How do you polish a marble

["John Vancamp" <jvcstnwrks@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Rick,  While I definitly agree with much of what Simon has said, there are
a few things I do differ on.    First, we have established that POLISHED
marble is not a suitable surface for a kitchen environment.  All that foot
traffic will soon wear the polish, and any thing spilled on the floor that
is acidic ( your kitchen is loaded with these things) will chemically react
with the calcium carbonate in the marble causing an etched spot in the
polished surface.  Penetrating sealers will do nothing to prevent this from
happening , and topical coatings present their own set of problems. Honed
material shows both the wear and the etching to a lesser degree.
Ok as to what to do.   There are many people out there who specialize in
stone "restoration" . Some of them actually know what they are doing, some
don't.  You can have (assuming that the tile was laid up with small grout
lines and unsanded grout)  the entire floor re-ground to a nice honed
finish, or if you want, brought back up to a factory polish.  If the floor
tile was grouted with sanded grout, then you are pretty well stuck with
what you have, and would be better off learning to live with it as it
continues to "age"  No problem, it just won't ever be shiny again.  If you
do decide to go the restoration route, I suggest you look elsewhere other
than the big box stores for referals.  They all ready have lead you down a
rosie path.  Check with some of the floor specialty shops, or talk with
some of the granite/marble fabricators in you area for names.  Do not let
anyone use a "crystallization" process as this will only do horrible damage
to the stone in the long  (sometimes short ) run.  A few links to forum
sites where you can find abundant information on this sort of thing would
be

http://www.stonepowerhouse.com/phorum3/
http://www.stoneadvice.com/forum/
http://www.huligar.com/forum/
http://www.marblecleaning.org/

Good luck,

JVC