<p>For those of you who may recall, I have survived my kitchen remodeling project. It’s been over 3 months since the completion. The kitchen turned out beautifully and for the most part, the whole project went very smoothly.
However, I do have some questions regarding the care and maintenance of granite countertops and I’m hoping that the wise parents on CC would be able to help me out!</p>
<p>My granite countertop had supposedly been treated with some sort of sealant. I think I heard the granite guys mention “acetone”, but I’m not sure if that’s what they had used. From day one, I’ve noticed that there are blotchy areas of “filmy substance” that almost looks like car wax. I was not sure what a sealed granite countertop should look like, so I just assumed that was just the sealant. For normal maintenance in the past 3 months, I have used only a damp cloth on the countertop. However, lately, certain areas of the countertop are beginning to feel “sticky” and I can’t figure out why. When I mentioned this to the kitchen designer, he gave me a countertop cleaner to use, but that doesn’t seem to help either. </p>
<p>Here are my questions. How is a properly sealed granite countertop supposed to look like? Is it shiny? Should the sealant be totally transparent ( invisible) or can you expect to see an opaque, filmy layer? </p>
<p>In terms of re-sealing the granite. some people have told me to do it every 6 months; others have told me every 2 -3 years; and there have also been others who told me that they have NEVER re-sealed theirs! So, now I’m all confused as to which re-sealing schedule to follow. </p>
<p>Does anyone know why my countertop is “sticky” and what I can do to get rid of it? I hate to use any chemical cleaners on it before I figure out what the cause of this stickiness comes from. Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated!!!</p>
<p>wow- not sure why the counter tops would be sticky. Based on my experience, they should be shiny. We had ours treated with acetone and I noticed no film. The installer said to treat it once per year.
For cleaning, I use a homemade solution in a spray bottle. Water, a small amount of rubbing alcohol, and a small amount of Dawn. Every week, I shine them up with a special granite cleaner I picked up at the store (it’s foamy - and smells rather strong).
I would call the installer and ask them to come out and take a look. Seems like they may have done a poor job on the sealing if you see a blotchy film.<br>
A big part of the beauty of granite is the shine…</p>
<p>Is it polished granite, or honed (unpolished)? We had both surfaces in our last house. The polished granite never needed anything more than a wet rag to maintain the shine; a polished surface would not ever feel sticky, as there is no finish on it.</p>
<p>The honed granite had more of a rustic look, not shiny at all - I kept it clean with a wet rag, and if I wanted a little shine, I rubbed in some mineral oil. I personally liked the unfinished look on the island countertop. I can imagine if they used some type of sealant on honed granite, it would start to wear away after a while and perhaps develop sticky patches if something acidic (just guessing) was spilled there.</p>
<p>Wow. I’ve had granite countertops for ten years and a granite table for fifteen and not only have they never been sealed, I turned down the sealant. It’s a coating. Stone doesn’t need a coating; do you think anyone has sealed all those stones at the European cathedrals? People have been walking on that marble for years and it looks pretty good. The idea of sealing granite and marble is ridiculous–just a way for them to make money.</p>
<p>To clean my granite, I use Soft Scrub<tm> from time to time. Mostly I wipe it with a soapy cloth.</tm></p>
<p>Interesting about the sealing, DMD. I had ours resealed a couple of months ago and it felt sticky and tacky and looked terrible. Ended up using some granite stuff I found at the hardware store and gave it some real elbow grease, and it rubbed away. Anyone heard about this business of granite emitting radon? Some friends of mine are having theirs “tested”.</p>
<p>I have a fifteen year old polished black granite countertop (really stupid color choice – don’t get me started!). I wipe it with a Mystic Maid cloth moistened with water – the best miracle cleaner ever invented! Every now and then I use windex with paper towels. Good luck with your puzzling problem.</p>
<p>Acetone was most likely just a solvent the installers used for something. It does not work as a sealant, and it will quickly evaporate from stone surfaces. I have a granite-top table in the kitchen, and it does not need any sealants, as far as I can tell - I simply wipe it with a damp cloth or use the cleaner I got at HD.</p>
<p>The radon stories were all over the media a month or so ago. Turns out, some exotic granite types, mostly the ones brought from Africa, contain traces of uranium. Not what I’d want in my kitchen.</p>
<p>I’d go back to the installers and have them come look at it. You shouldn’t have sticky spots. If something like softscrub with a sponge doesn’t get rid of it, they may have to buff and repolish those areas.</p>
