color enhancer on ubatuba

A week ago I had a new granite vanity top {uba Tuba} installed. At the time of installation it was sealed by the Co. that installed it. To me it appears to have a haze under the surface. The merchant told me that I should use Pledge to obtain a deeper color. It does make the color deeper and shiny, but its only a temporary fix. Could I use your color enhancer? Do you have a product to remove the sealer[Stonetech Heavy Duty Sealer] they put on it so I can use your product? Thank You Rein Smit

 

Dear Rein:

 

“ At the time of installation it was sealed by the Co. that installed it. ”

 

No, they did not. To make sure, they did smear some totally useless (under the circumstances) impregnating sealer, but that does not mean that they actually sealed your stone. Nobody can seal charnockite (Ubatuba): it is too darn dense to take any impregnator in.

That said, you're obviously dealing with some residue of their impregnator that was not thoroughly removed from the surface of the stone.

I can anticipate you that it is not going to be easy to strip it off, for it involves a potent paint stripper based on Methylene Chloride (available at any hardware stores) that you could not pay me enough to use. Not to mention that if for any chance that slab had been resined by the factory (like many slabs of Ubatuba are these days) that chemical could irreversibly damage the resin near the surface of the stone.

The ideal it would be to strip it professionally with a “hot” polishing powder for marble by implementing the so-called “dry-polishing” method.

In conclusion, demand your fabricator to come back and deal with their own mess; and, once they're done with it, tell them to go “seal” their sisters' Ubatuba.

Trying to strip at least some of the sealer that they have in their brains, so that some real stone intelligence had a chance to sink in, would be beneficial, too. J

I can finally anticipate to you that MB-6 wouldn't work, for the very reason that an impregnator couldn't: the stone is inherently too dense to absorb anything, and MB-6, like any other impregnator, is also a below-the-surface (of the stone) type of products. Not to mention that a product like MB-6 is not meant to produce any shine. Stone is polished mechanically by abrasion and friction – like gemstone – not by applying some sealer on it.

Now remember, it's never too early to think about the proper maintenance of your stone. The issue of what you'll be doing day in and day out to your stone is – as it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable = which in your case was disgraceful) and it's all too often neglected. As you can tell by reading many of this site's postings, you're not likely to get good information about routine care from your dealer or installer. Don't become another statistic! By logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at:  http://www.mbstone.com/HH_promo/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.mbstone.com/literature/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.

While you are in the “Helpful Hints” section, do spend some time reading all of the interesting FREE articles you'll find in there!

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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Maurizio Bertoli

 

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