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Treating Stone Floors?


david and Liz

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Good Morning All, and Happy New Year !

 

Does anybody have any advice on how best to treat our stone floors?

We are planning to use 50/50 Linseed oil and turps when we come over in a couple of weeks but understand there is a possibility of aging linseed oil yellowing the stone?

 

regards

David and Liz

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we have recently purchased a cottage in the Orne area of Normandy...got a beautiful granite or French limestone floor throughout the downstairs. At present only using the house at weekends, and leaving the heating off...as primagaz is proving extortionately expensive...(or we have a leak...engineer coming to check next week!!!) When we returned a few weeks ago, the stunning floor was covered in patches of what looked like salt deposits...and after cleaning, appears to have scarred the floor in many areas. Anyone got any handy tips of sealing, or preventing this in future, or how to get rid of the marks please?

Fen and Ian

 

 

 

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To those who are lucky enough to have stone floors I can offer only this advise. Don't use linseed or any other vegetable oil.

 

The reason is that it never really gets hard. It polymerises yes but only to a sort of plastic state and you'll end up having to do it again. It will also leave a oily residue which will be slippery if the floor is wet. That all sounds not too catastrophic but you cant remove to old to put down the new which will lever you with a 'patchy' colour as parts where the oil has leeched out will look a different colour the the parts where the old oil remains.

 

I would strongly recommend using Tung oil. Perhaps a mix with some Eucalyptus to aid penetration, perhaps some pine to speed up hardening but the major part is TUng oil.

 

This mix will Harden and you should be set for life depending on how high the traffic is on the stone, it might wear it away in which case you have to do it again. Its been used by the chinese for many centuries and is head an shoulder above the vegetable oils for this purpose. It works well on timber and concrete floors as well.

 

Regards

Andrew

(I'm in the business to oil floors)

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Hi Boiling a Frog (interesting Name)(do you subscribe to disaster theory?)

No, your not missing anything.

Stone is as stone always is - 'rock hard'

But, some people don't like the idea of stains or dirt being ground into the service and therefore prefer to seal the surface of the stone with a waterproof sealer - I use Tung oil mainly because its a natural product and does a great job. The synthetic sealers us a hardener which is a know cause of Cancer.

If the floor is in the Kitchen or bathroom its also more hygienic especially if there are baby's crawling around.

Personally, I have a 2 year old and another on the way. I would not allow them to play or spend time on an unsealed stone floor. But like I said, Its a personal thing, I guess it also depends on the traffic and how often you wash it.

 

Andrew

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[quote]Hi Boiling a Frog (interesting Name )(do you subscribe to disaster theory?) No, your not missing anything. Stone is as stone always is - 'rock hard' But, some people don't like the idea of stains ...[/quote]

Hendo,

somewhat off-topic I know, but the vision of your 2 year old crawling around the floor put me in mind of the agony-aunt reply to a worried 1st-time mum who wondered at what age she should stop sterilizing her toddler's things and received the reply, "when you find him in the bottom of the wardrobe chewing his father's shoes !"

paul

 

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