New Website on the way

Soon to launch is my new website www.fha.ie with all the products, pictures of jobs, topical artictiles on stone and more. Will let you know when it's up and running.

Stone Finishes

Thought i would discuss the most popular stone finishes i come across whilst on jobs, i am always asked the difference between them so here they are

(1) Polished A gloosy, highly reflective surface
> Surface is very smooth
> Colours & veins appear more vibrant
> Shine comes from the natural reflection of the stones crystals
Note: Polish can wear away due to heavy traffic & improper maintenance, so think carefully before choosing & ask yourself whats likely to happen on my new floor after installation. Looks great in large sizes in large light filled rooms.

(2) Tumbled Slightly rough in texture
> Rough texture to surface
> Often has lovely exposed veins especially in marbles
> appears as a slightly old or worn look to floor
Note: carefull how you clean this stone as dirt can become trapped in its textured finish, i think it looks fantastic in kitchens & high traffic areas as it's worn/old look is never supposed to be perfect.

(3) Honed Flat matt low sheen finish
> Surface is smooth & flat
> More porous than polished finish
> Better suited to low traffic area's
> Colours are not as bright & vibrant as a polished stone
Note: often get a call out to a floor that client calls polished only to find that it is Honed, in marbles sometimes a honed finish can have a very slight sheen that clients think to be polished.

Other surfaces that i come across other than the main 3 above
are
Sand Blasted
Flamed
Bush Hammered

comments to info@fha.ie

Wrong Products for Marble Floors

Just in from working on a black n white marble floor, client called me in as the floor had lost its shine after having some work carried out recently. First impressions where that the floor had been severly etched as there was a slight shine visible in the tiles, started my usual clean down of the tiles and low & behold a wax starts coming away from the tiles. It seems some bright spark had sold them a marble shine from a bottle product to put onto a polished marble floor. Years of applying this product & washing the floor had allowed for a build up of wax & dirt which once cleaned off show me a lovely Carrara Marble & Negro Marquina floor below. I fully strip back the floor using Aqua Mix Heavy Duty Tile & Grout Cleaner with a little Aqua Mix Nano Scrub to help with the wax removal. Once cleaned & dry i applied Aqua Mix Enrich n Seal to bring back the lovely black & white floor.

So the moral of this story is if the bottle says just pour it out and watch your new shine chances are its what i call Marble Shine Away!!!

Before & After