21 Nov How to clean your stone – The dos and don’ts

For all those who already have some kind of natural stone in their house, you would know first-hand of how easily a marble benchtop can be stained. While everyone appreciates how nice a new polished piece of marble or granite looks, not everyone recognises how important it is to maintain and keep it that way.

That’s why we’re writing this article – to ensure that your natural stone flooring or benchtop, stays as beautiful and shiny as the day it was installed.

Below you’ll find a list of helpful tips to maintain your stone.

• For almost all natural stones, you can save your pennies because most of the time, some good old fashioned warm water and sponge will clean up the mess. Often with spills, its best to immediately remove the staining agent and after you can use a specific marble or natural stone cleaning spray
• As soon as something is spilt, especially if it is red wine, juice or coffee, clean up the stone as soon as possible. That will prevent any major soakage which is far more difficult to clean.
• For your stone floors, lose the temptation to pull out the vacuum cleaner. Often, sand and grit gets lodged in the wheels which scratches your floor. We recommend a good ol’ fashioned dust mop to get the job done.
• Sometimes the easiest way clean mess is to avoid it! Door mats at entry points to your home can catch a lot of dirt and sand that would potentially damage your beautiful stone floors. Proactive is better than reactive

Now here are some things we don’t recommend

• While it makes sense to put your hand lotion next to the sink on the benchtop – this is a bad idea. All these cremes and lotions can leak on to your benchtop and cause stains and damage.  Simply buy a nice holder for all your toiletries and save your benchtop!
• Avoid using anything acidic like vinegar, ammonia or lemon for cleaning natural stone. It might be great for normal tiles but for stone, as above, warm water generally will do the trick.
• If you do want to use a stronger cleaning agent, always ensure the product is specifically designed for your particular stone whether it be marble, granite or an engineered stone. Too often, people head to the shops and purchase an all-purpose bathroom/kitchen cleaner that does more harm than good.