*
A friend of mine, a contractor, asked me about sanding limestone tiles. He stated that a friend of his put in a limestone floor then sanded it down and then sealed it. It is possible, the limestone has a hardness of 3 and abrassive have hardnesses of more than 7, but I have never heard about this before. Both these people are high end renovators so I will take what they say seriously.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
The FHB Podcast crew takes a closer look at an interesting roof.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
*
Are you asking if it is possible, a good idea, cost effective, what? Yes, maybe, maybe.
*
This is clairification on my first post. Is sanding limestone tiles a valid technique? And how do you do it, wet sand paper? The reason I am asking this is I am about to put in a 90 square foot limestone floor and my friend mentioned the sanding technique. He is about to put in a floor using 18"x18" limestone, I do not know the size. He mentioned that the floor he had seen that was sandeded looked quite nice. I was wondering if oe would grout first then sand or sand first then grout? I have never read about the technique before and want to know of others experience with it.
*
Tom, I've never seen limestone sanded but if it's done like other stone floors, it needs to be done by someone that has the equipment to do it.
A marble floor is often laid in mortor like tile, then a large grinder that looks like a floor buffer is used to grind the tiles flush and smooth. Finer grits are used until it is ready to be buffed to a shine.
Grout is done after sanding and the floor is buffed to give it the shine.
*Tom,First of all, the grinding, honing and polishing technique is done with abrasive stones or a combination of stones and diamonds best mounted on a planetary head. There are also a lot of old terrazzo machines out there. We used to do this on travertine mainly.The process uses water to cool and lubricate the abrasive so you would want to install a waterproof membrane if it will be over wood frame construction.Keep your joints as tight as practical and grout with traverfill (no sand) before honing. Very long and expensive process but if you are looking for an extremely flat surface, it is definitely the way to go.Actually, if you don't have access to the equipment, you may be better off hiring a professional terrazzo contract.As for doing it by hand?? Not I!!! It's tough enough to do what the machine can't get to let alone the whole floor. Any hand work could be done with abrasive paper but sheet mounted diamonds on an orbital sander is the best way.Email me, I can give you a list of suppliers for the equipment and supplies if you need it.
*Ryan,Differing opinions minutes apart. Must be one of those East Coast/West Coast things, eh?Jeff
*
A friend of mine, a contractor, asked me about sanding limestone tiles. He stated that a friend of his put in a limestone floor then sanded it down and then sealed it. It is possible, the limestone has a hardness of 3 and abrassive have hardnesses of more than 7, but I have never heard about this before. Both these people are high end renovators so I will take what they say seriously.