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Expert Answers
QUESTION
Why is my Stone Granite Floor Deteriorating?ANSWER
ANSWER - It sounds like you have what we call spalling and efflorescence on the granite slabs. This is normally a symptom of having a moisture problem; meaning the stone is being subjected to excessive moisture from beneath it. Water is migrating from perhaps outside of your house through the concrete slab and up through the granite stone. As the water travels through the soil, concrete, and stone it picks up minerals (salts) that dissolve in the water. When the water evaporates at the stone surface the minerals precipitate into a solid. Thus it expands causing the spalling or deterioration of the stone surface. It also leaves the precipitation on the stone surface which is called efflorescence which is normally white in color.The solution is to stop the source of the moisture. Some times that means fixing a leaking water pipe or installing a French perimeter drain around your house to divert the water. Because you do have a natural stone it can be restored by having a professional stone restoration company come in and re-grind and polish the stone.
If you need our services to investigate the problem for you, then you can contact us through our website at www.CTaSC.com. Although it may or may not be practical for you to utilize our services considering that we charge for our time as consultants.
11 thoughts on “Why is my Stone Granite Floor Deteriorating?”
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My favorite part in this article was when you mentioned that deteriorating granite means that there must be a pipe leaking water onto it. My wife put up a granite countertop in our kitchen a few years back and she noticed that it has lost its natural shine and has a few scratches. I will also find a professional cleaner who can not only make the granite shine but also make it look and feel like we just got it installed yesterday.
Our granite floor has started deteroirating formg white rough surfaces and then bursting into sand particles.what is this problem and please do suggest any remedies if possible.or other cheaper ways to refloor.
It sounds like your granite floor is spalling/degrading from being subjected to excessive moisture from beneath the stone. The white is likely efflorescence staining.
What happens is that moisture from beneath the stone picks up minerals, which are a type of salt that dissolves in water. The water migrates towards the surface of the stone where it evaporates and then precipitates these minerals that cause an expansion at the stone surface that causes the spalling.
The key is to stop the moisture. The moisture could be coming from having a high water table or it could come from outdoor planters that get a lot of water that then migrates into the concrete slab of the house. Or it could be that if you get a lot of rain that water is traveling or collecting near the house foundation. You can install french trench drains around the house to try to divert the water away from the house.
When the stone was installed they should have performed a Relative Humidity test of the concrete slab to see if he had excessive moisture content. If it did you could have installed a moisture vapor mitigation coating to prevent the moisture from migrating up through your stone.
I work with a Large Granite distribution company. Can my warehouses that holds our product, be a contributing factor to making my warehouse floor sweat?
Condensation on any surface is where warm air that contains moisture makes contact with a cool surface at a temperature that is the dewpoint for those conditions.
I don’t see how an impervious granite can hold much moisture and I do not see how it could cause the air temperature to become higher. So don’t think the granite is contributing to your warehouse floor sweating. It probably has to do with the time of year and the higher humidity.
I fixed the granite flooring a year back using granite dust and cement. Now many places where ever brown granite design having white patches from those places white dust type is carving out from polished stones. Why it is so and any solution to this problem. I stay in Hyderabad and rain is very less compared other states of India.
The cement is much weaker and porous than the granite so it will fail before the granite when subjected to excessive moisture.
When you fixed the granite you were fixing the symptom of the problem that caused the granite to spall and degrade. So you didn’t fix the problem that caused the spalling. The only way to prevent the reoccurring problem is to fix the problem.
Chances are the problem is the stone is being subjected to excessive moisture from the ground. You can install trench drains along side of the granite floor to divert the water that might fix the problem. Perhaps you have a high water table that is subjecting the granite to moisture because there wasn’t a vapor retarder installed under the stone substrate.
If you use an appropriate resin with granite dust to fill holes it might last longer. You can also grind the granite floor down and it would be like new if the spalling isn’t too deep. But that would not solve the problem, that again is a temporary fix to treat the symptom of the problem.
Help my granite floors look soaked in lots of spots near food entrances, will sealing my floor help
First you need to remove the food stains by power washing or use a scrub brush with liquid detergent in the water. Let it soak for 10 minutes and then scrub again. Use a wet vacuum to pick up the dirty water. Once the tile is dry you can seal it with a penetrating sealer for granite stones to help prevent future staining.
My bathroom granite floor tiles have become sandy and pitting after water leak from the bathroom concrete roof to the floor tiles. As a result the tiles were soaked in the leakage. Are the tiles damaged by the leak?
If the floor tiles are a true natural granite then they would not be harmed by water. Granite is impervious. It is possible there can be some spalling in the surface of the granite particularly if it has a flamed surface that is more absorbing. One of the benefits of a natural stone is it can be restored in theory like new by grinding and repolishing it.