Green Marble Kitchen Countertop

by Barbara
(Stinson Beach, CA)

QUESTION:

We just had a beautiful polished green marble countertop installed in our kitchen. Obviously I did not do my homework before hand, or we would have chosen to use granite. After reading your site I would just like to know (even more) the best advice for keeping our countertop as good looking as possible, but not making ourselves crazy in the process.

Plan to use large cutting boards, trivets, wipe spills up quickly, etc. Will hot pots or pans placed on the counter damage it in any way? Could you recommend the best daily cleaner/method to use, frequency of resealing, anything else we should know. I would really appreciate your advice.

ANSWER:

Babara, don't fret just yet! You have green marble, so there's a chance that your countertops will be just fine for the kitchen.

Really? How?

Well, there's a green stone that is often sold as "marble" because it looks like a marble, but it is actually "serpentine."

Serpentine is very dense and stain-resistant, is NOT sensitive to acids and does NOT etch.

Even if you don't have a true serpentine, most green marbles have some serpentine (a mineral) in them, so they aren't quite as sensitive as most marbles.

How to tell?

To find out what type of "marble" you have and thus learn how to properly care for it, you'll need to test it. Using lemon juice.

Hopefully you have some left over pieces, but usually your installer will take all these. If you don't have any, call your installer and see if you can get some from your exact slab.

Why? Because you want to test the exact stone that you have and... the test that will tell you what you have may etch the countertop, so don't want to do it on your newly installed marble. In fact, that is what you need to test.... does the stone etch.

If you can't get a sample piece then pick a spot that is not really visible or will be covered by an appliance or something... maybe in a dark corner and test using lemon juice.

If the lemon juice leaves a dull etch mark, you have a sensitive marble. If not, most likely you have serpentine and won't have to worry about acidic foods or etching.

Sealing may not be necessary either, since polished marble/serpentine hardly absorbs a thing and won't take a sealer. Of course, you can test if a sealer is needed using water. Read about it via the link above. If it does need sealing, then just test every year to determine when/if it needs re-sealing.

If the lemon juice DOES etch, then you'll need to take precautions you've outlined in your question. No... I would not set hot pots on it. Use a trivet.

I recommend you use MB Stone Products for general care and cleaning. Get MB-5 Cleaner for daily/weekly use... MB-13 Polish for a little extra shine and protection and MB-11 Polishing Powder to rub out any etch marks you do get.

Comment back and let me know how the tests turn out.

Good Luck,
Ryan

I highly recommend MB Stone Care Products to maintain all your marble, stone and granite countertops and floors in optimal condition. I've used other good products (Stone Tech, Miracle) but found MB Stone Care is the most reliable and effective.