Last Updated on October 19, 2019 by Royal Stone Care
Granite is an ideal material for kitchen countertops, and incredibly hard-wearing. It resists scratching and damage from knives. And as well as being an environmentally-friendly material, it also keeps off bacteria and dirt.
So if you’re lucky enough to have kitchen worktops in this natural stone, you could be on to a winner.
And if you have a leather finish, its big plus is that it’s not as likely to show up fingerprints as a polished surface.
To bring out the real colour of the stone, it needs to be polished. That doesn’t happen with a leather-style finish. Instead, a colour enhancer, or stain, is put on the surface to achieve the same colour artificially.
However, like any stain, this can wear off or various solvents may simply dissolve it.
So while you can just wipe away the marks on a polished granite worktop, it takes a little more maintenance to keep a leather finish at its best.
Don’t get us wrong, the leather appearance looks cool. But it may not be the most practical solution, especially if you have a particularly busy household, for example with young children.
You could try to treat the countertop yourself, perhaps with a stone colour enhancer, available from some DIY stores. This is basically a wetting agent that seals, although the darker colour remains even after the stone has dried.
Clean the surface first, and then apply the colour enhancer to the lighter areas, making sure you are doing so in a properly ventilated room. You’ll need to follow instructions from the manufacturer, but you normally have to wait an hour or two to apply a second coat.
If all this stone cleaning sounds too much hard work, maybe a granite worktop in a leathered finish isn’t the best one for you. Talk to us, though, and we can advise.
How we can help
At Royal Stone Care, we specialise in granite repair and polishing and work with other natural stones. Talk to us about polishing and restoring your countertop in London.
Our staff are highly trained and whatever the issue, we’ll have seen it before. So give us a call today.
