Santa Fe Floor Care

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Limestone driveway

Tire stained limestone driveway

This limestone was part of an Austin Texas residential driveway. The home owner mentioned that she had never been able to get it cleaned. Upon further inspection we saw that the stone had become darkened by vehicle traffic down the driveway in addition to typical soiling. The limestone also was green from a bacterial growth in the pores of the stone.

Our cleaning process

First, we vacuumed the area to remove the loose soil from the surface. Then we applied an alkaline cleaner to emulsify the soil. The next step was to agitate the surface to further emulsify the soil.  Upon inspection, we could see that the soil was only partially suspended, so we used an acidic  cleaner to finish the job. Once all the soil was loosened, we rinsed the limestone with our truck-mounted water extraction system.  After the surface dried,  we were able to see a drastic change to the limestone.  To keep the appearance looking good for as long as possible, we applied a heavy-duty exterior stone sealer.

Stained limestone pool surround

Limestone pool stained black and green.

This Lakeway, Texas homeowner called us in desperate need of cleaning of her limestone patio and pool surround. When we came out to inspect the area we noticed it was stained black in several spots and also had a green algae growing on the surface. The homeowner was extremely frustrated and explained to me that after paying a little over 3000 dollars to have the patio power-washed and cleaned, the black stains were still embedded in the stone. Using a high powered washer can be extremely damaging to limestone because it can actually open up holes in the surface which become havens for bacterial growth. After taking measurements and providing a price quote we lined out a step-by-step process for how we planned to attack this job for the homeowner.

Our cleaning process.

First we saturated all the stained areas with an antimicrobial mixture which reacts with the stubborn stains in the limestone. After preparing the rest of our process, the stains were already looking a bit lighter. We then used a stone-friendly alkaline solution along with our soft-bristled electric spinning brush to agitate and emulsify the surface soils and bacterial growth. The emulsified soils were extracted and the stone was rinsed with our truck-mounted hot water extraction machine. The stone was looking really good at this point and after doing some detail work the homeowner thanked us profusely and commented that it looked almost as good as the day it was installed 10 years ago. For a final step we saturated the limestone pool surround with an industrial grade penetrating stone sealer.

The clients were extremely pleased with the results and before we left, we educated them on how to properly care for the stone and maintain its beautiful natural look