Monday, November 21, 2011

Sealing granite counter tops

Hi folks,

As winter sets in, I am sure there will be lots of little growing pains as we all settle in to our new homes for the winter. Feel free to use this blog to ask each other questions here and compare notes.

After having our first get together in the new place, and after having some beet juice stain our white granite countertop - I thought I would share what we learned about getting red wine/beet juice stains off of the counter. We learned through this experience that we should be sealing our granite counter tops every few months to prevent oil and wine stains from seeping in.

As granite is a stone, acidic fruits (lemons, orange, blueberry, grape), vegetables and wine will permanently stain the counter if left sitting for too long.  As new homeowners, we didn't realize this and thought that because the granite has a polished finish - that it would be sealed and impervious to stains.  We scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail. That beet juice was not going to come out.

That's when we found this website and used their method of combining flour with dish soap and water to make a paste, or "poultice" and let it sit overnight. It worked for the beet juice stain and I would imagine it would do the same for red wine.

You might also want to check out these (cheesy, but informative) videos online for taking stains out of granite.

 
How to get oil stains out of granite. (We have not tried this one yet.)



How to seal granite counter tops.