Mineral surfaces are genuinely low-maintenance - that is half the reason people choose them - but low-maintenance is not no-maintenance. Every TVPC handover includes a written care schedule; this is the plain-English version.
The weekly routine
Warm water, a pH-neutral cleaner, a soft cloth or well-wrung mop. That is the entire regime for sealed microcement floors, worktops and wet rooms. Polished plaster walls need even less - an occasional dust with a dry microfibre cloth. Wipe splashes when you see them rather than letting anything sit and a mineral surface will look after itself for years.
The three things to keep away
- Aggressive chemicals. Bleach, limescale removers, ammonia and anything labelled "power" will dull a sealed surface and etch a waxed one. If a bottle promises to destroy something, keep it off the plaster.
- Abrasives. Scouring pads and cream cleansers polish their own scratches into the seal. A soft cloth and patience beat them every time.
- Standing acids. Lemon juice, vinegar and red wine won't ruin a sealed worktop in the time a meal takes - but overnight they can mark the seal. Wipe, don't soak.
Why the rules are different for each finish
"Mineral finish" covers materials that behave quite differently and the care follows the chemistry rather than the look.
Sealed microcement
The surface you touch is polyurethane, not cement. It is non-porous, so nothing soaks in and everything lives or dies by the condition of that seal. Treat it like a good wooden floor finish: no abrasives, no solvents, felt pads under furniture and renew it before it is visibly worn rather than after.
Waxed lime plaster - Marmorino and Stucco Veneziano
Lime is alkaline, so acids are its specific enemy - vinegar, lemon, descaler and some "natural" cleaners will etch it where they would only dull a sealed surface. The compensation is that a waxed lime finish can simply be re-waxed to bring the sheen back, which is a fraction of the cost of redecorating and takes an afternoon.
Clay plaster
Unsealed and soft, by design - that softness is what lets it regulate humidity. It is not washable. Dust it and repair marks rather than trying to clean them: clay is re-wetted and re-worked and blends invisibly, which no other finish can do. Keep the material we leave at handover.
Exterior and pool finishes
Rinse rather than scrub and check the seal annually before winter rather than in spring. Freeze-thaw damage happens where water has already found a way in through a tired seal, so the inspection matters more than the cleaning.
Sealing cycles - the five-year conversation
The protective seal is the working layer and it is sacrificial by design. Family bathrooms and kitchen worktops typically want re-sealing every 3-5 years; hard-working commercial floors more often; polished plaster walls may simply want a fresh coat of wax to revive their sheen. It is a day's visit, not a renovation - and we diarise it for every project we hand over.
How to tell a seal is due
- Water stops beading. On a sealed surface a droplet sits proud. When it starts to spread and darken the surface beneath, the seal is thinning.
- Dull patches in traffic routes. A path worn between door and sink, or in front of the hob, is the first place it shows.
- Marks that used to wipe off and now need effort. The most reliable everyday signal.
- Any patch that dries a different colour from the surface around it.
None of these is urgent. All of them mean book it for the next few months rather than the next few years, because re-sealing a tired seal is a day's work and re-finishing a surface that has been left too long is not.
The first month after installation
Seals reach full chemical hardness over days to weeks, not hours and the surface is at its most vulnerable in that window. During the first month:
- Use the room normally but gently. No dragging furniture, no heavy rugs down yet.
- Water is fine once we say so - but avoid detergents entirely for the first week or two and use plain warm water.
- On a heated floor, ramp the underfloor heating back up gradually over several days rather than switching it on.
We give exact dates at handover. They are not padding and a seal put into service early never reaches its rated performance.
Repairs - blended, not replaced
The quiet superpower of hand-applied finishes: damage is repaired by hand, feathered into the surrounding surface rather than swapped out like a cracked tile. A chipped corner or a scratch through the seal is usually a small, local visit. Keep your project's colour reference (it's on your handover sheet) and any repair will be mixed to match.
One caveat worth knowing: on a fully burnished mirror finish and on directional metallic finishes, a local patch can catch light differently from the wall around it, so those are sometimes reworked plane-to-plane rather than spot-repaired. Matt and satin finishes patch invisibly.
Things people do that we wish they wouldn't
- Steam mops on microcement floors. Heat and pressure together are hard on a polyurethane seal. A damp mop is enough.
- Bathroom "power" sprays left to dwell. The dwell time is the problem, not the spray.
- Rubber-backed mats left in one place on a heated floor. They trap heat and can mark the seal. Move them.
- Touching up with emulsion. It never matches and it has to come off before a proper repair, which makes the repair bigger.
- Waiting. Almost everything on this page is cheap to deal with early and expensive to deal with late.
If something goes wrong
Ring us before trying anything heroic. Most "disasters" we're sent photos of - a cloudy patch, a water mark, a dull streak - are the seal doing its job and are resolved with a clean and a partial re-seal. One call: 020 3507 0789.
We also maintain surfaces we did not install. If you have inherited a microcement floor or a polished plaster wall and have no idea what is on it or who put it there, send photographs and we will tell you what we think it is and what it needs.