These 12x12 tiles look like "raw" stone-not shiny, rough and rounded around the edges, a bit of a crystal look - like tiny ice crystals-on the surface. Tile is about 1/2 inch thick. Small, shallow holes on surface. Any special precautions with this? I'm more than a little afraid after reading about all of the issues with marble. Also would love to have a polished carrera on my kitchen island top. Thanks so much. You are a wonderful resource.

 

Dear Maria:

Is Aven z a Kale the actual name of a marble??... Quite frankly I never heard of it. However, by the way you're describing it to me, it sounds like a pretty good bet.

You see, it is the way a stone is finished that makes it enjoyable, not the stone itself. Your description pretty much indicates a virtually maintenance-free rustic surface. Just care for it with a few basic cleaning agents rated “for natural stone” ( http://www.mbstonecare.com) and… enjoy!

For the very reason that I mentioned about the way a stone is finished, the choice of a polished marble slab in a kitchen is extremely poor, unless you plan to use the kitchen exclusively as a show-place…  Everything acidic that will hit it will etch it permanently, and only a restoration procedure could bring it back to its original factory finish. And, BTW, no “sealer” for stone in the entire galaxy could prevent those damages from occurring!...

A hone-finished slab, opposed to polished, would be better but then, at the end of the day…

Whether the choice of hone-finished marble is a good one for the applications that you have in mind, it is no a matter of the stone; it is rather a matter of the collective culture within a certain community.

Let me explain myself better:

People buy blue-jeans for their practicality and, not only won't they mind when their pants will “age”, but most people actually look forward to that!

Within the North American culture, the same principle does not appear to be accepted and embraced when it comes to natural stone. In here, most people would like to have their stone – no matter what the original finish is – to stay brand-new all the time, and any sign of “aging” is considered a “damage” that must be rectified.

That is the difference between the collective culture of, say, the Mediterranean basin and other communities, such as North America .

Over there they just use and abuse (enjoy, that is) their stones and they only care for them with a basic stone cleaner. And… the “older” they get, the better they look!

Over here, we're “slave” of our stones!!

In conclusion, as you can see, I can't answer your question objectively.

You are the only one with the answer!

 

May I ask you now to please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm?   :-)

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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