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which products to use & other question

Article Number: 249 | Rating: Unrated | Last Updated: Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 12:00 AM

We will be installing Lady's Dream from India. We want to purchase some of your products but not sure which ones without going overboard. Please recommend what we need so we start off on the right foot.Would you be so kind to briefly explain Lemon Juice & oil test? Is this a test we should do on our stone before it is cut to our specks? What do you advise for a sink,we were thinking of granite but how extensive is the care dark vs light shade? Thanking you in advance for your prompt attention to my questions. Joan

Dear Joan:

The lemon juice (and oil) test is meant to determine whether or not a particular "ganite" is suitable for a kitchen countertop. It determines absorbency (and consequent possibility of applying an impregnating sealer to it, if it turns out to be absorbent), and the possible presence of either malicious doctoring agents or minerals sensitive to acidic substances.

I the case of Lady's Dream (please, don't ask what kind of stone it is!... :-)) you don't need lemon juice to test it with: that stone is indeed acid-resistant and it never gets maliciously doctored. However, you should test a scrap piece of the slab they will be cutting your countertop from for absorbency; but to do that, all you need is water (instead of lemon juice). In its natural state Lady's Dream is quite absorbent and would require the application of a good-quality impregnator (a.k.a. sealer), but that stone is typically resined by the factory and if the resining is done properly, it effectively permanently seal the stone to the point that no impregnator will ever be needed and actually go in the stone as it should.

To run the test do this:

Spill some water on the scrap to be tested, let it dwell for no more than 10 minutes, wipe it dry and observe if the areas under which the water has been sitting have become (temporarily) any darker than the rest. If so, then you will apply a good-quality impregnating sealer like MB-4. If not, you won't.

As for routine care - which, no matter what - is vastly more importnat than the sealing - by logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm, you will be able to get the short version of our maintenance guidelines at no charge. The full version of it – a 7-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay- per-download format in our Educational Literature section at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/literature.htm.

And remember, every single penny of the cost of the literature will be used to support this site and its cause: your cause.

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Ciao and good luck,

Maurizio Bertoli

www.marblecleaning.org – The only Consumers' Portal to the Stone Industry Establishment!