Care and Maintenance / After Care

Daily Cleaning for All Stone Surfaces

• For every day maintenance, we recommend using a soft sponge, paper towel, or dishcloth with warm water. If needed, ordinary dishwashing detergent with warm water can be used.
• For the more stubborn clean-ups, use a gentle non-abrasive cleaner. Avoid acidic cleaning products, such as lemon juice.
• When trying a new product, we recommend doing so in a small inconspicuous area first!
• For Best Results: Wipe (don’t scrub) spills as soon as possible and dry the surface with a soft towel.

Scratches, Dents, and Chips

Engineered and Natural stone are hard materials, but are not indestructible. They must be treated carefully. It is advisable to handle objects that are harder than the stone, abrasive, ribbed, or gritty, with care around your countertops, as they can scratch or dent the stone.

Finished edges of the stone (sink area, polished edges) are fragile locations that should be used with extra care/caution. It is recommended to use a cutting board to protect the surface and to avoid dulling your knives.

• Always read your specific stone company’s cleaning and maintenance guidelines before trying a new product on your stone countertop (links below).
• Be sure to use a trivet or hot pad under hot cookware and any heat-generating appliances.
• Be careful with earthenware and ceramics, the rough edges may be harmful to the stone finish.

• Use a cutting board, do not cut directly on your stone countertop.
• Do not use any abrasive or heavy-duty chemicals.
• Textured surfaces, (anything other than a polished finish), will require more daily maintenance.
• Hitting edges around sinks and dishwashers could cause chips.

Natural stone is composed of natural elements, it is always breathing, moving, and oxidizing. Changes over time can occur slow or fast, there is no way to control these changes, this is one of the charming characteristics of natural materials.

Heat: Use a trivet or hot pad between natural stone and any heat generating objects. Sudden or rapid change of temperature in one area, especially near edges and cut outs, may create enough thermal expansion energy to cause your countertop to crack.

Nature of the Stone: Natural stone is subject to variation in color, veining, fissures and/or imperfections. It is not out of the ordinary to have small pieces of stone near exposed areas free themselves from the remainder of the slab. These spots can often be filled in with an epoxy.

Natural stone contains a variety of minerals that have different characteristics. “Mica” can be one of them, it is formed in layers and is often found in granite. It is very common to have layers peel away from one another. Occasionally with granite countertops you may feel rougher areas where bits of mica have chipped away. In some cases, these areas can be filled back in with epoxy. Natural stone is a beautiful, unpredictable product of nature, and it varies from piece to piece.

Good Practice: Avoid standing on, or putting significant weight on your counter tops.

Sealing: All natural stones, such as Granite, Quartzite, and Dolomite are properly sealed with a stone impregnator at the time of installation. Natural stone can be porous, sealing your stone surfaces is important to prevent staining. All natural stones require different amounts of sealing, depending on how porous they are and how the surface is being used. We recommend resealing a natural stone countertop every 1-5 years as a preventative measure. The sealer is absorbed by the pores in the stone and decreases the likelihood of other substances penetrating the surface.

There are things one can look for that indicate the need for resealing. The first is noticing if water does not bead as nicely on the stone surface as it once did. Another indicator is seeing a darker area a decent amount of time after you have wiped the countertop, this change in color is the stone absorbing the liquid, time to reseal!

Etching: Natural Stone is made up of many minerals, calcium being one of them. When calcium and an acidic substance interact, a chemical reaction takes place, the result can be called etching. A discolored, and sometimes textured spot is left behind in the stone. To prevent natural stone from etching, it is recommended to wipe up spills as soon as possible, especially those that are acidic, such as lemon juice or vinegar. It is advised to use a cutting board or place mat to protect the stone when working with acidic materials. Another preventative measure would be to reseal your natural stone surfaces as regularly as needed.