My wife and I want to use Verde ubatuba in our kitchen with a brushed finish as it looks like soap stone and is not so shiny like polished granite. Last night we did a test on the sample we have where we put olive oil on a section and let it sit for two hours and then we washed it with dawn liquid soap and left it to dry over night. Today I woke up to a large black stain where the oil was. Can brushed finishes be sealed? If so, does the sealing change the appearance of the finish from the soft greenish/blue/grey to an almost black like a polished Uba Tuba would look like? Finally can we get little stains out on a regular basis and keep the Ubatuba brushed finish that we like so much? Also, it is nice to know that the industry calls many rocks Granite when indeed they are not. I majored in Geology and I could not understand why they were calling some of these rocks granite when they were clearly metamorphic. Thanks, Knox

 

Dear Thomas:

Like in many other instances in life, you can't have it both ways. L

As you take polish off a dark stone, you lose depth of color. As you wet it, it gets dark again…

The problem with that is that in most cas es you will not have a deep stain like the one you've experienced over your little test, but surface staining. However, even if they are only on the surface their cleaning is going to be problematic because of the inherent roughness of the stone.

The application of regular impregnating sealer will only help prevent the type of deeply imbedded stain that you have now on your sample, but it will not help prevent surface staining.

The only sure way around this is the application of a good-quality stone color enhancer that's an impregnator, too and acid-resistant, like MB-6. This will give you, alas, the deep hue as if the stone were polished, but will minimize the surface staining eyesore.

Trying to “play the game” by applying a regular impregnator first and the, if it's too much of a problem switch to a color-enhancing sealer it will not work: it will be almost impossible to remove the impregnator and as long as it is in there the color enhancer will not stand a chance to work right.

 

Now you know.

It's your call now.

 

“ I majored in Geology and I could not understand why they were calling some of these rocks granite when they were clearly metamorphic. ”

 

Many igneous rocks are not even close to being granite, either… J

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