Care & Maintenance
Most countertop damage comes from good intentions.
The cleaner someone reaches for is usually the problem. What each surface actually needs, what quietly ruins it, and which rules only apply to one material.
Every Surface
The daily routine, for all of it.
Warm water, a few drops of dish soap, a soft cloth. That is the whole of daily countertop care, on every surface we fabricate, and it is genuinely all most kitchens ever need.
The damage we get called about almost never comes from neglect. It comes from someone reaching for a stronger product to deal with a mark that plain soap would have lifted — bleach on quartz, vinegar on marble, a scouring pad on a polished finish. The material differences below matter mostly because they tell you what not to reach for.
Quartz
How to clean quartz countertops.
Wipe quartz with warm soapy water and a soft cloth. For anything dried on, lay a damp cloth over it for a few minutes to soften it, then lift it with a plastic scraper rather than scrubbing. Quartz is non-porous, so nothing has soaked in — whatever you are looking at is sitting on the surface, and it will come off without force.
What ruins quartz is chemistry, not dirt. The resin binding the stone together is vulnerable to strongly alkaline and strongly acidic products: bleach, ammonia, oven cleaner, drain cleaner, high-pH degreasers. These can dull the finish permanently, and the damage is not repairable by cleaning. Keep them off the counter, and rinse immediately if something splashes.
Heat is the other one. The resin softens well below the temperature of a pan lifted off a burner, so a trivet is not optional on quartz. If a hot pan is going to land on a bare counter in your kitchen, porcelain is the material that solves it.
Quartz
Do quartz countertops need sealing?
No. Not when installed, not annually, not ever. Quartz is engineered non-porous, so there is no open structure for a sealer to fill and nothing for it to bond to — a sealer applied to quartz simply sits on top and eventually looks streaky.
If anyone offers to seal a quartz countertop for you, they are selling you a service the material cannot use. The same is true of porcelain. Sealing is a natural-stone conversation, and it is a real one — see below.
Granite & Quartzite
Sealing granite countertops.
Granite is porous, so it wants a penetrating sealer to keep oil and pigment from soaking in. How often depends entirely on the slab. Dense dark granites can go years; open, light-coloured ones may want it annually. Anyone quoting you a fixed schedule without knowing your stone is guessing.
Test it instead of scheduling it. Put a tablespoon of water on the counter and leave it fifteen minutes. Wipe it away. If the stone underneath has darkened, the seal has worn through and it is time to reseal. If it looks unchanged, leave it alone — resealing stone that does not need it just builds residue.
Resealing itself is straightforward: clean the surface, let it dry completely, apply an impregnating stone sealer per its instructions, and buff off the excess before it dries. Quartzite is treated the same way — it is harder than granite but still natural stone, and still porous.
Marble
Etching is not staining, and sealer does not stop it.
This is the single most useful thing to understand about marble, and most care advice gets it wrong by treating the two as one problem.
A stain is pigment that has soaked into the stone. It is dark, and a sealer prevents it. An etch is different: acid has chemically dissolved a microscopic layer of the calcium carbonate the marble is made of. It shows as a dull, lighter patch where the polish used to be. Sealing does nothing to prevent etching, because the acid is not soaking in — it is eating the surface.
Lemon, vinegar, wine, tomato, and most bathroom cleaners will etch marble in seconds. Blot those immediately rather than wiping them across a wider area. Light etching can often be polished out with a marble polishing powder; deeper marks need a professional refinish.
None of this makes marble a bad choice. It makes it a material that develops a patina, which is exactly what some people want and exactly what others cannot live with. Knowing the difference before you buy is the point.
Soapstone & Porcelain
The two that behave differently.
Soapstone is non-porous and does not need sealing for protection. Mineral oil is applied for appearance, not defence — it darkens the stone evenly so it ages as one surface instead of in patches. Skip the oil and it still darkens, just unevenly, wherever hands and cooking put it. Soapstone is also soft enough to scratch, and soft enough that a scratch sands out with fine paper and a re-oil.
Porcelain asks for the least of anything we fabricate. Non-porous, no sealing ever, unbothered by heat, unbothered by UV, and hard enough that abrasive pads are safe on it. Soap and water, and that is the entire maintenance story.
Damage Control
What actually causes the damage.
Four things account for nearly every countertop we are called out to look at.
Bleach and ammonia on quartz, anything acidic on marble, abrasive powders on a polished finish. The most common cause by a distance, and always well-intentioned.
A pan straight off the element onto bare quartz. The scorch is in the resin and it does not come out.
Water pooling around a sink cutout works into the seam over time. Wipe the rim rather than letting it sit.
Sitting or standing on an unsupported overhang. Stone is strong in compression and unforgiving in bending.
Can I use vinegar on my countertops?
Not on natural stone. Vinegar is acidic and will etch marble, and over time it degrades the sealer on granite and quartzite. It is also unnecessary — warm soapy water cleans stone perfectly well. On quartz and porcelain vinegar will not cause immediate harm, but there is still no reason to use it.
How do I get a stain out of granite?
Identify the stain first. Oil-based marks (cooking oil, grease) are drawn out with a poultice — a paste of baking soda and water, spread over the mark, covered with plastic wrap and left overnight. Pigment stains from wine, coffee or fruit often respond to the same poultice made with hydrogen peroxide instead. Both work by pulling the stain back out of the stone rather than scrubbing at it. If the mark is a dull patch rather than a dark one, it is an etch, not a stain, and needs polishing rather than cleaning.
How often should granite be resealed?
There is no universal interval, and any answer that gives you one is guessing at your slab. Use the water test: leave a tablespoon of water on the surface for fifteen minutes, wipe it off, and see whether the stone darkened. Darkening means reseal. Dense granites can go several years between; porous light ones may want it yearly.
Can I cut directly on my countertop?
You can on porcelain — you will dull the knife long before you mark the surface. On everything else, use a board. Not because the stone will scratch easily, but because stone is harder than your knives and will ruin the edges.
Do I need a special stone cleaner?
Not for daily cleaning. A pH-neutral stone cleaner is a reasonable thing to keep for periodic use, particularly on sealed natural stone, but dish soap and warm water handle nearly everything. What matters far more is what you avoid than what you buy.
My quartz has a dull patch. Can it be fixed?
Usually not by cleaning. A dull patch on quartz normally means a chemical has damaged the resin at the surface, and that change is permanent. Occasionally what looks like damage is a residue film from a cleaning product, which will come off with soap, water and a plastic scraper — worth trying that first. If it does not lift, contact us and we will take a look.
Granite Dynasty
Soap. Water. Not much else.
We fabricated it, so if something has gone wrong with a surface we installed, ask us before you try to fix it. Winnipeg, Brandon and Winkler.
Or call 204 791 1999 — Monday to Friday.