Marble Worktop

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Just come back from Croatia where I was visiting some friends that have been doing up a place over there.

My mate had some marble worktops made up and fitted them his self (he use to work for me), the problem is that whilst the worktops have been polished I believe they have only been done enough to get a polished look and as such I think the pores are still really open, meaning it stains very easily. So much so that they are placing tea towels around the hob when they cook!

Any spills need to be wiped within minutes or it will mark but the absolute killer is lemon, is marks within seconds, as in doesn't stain but removes the sheen.

Now when he installed the worktops he put 3 coats of sealer on it, I have no idea what the sealer is as it's in an unmarked bottle which the stone masons gave him, it has clearly come from a much larger container.

I did wonder if the lemon is cutting straight through the sealer and removing it, so I tried resealing the area where the lemon has marked, I didn't expect the sealer to remove the mark completely but did expect some sort of minor improvement to the sheen where the sealer is filling the pores, alas it made no difference at all. Which now makes me think the lemon is etching the stone due to the acidity.

I fully expected that to get rid of the marks that they would need to be polished out, but the problem still remains that even after polishing out the marks the rest of the worktop still needs to be sorted. Removing them is not an option and neither is the stonemason coming out to re-polish the whole lot as things work very differently out there.

So my question is what cleaner and what sealer would some of the stone experts on here suggest? Bearing in mind that it will have to withstand acidic foodstuffs rather than your normal dirt and grime that say a floor would be subject to?

In addition I am not 100% convinced it is marble and have thought there is a chance the stone is in fact a limestone which may explain why it marks so easy.

worktops croatia2.jpg


 

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That's rough !!!
sounds like the surface would need some sort of wax finish first,
i tiled a marble hallway 2 weeks ago and it was unfinished as in no polish,wax,finish etc.
The shop that supplied it are sending one of their men to polish it up,it'll be in some mess with painters,joiners etc tramping on it since,i advised to cover it.
someone here might advise some chemical to clean it up and then re seal.
 
hmmm wax??? I wonder

another thought is, does anybody know of any 2 part sealers?
 
It's gonna have to be one hell of a product to protect against lemon etc !!
enduro might know !!
 
Marble will mark very easily with anything acidic, even with sealer...lemon juice is the worst.
When Marble is polished it closes the pores to get a shine and you need a thin sealer to penetrate. Aquamix ultra solv is a very good solvent based sealer designed for food prep areas and Marble, could be worth a go. Try Dave www.tradetiler.co.uk he stocks it. Some very good quality limestone is classed a marble so you may be right.
 
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Impregnators or topical sealers will be affected by lemon juice or any other high acidic liquids if the spill is left long enough, they are designed as a protective layer..not a prevention.

But the issue here is the quick flash point of the etching. if it is etching.

It it is staining so quickly with quick contact , then the sealer used is no good.

Can your mate find out what the sealer is..?
 
Aquamix ultra solv is noted and now on the shopping list.

There are a number of off cuts which I’ve marked up and which I’m getting my mate to try and clean and re-seal once I’ve sent him some products over.

I think finding out what the sealer is, is going to be fairly hard not least because of the language barrier with the stone masons.

As I say there are off cuts so I’m suggesting he strips the sealer off some and leave sealer on the others then re-seal with anything I send over, so if you had no idea what sealer was originally used, which remover would you suggest.

So I’m gonna put the auqamix on the list but want to send a few over so any other ideas guys?

And also has anybody heard of a 2 part sealer? My head says it probably doesn't exist as rapid hardening would mean less soaking in time but just maybe there is a sealer that as a second coat of an activator applied later???? Straw clutching maybe?
 
oh it should be said the sealer used is solvent based as i applied a small amount
 

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