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Granite for worktops and house signs: Just how stain resistant is it? |
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With the increasing use of granite for kitchen worktops and my current speciality house signs, I have recently had cause to consider just how stain resistant is natural granite? |
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| Author: Steve Walker |
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With the increasing use of granite for kitchen worktops and my current speciality house signs, I have recently had cause to consider just how stain resistant is natural granite?
To try to answer this question I set up a small experiment to try to deliberately introduce stain damage to a piece of granite using products found in the average kitchen.
The Experiment:
I used a piece of Nero Impala granite 20mm thick with a highly polished face. Nero Impala is a tight grained, mid to dark grey mottled granite from South Africa. I chose this type of granite as being a typical mid-range granite in terms of hardness and colour. This piece has a normal polished finish and has never been sealed to prevent staining.
I lay the piece of granite on a horizontal surface indoors and left it to thoroughly dry out for a couple of days.
I stuck a number of small labels across the face of the granite and next to each label introduced one of the chosen staining agents and as I introduced each new product, wrote he name of the product on the adjacent label in pencil. (Tip: if you are labelling something in conditions where the labels may get wet, use pencil.)
I then left the granite and the staining agents to do their worst for a full eighteen hours.
The Staining Agents: (and my expectations of them)
1. Vegetable Oil: Oils have always been taboo around marble workshops and are guaranteed to stain marble. I was certain these oils would leave at least a wet looking stain on the granite.,
2. Same as vegetable oil really but different oils do have different characteristics and olive oil is common to most kitchens.
3. Soy Sauce: I thought the combination of the dark colouring and the potentially corrosive nature of the vinegar base would be a serious contender to cause damage
4. Vinegar: I expected the vinegar to act as a corrosive and at least slightly degrade the polish.
5. Beetroot Juice: Beetroot juice is one of the most deadly stains I know of, as any housewife knows and I was pretty sure that this would soak in and leave a nasty purple stain.
6. Ketchup: Contains oil and vinegar and a lot of colouring is superb at staining kids clothes!
7. Tea Bag Wet: Tannin is a strong staining agent I expected this to leave at least a surface stain and an underlying water mark.
8. Washing up Liquid: Soap will stain marble so definitely worth a try.
9.Scotch Whisky: Don't panic! I used the cheap cooking stuff. I really was confidant that this would degrade the polish. On marble any strong alcohol spirit will cut through the surface polish so I assumed the same would be true of granite.
10. Red Wine: We all know how pervasive red wine stains can be. And any excuse seems good to open a new bottle!
11.Lemonade: You may be suprised to know that lemonade will also destroy the polish on marble if left for long enough, over eighteen hours I was pretty sure it would do some damage to the granite.
12. White wine: Ok I didn't think this would do any harm but it was open anyway!
13. Tabasco Sauce: Hey! this stuff burns throats like anything so why not granite ?
14. Lemon Juice: Very acidic of course, and if the lemonade does the trick neat lemon juice should work even better ( or worse depending on your viewpoint!).
15. Half an Orange: Citric acid and orange colourant, should be interesting.
Ok that's the lot, I was pretty confidant that the oil, the beetroot and the whisky would cause some damage but I was not sure about the others.
After the eighteen hours I mopped up the residue of the various staining agents and cleaned the surface of the granite with a normal kitchen spray cleaner and left it to dry for ten minutes.
I then inspected the granite in daylight for damage to the polish from corrosive acids and staining from the colourants and the oil based products.
The Result: Nothing! No staining no degrading of the polish not even the wet looking stains I was sure would be caused by the oils and the wet agents. This was a real surprise, eighteen hours is a long time and under normal domestic conditions any spillage would be cleaned up much sooner.
This is a really impressive result for the granite but a bit of a blow for me as I had hoped to write further articles on removing stains and re-polishing alcohol spots!
Still I mustn't be too surly about it, I have always been an admirer of the qualities of granite but now I can quote the stain resistant virtues of the stuff with great confidence.
One caveat however, there are many different types of granite and I cannot guarantee that this performance will be as impressive with them all, or that I have tried every potential staining or corrosive product, but I have no reason to think that other granites are more susceptible to damage or that any other agents pose a bigger threat.
About Author
Steve Walker has been a craftsman in stone and marble for 40 years. In his long career has practised as a stone mason, letter cutter, restoration carver, marble mason, and fireplace designer/manufacturer.
He now specialises in engraved stone, granite and slate house signs as:
http://www.stoneengravings.co.uk StoneEngravings, Engraved Natural Stone House Signs.
Article Source:
http://www.1888articles.com/author-steve-walker-1196.html
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