The Auckland War Memorial Museum has occupied one of New Zealand’s finest heritage buildings since 1929. By the early 1990s, the Museum suffered from neglect and under-funding. By the end of that decade, the first stage of a massive renovation and refurbishment had transformed the Museum into an internationally competitive exhibition space. A second stage of construction, completed in December 2006, extended the Museum’s floor space and added the impressive Grand Atrium, a dome covering an internal bowl-shaped structure.

The multi-million dollar renovation included hundreds of metres of basalt in the Grand Atrium, including steps on the staircase, flooring in the main area, and paving outside. However, instead of the glistening expanse that Auckland architect Noel Lane had hoped for, cleaners had unwittingly turned the floor into a smudgy mess.

Trethewey Granite & Marble, who supplied the basalt, contacted Slique to provide both an Installation Treatment to touch-up the newly laid floor to a showroom finish, and a Stain-Guarding Treatment to help protect the floor. Slique – a company with branches in both New Zealand and Australia – specialises in methods to preserve the look and functionality of stone and tile. Unfortunately, when Slique technicians inspected the Grand Atrium site, they unearthed a number of problems.

The cleaners had been using a wax-based cleaning product that had accumulated, making the surface look smudgy. Once Slique technicians had stripped off the wax build-up, they discovered that it had also been hiding substantial damage that had been caused during the renovations. When the natural basalt was exposed, various paint marks, etches and scratches were clearly visible.