Dear Nancy:
So, for starters we don't really know whether the finish you have is brushed of flamed. Second, why is you fabricator such an incompetent that he doesn't know that the last thing you want to do is apply an impregnating sealer to a flamed, or brushed, or hone-finished black “granite”?
That said, you have to insist that you want a real brushed finish. Once you have that, unfortunately, if you don't want to live a maintenance nightmare, you're going to have to give up the gray.
Let me explain:
The problem with black “granite” with a finish below polished (whatever that might be: honed, brushed or flamed) is that it is not, well … black any more! Most black stones are but an optical illusion: they become black only when highly polished, or when wet. (See the back of your slab to see the real color of your stone!) As you take gloss off the stone surface (and honing, brushing and flaming do just that) you lose depth of color and the stone turns gray; but when you wet it ... here it is black again! As you spill oily liquids, or you simply touch the stone surface with your fingers (perspiration), you're going to have all sorts of dark surface stains that are a terrible eyesore. Please notice that I said, surface stains, not imbedded stains. In fact, you can clean those stains off (though with lots of labor), while if they were imbedded you would have to poultice them out. If you apply an impregnator/sealer to the stone you will not solve your problem one bit: in fact the sealer will only prevent liquids from being absorbed by the stone (which in the case of black “granite” is an unlikely event to begin with due to its natural density. Please notice that I always used quotation marks when saying black “granite”. No back “granite” is even remotely related to true geological granite; they are all totally different stones), not the staining of its surface.
Any solution?
Well, yes: you have to give up the gray!
If you apply a good-quality stone color enhancer to your countertop instead of an impregnating sealer (a good-quality stone color-enhancer like MB-6 is also an impregnator/sealer) it will turn it permanently black, while preserving the dull. In that way, the surface-staining problem would be minimi
Let's just hope that your fabricator, in their “infinite wisdom,” will not apply an impregnator/sealer to your stone again without informing you first (so that you can stop them): this would have to be stripped (not an easy feat! And acetone doesn't do the trick most of the time.), or else the color/enhancer wouldn't stand a chance to work properly.
And don't you forget that in order to upkeep your stone and the color enhancer, your best bet is to use good-quality specialty products for stone.
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!
Moreover, do take advantage of the plethora of FREE Helpful Hints available at:
http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm. They're on the house!
Thank you.
Ciao and good luck,
Mauri
Article ID: 575
Created On: Wed, Oct 3, 2007 at 11:51 AM
Last Updated On: Wed, Oct 3, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Authored by: Maurizio Bertoli [mail@mbstone.com]
Online URL: https://marblecleaning.org/knowledgebase/article.php?id=575