With proper care, your stone top can remain a beautiful centerpiece for your home and your kitchen for many, many years to come.

Whether you have an engineered, composite stone top or a natural stone like marble or granite, there are some easy steps to take, to care for your stone.

Engineered Stones

Maintaining engineered stones is easier than natural stone products.

Cleaning-

Simply wash with a soft cloth and warm water. You can use a mild soap if desired.

DO NOT use abrasive or highly alkaline, acid, free radical or oxidising cleaning products.

DO NOT use or leave products such as bleach, oven cleaners, products with a pumice, batteries, paint removers, furniture strippers, tarnish or silver cleaners.

Heating-

Engineered stone is NOT heat proof. Stone surfaces can be damaged by sudden and/or rapid change of temperature, particularly near the edges.

Prolonged and sustained heat on engineered stone surfaces can also be damaging.

Whilst issues are not common, it is recommended to use a heat pad or trivet when placing hot items on your engineered stone surface.

Scratching-

Engineered stone is far more durable and resistant to scratching than natural stones, however, it is not entirely scratch-proof. Scratches can be more visible on monotone stone surfaces than on multi-coloured surfaces.

Objects hitting the edges of engineered stone, particularly around sinks and other cut-out sections can be the most volatile and prone to scratching or chipping.

Engineered stones can have chipping corrected, and matched as closely to the original surface as possible.

Marble

Marble is a substance that reacts, on contact, with any acid. This includes acids that are found in foods like fruit, vegetables, vinegar etc., so to avoid etching of the marble, it is very important to use a cutting board to protect your tops when preparing food.

It is recommend that you buff and re-seal marble surfaces yearly to maintain them.

Cleaning-

Simply wash with a soft cloth and warm water. You can use a mild soap if desired, or a dilated solution of pure soap or half a cap-full of bleach to 3 litres of water.

DO NOT use abrasive or highly alkaline, acid, free radical or oxidising cleaning products.

DO NOT use or leave products such as bleach, oven cleaners, products with a pumice, batteries, paint removers, furniture strippers, tarnish or silver cleaners.

Heating-

Marble is NOT heat proof. It can be burnt.

Prolonged and sustained heat on marble can also be damaging.

It is recommended to use a heat pad or trivet when placing hot items on your marble surface.

Scratching-

Marble is a softer substance than engineered stones, and can scratch quite easily – particularly on polished finishes.

You should avoid dragging things along your marble surface, and certainly never cut anything directly onto your surface.

Marble can be buffed to remove surface scratches if desired.

Granite

Granite is one of the most hard-wearing stones you can have in an kitchen, and is almost impossible to scratch with ‘normal’ kitchen use.

Cleaning-

Simply wash with a soft cloth and warm water and soap or spray and wipe cleaner if desired.

Granite is very resistant to spills of substances such as acids and alcohol, however it can be quite porous, so spills of things such as beetroot or wine, or hot cooking oils may cause staining, so it’s very important to wipe these up immediately.

With lighter coloured granite, you may experience slight darkening in areas where water has been left to stand, but this should fade away when it dries – but obviously to avoid, ensure these are also wiped and dried immediately.

Heating-

Granite is not damaged by placing hot objects or utensils on the surface, though some care and consideration should be taken.

On all stone surfaces it is recommended to use a heat pad or trivet when placing hot items on your tops.

Scratching-

Granite is a very tough substance, and should not be scratched by normal use, though diamond or tungsten bladed objects can mark the surface.

 

If you have any specific questions or would like any advice on cleaning or maintenance for your beautiful stone top, please ask one of the friendly KitchenHaus team.