How to restore shine to 1 ton of polished black rocks?
Dinah V
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
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bossyvossy
7 years agoDinah V
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Another native restoration (photos included)
Comments (7)I also have a horde of Vinca growing happily in the side yard under a large Norway maple. I've removed tons in other parts of the yard to make gardens, mostly via digging and smothering. Digging is hard, smothering is relatively easy. First I scalp it by mowing it down as low as possible, then smother with cardboard topped with layers of organic material (i.e. lasagne gardening or sheet composting). Be sure to overlap the cardboard well or it will grow through. This does indeed kill the Vinca and as the layers decompose it will create a nice rich bed for planting. In defense of Vinca minor, it can be useful in a hard to grow and contained location, and it's attractive. But in my experience it is very aggressive and will choke out pretty much everything except for mature established shrubs and trees, native or not. I also had 5 large Norway maples, but have had 4 of them removed (1 huge one left). Even for a maple, they are particularly difficult to grow underneath, as they cast a dense shade, and have mildly allelopathic roots that will suck all the moisture out of the ground. Some natives that will grow in dry shady or open woodland include White wood aster (Symphyotrichum divaricatum), Blue wood aster (S. cordifolium), White snakeroot (Ageratina altissimum), Woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus), Northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), Viola, and possibly native Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). I'm sure there are others. You should conider moving the Juglans nigra as they have very allelopathic roots and are difficult to grow under. They also eventually grow into very large trees with wood that is quite valuable....See MoreFinally, 1 remodeled bath and 1 new one
Comments (42)pps7, I'm sorry I didn't see your post in April. :( Thank you for your comments! labocki, the master is real marble called Gioia and I bought it from DalTile. I was originally going to do a patterned floor and subway in the shower, too! Then I saw the marble and decided to use it everywhere. I thought a 'tile rug' with patterned tile in the middle of the floor would be the star of that bathroom until I realized I would probably have a real rug covering that cold marble tile floor and it would cover any tile rug so I just did 100% 12x12 polished marble everywhere. That was a short story made long :) but I wanted to tell you I had your vision also (Mrs. Limestone-ish). Having said all that, I would be very happy with the Carrera Star on all of the surfaces in the master. The shower floor can be your basketweave. Or maybe the shower floor plus a row on the wall similar to the bubbles in our hall bathroom. The faucets in the master were bought at Home Depot about 10 yrs ago and I think they are Delta. I did see similar faucets in either HD or Lowes. Good luck! maggie200, thank you! Personally, I would not use vessel sinks now and glass block would depend on how you are using it. I'm going out of town tomorrow morning and still have to pack after work today but if I have time I'll find your posts....See MoreWindow Restoration to expensive in Central NJ?
Comments (32)As the veteran of a few shellac cleanup projects, here's my comments If you have any large globs of shellac or any flaking, use a blade or scraper to knock off anything that will pop off easily. We had good luck spraying the surface with denatured alcohol from a spray bottle (windex bottle) and covering it with clear plastic to keep the alcohol from evaporating while it went through the thicker layers of shellac. We used the plastic from storm window kits as we already had it available and it was clear enough to judge progress without complete removal. The denatured alcohol will destroy the sprayer after a while so be prepared with another - some mister type spray bottles just don't spray enough to work well. Removed trim can be sprayed down and rolled together and then unroll and remove one piece at a time for cleaning. Dollar store scrubby pads work well for removing the initial grimy mess before you switch to steel wool and then rags. Smooth textured rags work well, like old tshirts or bed sheets. Garage sales and thrift stores are a cheaper source than the bags found in the paint department. The important thing to remember is that you don't want to remove all of the shellac. when you remove paint, removing the whole mess is the goal but here the goal is removing the grimy surface mess without losing all the old finish. Make the final wipedown with a smooth cotton cloth soaked in alcohol and you can get a nice smooth surface finish. Use ordinary denatured alcohol (blue can) for the cleaning but if you mix shellac yourself, buy the green version of the product (white/green can) Shellac is a mess and can be difficult to remove from your fingernails...I certainly understand why shellac manicures are all the rage!...See MorePolished Absolute Black shows bleaching; what's up?
Comments (16)Thanks happykate! I still have to pinch myself when I walk in and look at it all (esp at night when the counters are sparkling under the lights!). The granite guys had actually told me to use steel wool to remove any spots of epoxy they might have missed when they'd repaired our seam. They also used it to remove some shadowing we'd gotten on our honed travertine floor tiles in another part of the house--they said the steel wool "polishes" the stone, in a manner of speaking. The 00o stuff is pretty gentle. I used 00 steel wool in one spot, and might have buffed a little hard trying to see if I could remove a partial ring, but even at that, there's the slightest of faint scratches if I look really close (and only because I was looking really close). I'm not sure if the steel wool has worked on all the rings (not that there have been that many, but any at all is too many for me!). One that was there for a while from fairly early on, seems to be gone, as is another one. One or two that seemed to have faded after buffing them with the steel wool, had reappeared. On the advice of the fabricator, I'd re-sealed/polished the stone early last month with the stuff I'd gotten from them (an Italian product called K.R. 33, that says on the can that it "Brightens, Polishes, Protects"). I don't know if it helps at preventing the rings at all, but it sure shines up our granite so, and I love how gorgeous the counters look after I've applied it. If I wasn't afraid of harming the counters (over-applying), I'd be tempted to use the stuff monthly!...See Morebossyvossy
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoDinah V
7 years agoTaraMaiden
7 years agoStephen Giachin
6 years agoDinah V
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHU-136286297
5 years agoDinah V
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