I am tiling a bathroom in the near future. The face of the marble has a high gloss. Any and all suggestions on how to bring a high gloss to the edges of the tile would be greatly appreciated. I have random and regular orbital sanders if they could be used or am willing to rent another type of tool. I am trying to keep costs down. I am a painting contractor so I probably won’t be attemping this type of project again. However, I am certainly looking for quality results.
Thanks
JPA
Replies
well, I'll tell you my experience, bump this up to the top again and maybe someone else will jump in - I've never polished tile, but have done various metals, auto finishes, and a slab of marble for a countertop - the practice is the same across various materials, us an abrasive rough enough to remove the scratches that exist in the finish, and in several steps work up (down?)to a very fine abrasive whose scratches are no visible to the eye -
With my little bit of knowledge, if I had to polish tile, I would head for the auto store, buy some wet/dry abrasive paper, something like 120 grit, then 220 grit, then 400 grit, then 600 grit, use a nice smooth wood block, work in a pan of water, and start on an edge - (I crease the sheet of abrasive paper and tear in half and fold in thirds) - if after working up to the 600 grit, the finish was not bright enough, a pad with polishing compound, which is availible in various grits, can take you further -
Thank you very much for your suggestions on my marble project. I will definately experiment with your suggestions.
John
Marble polish, available at a decent tile supply and an automotive style polisher/buffer. If you have a bench grinder with a buffer wheel, jeweler's rouge and/or marble polish will work well also, if you want to polish piece by piece.
In addition to all the above, you'll want a generous supply of patience.Excellence is its own reward!
Thank you very much for your suggestions
John
I actually work at a stone fabrication company that makes marble and granite countertops. We usually take the stone down to a 6000 grit before we let it out of the shop. I forgot to check how many square feet you are doing. Maybe buy a set of polishing pads (about $200) and use them with an angle grinder . The thought of using wet/dry to do all of that makes my hands hurt!
VIC international is where we buy ours from
Thank you very much for your suggestions. Fortunately, I am only doing approximately 60 linear feet of 3/8" edges. All the faces are at a high gloss. I will look into polishing pads. It is interesting to know that you take it to 6000 grit. I am not surprised seeing the sheen of this marble.
Thanks again
John
There's a "kit " that does this. It consists of 6 different grit polishers, and some buffing paste. Each polisher has two shapes on it, square, and 1/4 round. The round edge is supposed to be used after you use a bullnose wheel on your water saw, but the coarsest grit can cut the edge without using the wheel(if you don't want to spend the money on the wheel). You work your way through all the grits(use w/water) and use the paste last. May I recommend, like if your doing a tub deck,to hit the edges after they are glued down, with the excepsion of the ends, this way you can kind of grind them all in a straight line. This is marble tiles, right,? get them at a tile supplier.
no turn left unstoned