sandy sedimentary rock and contains variable quantities of calcium carbonate and quartz. Common colors are light gray or tan, with occasional shades of yellow, white and pale brown.

Natural stones range in hardness: sandstone is the softest, granite and quartzite are the hardest. Stone flooring is laid in tile size or slabs, which vary in thickness and are set in a screeded concrete sub-floor. Cement grout appears at the joints between stone slabs.

Terrazzo: This popular flooring is used in high-traffic areas where appearance and cleanliness are highly desired. Terrazzo is composed of crushed marble chips, angular in nature and embedded in a cement matrix. A wide variety of colors and shades are available.

Clay or ceramic tiles: Ceramic tiles are composed of a basic clay and are manufactured the way they have been for thousands of years. The clay with water added is fired in a kiln at carefully controlled conditions.
Many different clay tiles are used as floor surfaces. Some of the most popular are quarry tiles, faience tiles, paver tile and brick. All are available in a variety of colors -- both glazed and unglazed -- and are installed in a bed of cement matrix.

Finally, there are cement or concrete floors, which are among the least attractive but most durable and maintainable surfaces.

A stone floor maintenance program involves other factors besides stone identification. Consider the age of the floor. Is it new or is it well worn?

Initial maintenance on new floors may require different cleaning techniques and the use of a penetrating seal. Older, severely scratched stone floors may need a restoration procedure to bring them back to an acceptable appearance.

If you are assumed maintenance duties on an existing stone floor, ask how it was maintained in the past. Find out which chemicals were used in treating the floor, and whether it requires penetrating sealers and impregnators, or floor finish.

Maintenance or restoration
The critical decision in stone floor maintenance is to determine if the floor needs regular maintenance or a more extensive restoration.

Stone floor maintenance is relatively easy to learn; restoration takes special skills. It is best to leave restoration to a certified stone maintenance expert, unless a contractor is willing to invest in stone restoration training for employees.

Restoration requires the use of special equipment, including heavy-duty floor machines and abrasive diamond discs.

Restoring terrazzo, for example, begins with a grinding process that takes the floor through a series of abrasive grinding, then honing, with gradually finer grits used to create a smooth surface. Finally a compound is used to polish the surface.

Restoration techniques vary. Again, special training and equipment is a necessity. Regular stone maintenance is relatively easy and requires little training or equipment.

Once the stone has been identified and its special maintenance needs understood, formulate a maintenance program. Different stone floors require different maintenance. Soil and grit should be swept and removed daily to prevent damage to expensive surfaces.

Take precautions when sweeping. Use non-oiled dust-mops on stone floors, such as marble, to avoid oil penetrating the soft pores and causing staining. Entrance mats that capture and contain foot soil are a necessity. After sweeping or vacuuming, regular cleansing with the right cleaner is the most important daily task in stone floor care.

Equipment needs
Establishing a stone floor maintenance program is, for the most part, the same as doing so for resilient floors. Tools include dustmops, mops, buckets and wringers. Other equipment may include:

Automatic Scrubber: Automatic scrubbers come in a variety of sizes and prices, but they all operate in the same basic manner: using a solution of water and cleaning chemicals that is shower-fed to the floor, which is scrubbed using brushes or pads, then squeegeed and vacuumed into a receiving tank.

Single-Disc Floor Machine: This machine is the workhorse of the floor care industry. Disc sizes range 12-24 inches. Depending on use, motor size ranges from 3/4 to 2 horsepower.

A floor scrubbing machine is usually higher in horsepower with a lower gear ratio. Other machines that are used for buffing and burnishing have different size requirements.

Water Vacuum: Another essential piece of floor care equipment, water vacs are quick and efficient for removing water from the floor. Stone care procedures require the frequent use of water, whether in regular maintenance or in honing and powder polishing techniques. For large areas that require faster production rates, units with floor-mounted squeegees are recommended over hoses and wands.
Stone care products
There is an array of effective stone care products on the market. Recommended for daily maintenance cleaning are neutral pH cleaners, or stone soaps. Neutral cleaners contain surfactants that break up the dirt and bring it to the surface. The cleaner must be non-acidic to prevent etching of the stone.

Stone soaps remove soil and also act as a conditioner. Avoid use of acid cleaners for regular stone maintenance. Creams that polish and seals that protect against moisture are specifically designed for stone or clay tiled floors.

Terrazzo maintenance should take advantage of polishing products that produce more attractive, easier-to-maintain floors. Stone surfaces are polished by a number of methods, but two of the most popular are crystallization and use of powder polishes.

Crystallization is used only on marble floors. Since marble is relatively soft compared to granite, it scratches more easily and requires different maintenance.

First, the marble must be properly cleaned so that the stone pores are free from dirt. Then a chemical is sprayed on the floor, which is buffed with steel wool. This process changes the stone's chemical composition, removing scratches and promoting shiny surfaces. This process, which is also known as revitrification requires no water and little additional staff training, as it is similar to spray buffing.

Powder polishing is accomplished using fine abrasive powder and water on the stone surface, which is buffed to a high shine. After polishing with a powder or polishing cream, a non-acidic hardener is recommended to protect the shine and to add slip resistance to the floor.

Evaluating cost
Stone care maintenance costs can be more difficult to determine than those for resilient floors. Factors to consider in determining labor costs include stone types, the age and condition of floors, and the location and amount of foot traffic.

With new ceramic and stone surfaces requiring little or no floor finish, the savings in maintenance is understandably attractive, when compared to the constant wax, strip and buff cycles associated with resilient floors. These "mop and go" stone-type surfaces are a definite trend for the future, and their widespread use will continue to impact the commercial floor maintenance market.

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