Marble Vanity Top Getting Cloudy

QUESTION:

My marble vanity countertop in the master bedroom is getting "cloudy" and is no longer smooth to the touch. What do you reccomend to get it back to its beautiful luster?

ANSWER:

Marble is sensitive to certain foods, drinks and chemicals. Many foods and drinks are acidic and most common and name-brand household cleaners are too alkaline to use for cleaning marble countertops.

Unfortunately, this information is far too often not given to customers by salespeople and even stone installers fail to properly educate their clients.

So, first you need to stop using typical cleaners on your marble vanity and use only products safe for cleaning marble & granite countertop care.

The cleaning products that you are using are "etching" the marble, which is chemical corrosion that literally eats away the marble leaving dull and discolored spots and/or your whole countertop will look dull or "cloudy" since you are using the cleaner over the entire surface.

Every time you use the wrong cleaning product you destroy more of the thin polished layer and damage the marble countertop further.

Thankfully it is possible to restore the shine and color. That's the great thing about natural stone... no matter what the problem is, it can almost always be fixed.

On polished marble countertops (like yours once was) you can use ETCH REMOVER / Marble Polishing product to repair the etching and restore the polish.

There is a caveat though.... once the marble countertop surface is no longer smooth you are on the borderline of the paste being able to completely restore the surface.

And if the marble feels rough, then you most likely will need to call a marble maintenance professional to re-polish the marble countertop.

Understand that the shine or "polish" on marble or any stone is not from the application of some chemical. It's done at the factory on big machines using intense friction. Or in the case of marble maintenance and restoration, re-polishing is done by an experienced and skilled professional using special tools and abrasives.

Re-polishing marble is not a DIY job even for a very good handyman. It just isn't easy to do it right or well.

However, the ETCH REMOVER / Marble Polishing product noted above is very easy to use by anyone, but it can only work to repair mild to moderate etching when the surface is still relatively smooth.

Most etching is mild and severe etching only occurs with repeated or prolonged exposure to damaging substances, so the paste almost always works like magic... but again yours may be on the borderline.

I would advise that you give the paste a try first because it is far cheaper than a marble maintenance / restoration pro.

But if the paste does not completely restore the shine it isn't because the paste "doesn't work" it's because you've damaged the marble countertop too much and the etching is too severe, which requires the more aggressive and skilled techniques of a pro.

It's just the nature of working with natural stone.