Marble and granite floor polishing in Thao Dien — riverside villas and stone-floored apartments

Thao Dien lies beside the Saigon River in the former District 2. Districts went out of use on 1 July 2025, and Resolution 1685/NQ-UBTVQH15 folded Thao Dien, with Thu Thiem, An Loi Dong, the old An Khanh and the rest of An Phu, into one An Khanh ward. A ward is the local unit that now comes after the street in an address; the old form still reaches us.

Our office at 72 Nguyen Co Thach, Sala, is in the same ward, and stone surveys and work in Thao Dien run from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, seven days a week.

Riverside and garden villas

Along Nguyen Van Huong and Quoc Huong: large houses on several floors, usually with natural stone floors, often with a veranda onto the garden and a private pool.

Compound houses

Large homes behind a guarded gate; machines enter by the route the guards indicate.

Apartments

The Nassim, launched with marble floors; the duplexes at Thao Dien Pearl; the sky villas, garden villas and penthouses at Gateway Thao Dien. Other towers are covered where the unit has natural stone.

Grit from the garden is the main cause. In many Thao Dien villas the stone hall and living room open straight onto a veranda, a lawn and paved garden paths. Trees drop leaves, pollen and fine soil on the veranda, and the sand under each shoe scratches the stone on the way in. The wear is uneven: a dull track from the garden door, a bright corner where nobody walks.

Water comes second. Tuoi Tre newspaper (June 2025) describes Quoc Huong, Nguyen Van Huong and Thao Dien streets as low ground with ageing drains, where heavy rain on a high tide can leave 0.15–0.3 m of water for one to two hours. In the rainy season, May to November, water is more likely to sit on ground-floor stone and in the grout, while the sealer that slows staining wears thinner with use. In these houses the survey looks at water marks, the grout and how fast the stone absorbs a drop of water before anyone discusses shine.

Vietnam Investment Review reported in 2015 that The Nassim has 238 apartments in four towers, presented with marble floors, separate dry and wet kitchens and a private lift lobby. The lift lobby is where grit falls from shoes first, so fine scratches gather on the way to the living room. The kitchen is where lemon juice, vinegar and acidic cleaners reach the floor; the dull mark they leave on marble is an etch, a spot where the surface itself has been eaten, and it has to be re-polished where it is. In the lobby we treat only your apartment's own floor and never touch the lift equipment.

Building rules

Polishing brings machines, water and noise. Many management offices ask for staff to be registered beforehand, ID left at the desk and equipment taken up by the lift they name; a development with few units, such as The Nassim, tends to check more closely.

Slurry

The water and stone fines made by grinding are vacuumed up as they form and never reach the lobby or corridor. Timber floors and kitchen units nearby are covered first.

Tiled apartments

Ceramic and porcelain tiles get their shine in the factory, and grinding them like stone can ruin the glaze. They belong to our tile and grout service.

The survey names the stone in each room first, because a product that is harmless on granite can strip the shine from marble. Marble is calcium-based and soft: sand scratches it and acids dull it, but it can be polished and crystallised, a step in which a solution reacts with the stone under the machine to form a glossier surface. Granite is hard and slow to grind; it is polished with materials for hard stone, not crystallised, and then sealed.

A plan has up to five steps: deep cleaning, honing (wet grinding with diamond pads), polishing, crystallisation and sealing. Few floors need all five, and honing is kept for deep scratches or wide etching, since each pass removes a thin layer of stone.

Before the whole floor is taken on, one small square is treated beside an untouched area. Once approved it is the standard for sign-off: for 48 hours after you receive the Up Report, our message with before-and-after photos of the job, anything short of it is redone free of charge. It also shows the limits: deep-set stains may only fade, and cracks and broken tiles are not corrected by polishing.

We publish no rate per square metre and give no figure before seeing the floor. Two halls of the same size can be different jobs: one is only dull and needs a deep clean and a polish, the other has been scratched by garden sand for years and must be honed, then crystallised and sealed.

The home survey is free. After you approve the test square you receive a written all-inclusive quote listing each step, the area and the working time; it changes only with your written agreement.

Most villas and apartments let to foreign tenants in Thao Dien come furnished, and the owner is not always in the city. For stone floors the gap between two leases is the convenient moment: the house is empty, machines reach every room, little furniture has to be moved and nobody lives with the noise. Do the stone first and the general cleaning afterwards, because a newly sealed floor must stay dry and free of heavy furniture for a time your specialist states at handover. The Up Report then shows the floor before and after for owner, tenant and agent.

• Entry: you receive the specialist's name and photo beforehand for the gate or reception.
• Dust and noise: honing is done wet and the slurry collected continuously, never emptied onto the garden. The machines are audible, so sessions keep to hours that suit you and the rules of the compound or building.
• Furniture: the room need not be emptied. Each piece is photographed, moved within the agreed scope and put back; put fragile and valuable things away first.
• Afterwards: walk on the floor gently once it is dry. Lay mats at every door from the garden and garage, vacuum before mopping, and keep vinegar, lemon and acidic bathroom cleaners off the stone.

English

Enquiries, quotes, booking confirmations and the Up Report can all be in English. For an English-speaking specialist in the house, say so when you book; if we cannot arrange one, we tell you in advance and support the visit by phone or message.

If you are away

A key can be left with building management, reception or family; only the assigned specialist handles it and it is never copied. The test square and the walk-through, our final check of the work, can both be done on a video call.

Payment and booking

You pay after the walk-through, by bank transfer or cash; a deposit may be asked for a larger job and is stated in the quote. To book a survey, message 0968 726 135 on WhatsApp or Zalo with photos of the floor.