<p>I’ve had granite countertops for 8 years now and have never done anything with them (other than clean with a soapy dishcloth) except occasionally go over with windex and a paper towel. I bought a “kit” at home depot from Dupont or someone similar that has a 3-step process to clean and seal, thinking I probably “ought” to do it. So far they’re still in the box.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your kind advices and insights! My designer stopped by today to take a look. He told me that he had already called the granite installer about this problem so the installer should be coming by in the next day or two to take care of the problem. As for ongoing maintenance, I shall follow the above CC parents’ advice of using minimal chemical on the granite. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions!!</p>
<p>The best cleaner/shiner I’ve found is made by 409, for granite. I’ve used rubbing alcohol as well as other granite cleaners, but this one seems to be the best. I haven’t resealed yet. Is it really necessary? The granite is 6 years old.</p>
<p>I like the “Method” brand cleaners. There is one for granite or the all purpose one (in cucumber or lavender scent), which works fine on granite and marble. This comes in spray bottles, which I like for cleaning. They also come in wipes, but these are expensive per use.</p>
<p>I have a granite countertop, and I’ve never done anything but clean it with whatever is at hand. It seems to be impervious to stains and everything else.</p>
<p>We have granite counter tops. They are now 6 years old. They were sealed by the installer, and my DH bought some granite sealer twice and he has resealed them. We were told not to place anything on the counter tops for either 24 or 48 hours (I cannot recall) after resealing. We never had anything blotchy or sticky areas. </p>
<p>For regular cleaning, I don’t advise this, but we use “multi surface” Windex and we have not had any problems. We use soap and water as well. Our counter tops look as nice as the day we got them. Our counter tops are a multi colored stone and we are so happy with them.</p>
<p>zipyourlips - sorry to get you started, but why was black a bad choice for your granite countertops? We’re thinking of re-doing our 15 year+ countertops, and we were thinking of black granite. </p>
<p>Pardon the pun, but could you dish out the bad news?</p>
<p>We have some granite countertops and this is the first I’ve ever heard of acetone. Acetone is SUPER volatile and flammable, and will INSTANTLY remove paint from any surface. Buy some and rub it on something painted that you don’t care about …if you want to experiment. </p>
<p>Do some research on this. Our granite countertop easily shows oily residue from baking and other greasy operations, but you can clean it up with regular non-oily cleaners. (takes a lot of cleaning if you get some crisco or olive oil on it. ) I’d go easy on the acetone. It is very hazardous. We use windex and everything eventually cleans up.</p>
<p>Isn’t acetone in nail polish remover? I have black/green Uba Tuba countertops that look the same as the day I bought my home 6 years ago. I use a tiny dab of dawn (cuts grease/oil from cooking) on a wet paper towel then dry the counter thourougly. If I am feeling lazier, I use windex on it (although I was told by a granite guy not to use it). My only problem with the dark granite is that it shows all the dust (that accumulates literally overnight). My friend with the lighter colors don’t see the dust on their counters (but it probably is there too )</p>
<p>My granite-top table is dark, and it does show dust, bread crumbs, sugar, salt and anything light-colored spilled on it. My light-colored Corian kitchen counters do not suffer from this problem :), and yes, the same dust is on them, too.</p>
<p>(Yes, acetone is an ingredient in some nail polish removers. I would not recommend using it for any household cleaning jobs. It is flammable and toxic, and should be handled with proper ventilation. However, I do not think the OP wanted to use it on the countertops; he was just wondering why the installers mentioned it.)</p>
<p>Hayden, I love the look of black granite, but you can’t touch it without making it look dirty. To keep it from looking grungy you would have to literally wipe it down after each use. Ours has bar stools and is used as an eating as well as a prep area. OK…to be honest, it also functions as a place to pile whatever arrives in the mailbox or comes in through the door, since it’s a large island countertop. It is just beautiful after having been wiped down, but once anyone uses it for anything, the fingerprints/crumbs/dust/unidentified-icky-residue shows up like a neon sign. I assumed that a dark surface would be forgiving, but I was mistaken. For full disclosure I should admit that when we installed the black granite, we also installed a white tile floor. Talk about stupid. We replaced the white tile with wood many years ago, but the black granite still looks great (right after it’s been cleaned).</p>
<p>The reason we were thinking of black granite is that many of the reports we’d seen said that dark granite is stronger and more stain-resistant than lighter granite. </p>
<p>So let me ask the next question: should I have concerns about using lighter granite? What say you, light-granite owners?</p>
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