Satin Finish

This customer in Longwood was never happy with the appearance of her Travertine floors. She did not want a hi polish, super shiny finish, so we diamond refinished her floors to a satin finish and sealed.

An installer must be skilled in setting a “minimal width” or “butt” installation so as the tiles are level with one another when completed. This Travertine floor was not installed correctly. This results in pronounced raised tile edges that detract from the overall beauty of Travertine, as well as can be a tripping hazard and become difficult maintaining.

The sharp tile edges were then sanded and rounded to reduce the raised sharp tile edge. However in sanding the raised edges, holes were exposed in the travertine as well as changing the finish and appearance of the edges, contrasting with the tile centers.

My guess is at that point, a topical gloss sealer, or wax, was applied to even the finish in attempt to fix the many missteps. The problem now is the weaker gloss sealer, or wax, then will quickly scratch and scuff easily, creating a worn appearance that resembles a vinyl floor more so that a stone floor. Furthermore, the soft coating sealer will get embedded with soil overtime that will not be removed with regular cleanings, however will need to be chemically stripped to remove.

Clean Image of Orlando successfully diamond ground, filled all the holes, finished to a hi-honed finish and sealed. The end result is a flat travertine floor, excellent depth of color, not a cloudy reflection that will much easier to maintain.

Honing is a means of using abrasives harder than the stone to abraid the surface in a controlled manner. It is usually the step between grinding and polishing on a progressive scale. It is also the finial finish of the stone surface that is not polished. Honed finished can range to a flat no gloss to a lo-gloss to anywhere in-between. Different methods include diamond pads, honing powders, honing brushes and honing pads.

Honed finished can range in gloss levels from flat to lo-gloss, and range in clarity of gloss levels from no clarity to high clarity. All the finishes described are optical finishes, NOT waxes or floor finish or sealers to create gloss. This Travertine was a newly installed in the Heathrow area; the homeowner was not pleased with the uneven appearance. We used a simple honing procedure to deliver a more consistent hi-hone finish.

The owners of this travertine floor inherited the finish from the previous owners. The original owners had applied a gloss sealer in attempt to improve the appearance of the Travertine floors. Unfortunately gloss sealers appearance is short lived and come with many caveats. The sealer will scuff and scratch readily, and after time the softer sealer with get embedded with small particle soils causing the floor to take on a brownish appearance. The topical sealer finish will also have a plastic shine as opposed to a clear wet like shine.

Due to the uneven tile installation and with the coating sealer, we ground this floor flat and finished to a hi-hone finish as requested by the new owners.

This floor in Orlando in 12 years old and common back then was the unfilled variety of cross cut travertine, also known as Saturnia. This type of unfilled travertine floor would be grouted after the floor was installed filling the grout lines and the holes in the floor at the same time. This method used a sponge for grout clean up before curing, so all the filled holes then would be partial washed out, leaving a concave hole. Curing and drying of the grout would further shrink the filler deeper in the travertine holes.

As you may have noticed in the before picture, and is common on many Travertine’s sold today is swirl marks left from the manufactures polishing lines.

This floor we cleaned, provided a simple, inexpensive honing procedure that removed the marks and provided a nice clarity and a lo-gloss, and then we sealed using an solvent based impregnating sealer allowing maximum penetration.

This outdoor back porch in Lake Nona had many potted Trees that were feed and watered often. The Travertine was never filled and sealed allowing the soil and plant food to enter and stain the Travertine surface. Clean Image of Orlando was able to clean, hone, fill, seal and finish to a honed finish.

This floor in Orlando was also cleaned, honed and sealed. The cleaning removes the soil and dirt, even from the small holes in the travertine surface, as well and cleaning the grout.

This simple finish honing process really helps highlight and enhance the colors, and the natural characteristics of worn travertine floors.

If you’re one where you do not want a hi-polish finish, but still want the colors of your floors to be more defined and consistent, then a hi-hone finish may be a good choice. A hi-hone finish is a finish where we only use diamond abrasives to finish with. The result is a finish with excellent clarity and low-polish. It can also help blend in the fill in travertine by giving the fill in the stone some shine, assuming it is not recessed. This customer in Longwood was ecstatic with the results.

You can see in this hi-hone finish how the diamond honing process helps blend in the factory fill spots and blemishes for a more consistent shine.

This is another perfect example in Windermere where the customer did not want a hi-polish, but did not like the current finish. CIO provided a full diamond hone process that removed any discolored stone and helped blend in the fill spots.