Marble floors? Find out how to best clean and polish them!
Marble floors, which adorned the homes of the wealthy in nineteenth-century Venice, were for many decades the choice for many external but also internal flooring areas. Marble floors are, in fact, made up of large tiles (often called "marmette") composed of fragments of marble mixed with cement and a natural oxide. Depending on their pigmentations, marble floors can take on very different colors, and although the fact that they do not have a uniform chromatic finish is a factor that helps to hide dirt. It is also true that they reveal all their colorful beauty when they are perfectly clean and shiny.
In order to wash marble and keep it in the best condition, therefore, it is good to use the right products, so as not to diminish its charm.
Use a soft-bristled (nylon) broom every day to get rid of dust and debris. A vacuum cleaner, if it has hard bristles, could end up leaving marks on the floor, but if it is of good quality and has a delicate setting, you can use that too. When it comes time to wash the marble, never use products that have an acidic composition - the more aggressive ones such as bleach, vinegar or white spirits can erode the surface layer and ruin the finish of the floor, requiring expensive grinding to restore the original look.
You should therefore use specific products made for marble, or better still, for marble chips. If, on the other hand, you want to use a home remedy, you can use Marseille soap. Just dissolve two or three tablespoons of the soap in a bucket of hot water, and wipe the solution with a microfiber mop (even flat)over the flooring. Then use more hot water to rinse off and another clean cloth to dry.
If you also want to polish the marble floor, you will need to use a semi-solid wax designed specifically for marble and marble chip floors. This is a kind of product composed of solvent and precious waxes. Be careful if there are children or elderly people in the house, because the floor becomes quite slippery!
In short, marble floors do require maintenance, but it's not really all that difficult to keep them looking their best!
