Cleaning and Polishing Cultured Marble

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Dear NH,

You once answered a question about polishing CULTURED marble, but I want to know how to polish real marble. I have a table top 18x40 that I want to polish up and bring back the shine. No nicks or cuts, but some dull areas that won't respond to hand rubbing. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

EK from Brockton, MA

Eric,

Refinishing marble is simply a matter of abrading the surface with a power sanding machine, using progressively finer grits until the scratches in the marble are microscopic, causing the surface to become reflective.

I have never tried to refinish marble, so I am not about to offer you any hands-on personal advise, but I can refer you to a couple of websites and also a good book that have all the information you need...

Marble and Granite Care Products, a company specializing in cleaning and refinishing products, has instructions for their products posted on their website. These instructions are really "primers" on how to properly clean and restore marble and other natural stone. Cool!

Refinishing marble is not the typical do-it-yourself project, but I hope this infusion of inspirational material gets you started on the right path!