bathroom counter back granite with light ring

Hi, My question is about black granite counter top..We installed black granite in the bathroom, now I have white rings on the top that I can't get off, I think they are from water underneath the liquid soap dispenser, any suggestions?? I have been reading some of the questions that are in relative to mine and I have been seeing something about sealing? Now noone told me to seal anything. Is it to later for that to?? Thanks for your time!

 

Dear Sherry:

I don't know whose comments you've been reading about sealing, but they surely are not mine! In fact, I always say that the last thing that you want to do is applying a totally useless (under the circumstances) impregnating sealer to any black granite. Black “granite” is too dense to be possibly sealed – and consequently it never stains, either. In fact, what you have are not stains at all. A stain – a real stain – is always darker than the stained material. If it is lighter, it's either a mark of corrosion created by an acid (etching), or a caustic mark created by a base (bleaching). There are no known exceptions to this rule. In the cas e of natural stone, bleaching can't occur, and therefore they are etch-marks all the time: plain and simple surface damages, like shallow chemical scratches.

But in the cas e of black “granite” there's more than one possibility:

 

BLACK ABSOLUTE GRANITE

 

Let's start by saying that the only black mercantile granite that has the legal right to be called “Black Absolute” is the one coming from South Africa . However, in real life, when one mentions “Black Absolute Granite” one's talking about a huge variety of stones coming a little bit from all over the planet, each and every one of them not a geological granite by a long shot, and each and every one of them with different characteristics. If that wasn't confusing enough, each and every one of them are processed with even if so slightly methods – which again can make a difference.

There used to be three possibilities to explain the problems that you are experiencing, which are here listed in order of probability (the first being the most probable):

1. The fabricator applied an impregnator/sealer to it believing that it's granite. No impregnator/sealer will ever be absorbed by black granite; therefore it won't do the first thing about doing what's designed to do, which is prevent stains. (What you have are NOT stains, and no impregnator/sealer on the planet can prevent those.) Many a sealer turn out to be sensitive to acids; hence the “mysterious etching.” Not on the stone, rather on the sealer that had no business being there.
2. The slab had been “doctored” by the factory by applying some sort of black shoe shine in order to make it “blacker” and, therefore more “sellable.” After a while the “shoe shine” will begin etching as it gets eaten away by acidic spills. The true color of the stone is dark gray.
3. It is one of those as-rare-as-a-white-fly “mutt” stones with some traces of acid-sensitive minerals in it. In this cas e it is actually the stone that gets etched.

 

In the last couple of years there's been a change in the scenario above. Another possibility has entered the scene:

 

4.   Certain manufacturers apply some sort of protective wax to the slabs. It is not actual “doctoring,” since there's no alteration to the color of the stone, but    the result is the same as if the slab had been “doctored” with the “shoe-shine.”

Finally, cas e 3 above is not as rare as it used to be anymore. At least a couple of “Black Absolute Granites” allegedly from India and China entered the scene recently and are terrible “mutt” stones. Since they are cheap (to the importers) they push them like cra z y at full black absolute granite prices.

 

Having said all that, the remedy to the points 1, 2 and 4 is to remove whatever it is that's sitting on the stone surface, by either stripping it chemically by soaking it with a solution of water and phosphoric acid, or mechanically, by rubbing on the stone surface a polishing compound for marble (NOT for granite!) with a little bit of water.

Case 3 is terminal.

From a legal point of view, cases 2 and 3 are full-fledged consumer fraud and could be prosecuted by the law.

 

All things considered, black granite – which should be considered among the most enjoyable materials as a kitchen countertop – has made it out my own list of recommended stones.

Until the industry will not straighten its act up by becoming serious about the classification of all the different “granites” on the marketplace and dictate strict rules and guidelines about their characteristics and implied guarantees to the consumers, my position is going to be that from now on.

You can help! Actually, as a consumer-to-be of stone you're the best qualified to make things happen! Will you now please read and sign our Statement of Purpose by logging on at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm? By spreading the word about this valuable site among your friend & family and the stone trades' people you've been dealing you will be rendering everybody a valuable service!

Thank you.

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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