Stone kitchen countertops are a stylish and beautiful choice for any kitchen. There are three fundamental types of natural stone countertop. Granite, quartz, and marble are three of the top picks. All are durable and strong. That makes them a sensible choice for anyone who wants their kitchen countertops to last a long time. If you’re planning to invest in a timeless kitchen, stone countertops are hard to beat. With their natural good looks, it’s no wonder they’re popular. However, it’s essential to know how to care for your stone counters properly. Due to their natural properties, you must seal stone countertops to keep them in good condition in the long term. Here, we take a look at five key reasons why you must seal your stone surfaces.
1) To Preserve The Surface
Sealing stone countertops helps to preserve the surface for many years to come. With correct sealing, you can maintain the beautiful appearance of your countertops in the long term. Sealing helps to guard against dullness. It also stops any contaminants from leaving their mineral deposits behind on the stone surface. Mineral deposits cause dullness over time that spoils the way your counters look. Sealing protects against this problem.
2) To Prevent Stains
Unfortunately, although natural stone is beautiful, it can stain easily, which spoils the appearance of your surfaces. Stone stains easily because it is porous. Liquids sink into the surface of the stone and change its appearance. Cleaning spills up straight away can help prevent stains from forming. That doesn’t always work, though. In some cases, stains will rapidly develop.
Once stone has stains on its surface, you cannot remove them. That is one reason why sealing is so important. Sealing prevents staining as it makes liquids roll off the stone surface. The naturally porous material no longer absorbs them. Therefore, they cannot form stains. Your stone surfaces will stay looking perfect in the long term.
3) To Speed Up Cleaning
Of course, it’s essential to keep your kitchen surfaces clean for hygiene purposes! However, that doesn’t mean you want to spend a lot of time cleaning your countertops. Cleansing surfaces should be a quick and simple job. Some people worry that natural stone counters are onerous to keep clean. When you seal them properly, that isn’t actually the case. Sealing makes it far easier to clean up spills and messes from your countertops. You don’t need to scrub your surfaces. Instead, you can just wipe away anything that you spill or drop on your stone counters quickly and effortlessly.
4) To Minimize Chemical Usage
Many people are under the impression that they must use strong chemical cleaning products to remove marks from countertops. That isn’t too surprising if they have tried to clean spills and stains from unsealed stone countertops. With proper sealing, though, there’s no need to use harsh chemical cleansers. In fact, it’s a terrible idea to use chemical cleaning products on stone surfaces as they can cause damage.
Chemicals can spoil the appearance of your stone counters. They can spoil the smoothness of the surface and make it rough and less attractive. If you seal your stone countertops, you won’t need to use chemical cleaners to clean up any spills. That’s not just good news for your counter surfaces; it’s good news for you too. Chemical cleaning products may damage your health. That is especially likely to be the case if you suffer from allergies or breathing issues. If elderly people or young children are in the house, it’s also best to avoid chemical cleaners. They can cause unwanted reactions. Chemical cleaning products may also be dangerous for any pets in the home. Therefore, avoiding their use is always a good idea.
Let’s not overlook the fact that chemicals can also harm the environment. If you can minimize your chemical usage in your kitchen, you can do your bit for the planet too.
5) To Minimize Possibility of Etching
Etching can be a common problem on natural stone surfaces. Etching is damage to the surface of counters that appears as a light-colored mark. It occurs if an acidic substance encounters your countertops. There are a number of everyday items that cause etching. These include lemons, ketchup, salad dressings, cola products, coffee, wine, vinegar, and household cleaning products that contain bleach. When these substances get onto the natural stone surface, they begin to corrode it. They eat the surface layer away, leaving it rough and a paler color than the remainder of the surface. Sometimes people mistake etching for staining, but they aren’t the same thing. Staining is darker in color than the stone surface, whereas etching is typically lighter. Etching also changes the texture of the countertop’s surface.
Sealing is an excellent solution to prevent this unsightly problem from occurring.
