Frederick M. Hueston, PhD  

Stone Care Consultant 

I can’t believe we’re already well into a new year of new cases for this old stone detective. In fact, just as I finished writing this sentence my phone rang!         

“Stone Detective,” I announced with a cheerful voice, already anticipating that this case would be interesting.  The lady on the other end was in tears. I could hardly understand her so I asked her to take a deep breath and slow down. She just kept on crying so I thought I would do my best Lamaze impression and breathe with her.  

She finally calmed down enough so that I could make out what she was saying. She told me that she had this beautiful white marble floor throughout her home. The floor was several years old and it started getting these little white dots. 

She told me she tried every cleaner on the market but they wouldn’t come out. She begged me to come take a look and tell her what to do to get rid of them. Well, I can’t resist a crying rich lady so I told her I would be over that afternoon. 

I pulled into the driveway of what I would honestly call a mansion. This house was huge. It had those tall white columns at the front door and the entire house was brick. Kind of reminded me of a brand new “old” house, if that makes any sense.  

I no sooner parked the ole Woody when Mrs. Whitespot came running out the front door. She was a rather large woman. I don’t just mean tall – she must have weighed in at about 300 lbs. She came trotting up to me and gave me a great big bear hug. I thought she was going to crush me like a cheap beer can.

“I am so happy you’re here,” she said, grabbing my hand and leading me into the house. We stepped inside and the foyer had an all-white Carrara marble floor. The entire foyer was all white. The walls, ceiling, furniture (everything) were all white. I felt like I was in the Foyer to Heaven.  

She pointed down at the floor, showing me the little white dots. I knew right away what they were but the mystery would be to find out what was causing them. I walked through the home and the dots where everywhere. It was time to start asking some questions to solve this mystery. 

Before I started my questions I told her that these little white dots are called stuns or crystal fractures. They are caused by impact to the stone. “You see this on commercial buildings all the time,” I told her, “caused by woman’s high heels.” 

She put her hands on her hips, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Do I look like the dainty type to fit into a pair of heels?” I kind of chuckled and told her I wasn’t implying that she wore stilettos. 

But, I did ask if anyone in the home wore high heels. She told me it was just her and her husband, and she assured me he doesn’t wear high heels. I thought to myself, Good, that rules out a cross-dressing butler or the French maid, then. 

I started to ask her all kinds of questions to try and find out what was causing these stuns. I asked if she had any construction workers in the house, and she said no. I asked if she had a cleaning lady and she told me, “Yes, but she only uses a dust mop on the floors and an occasional wet mop.”  She told me that the floor was about ten years old but she didn’t see any of these dots until about a year ago.  

Now I was scratching my head. I asked her if I could take a look around. One of the secrets to solving a lot of these mysteries is to look around at other surfaces other than the stone itself. This can often provide some clues.  

I walked through the house and didn’t really see anything that gave me any clues. Another technique in the search for clues is to start a conversation about their actives, hobbies and so on. So I asked her if she would mind telling me if they had any hobbies. She told me that she likes to knit and collects Disney stuff. Then she said something that sparked my interest. She said her husband liked to play golf. 

I am not a golfer but I do know a little about the game and it so happens that I knew just enough to see a possible solution to this case.  

“How long has he been playing?” I asked her. 

“He took up golf about a year ago.” 

“Does he wear his golf shoes in the house?” 

Guess what the answer was? Yep, he sure did. The spikes on his shoes were the source of the dots. Now I had to tell her the bad news. I told her that her husband’s golf shoes were causing the stuns and, unfortunately, stun marks are difficult to nearly impossible to remove since they are often deep into the stone surface. 

She wasn’t very happy to hear that but at least now she knew what was causing the marks. Another case solved, but man, I wouldn’t want to be in her husband’s (golf) shoes.

The Stone Detective is a fictional character created by Fred Hueston, written to be entertaining and educational. He has written over 33 books on stone and tile installations, fabrication and restoration and also serves as an expert for many legal cases across the world. You can send any email comments to him at fhueston@stoneforensics.com.