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A Close Perspective about Using Marble Benchtops
People often email me with the curiosity to know about how the marble installed in my home is enduring. I researched a lot on the Internet for convincing viewpoints and the perfect advice to be pretty sure that marble is the right choice for my renovated kitchen.
Nonetheless, companies and agencies selling kitchen installation products had a completely different viewpoint. They suggested me to go for something more durable and practical such as re-constituted stone that I had used previously and cherished. However, this time around I deeply longed to have marble installed in our kitchen and so I was firm to find sufficient proof to support my intention.
Since nineteen months, I was contemplating about giving an upgrade to our kitchen by installing marble, so if you also are in my shoes, thinking whether you should or shouldn’t use it, then optimistically this detail will surely help you somewhat to make your decision.
In the beginning just after our kitchen was renovated, I took great care with all the surfaces of the marble, and was suspicious about anything that was being placed or spilled on them. As some weeks passed by, I stopped giving much attention to them and started using them like any other ordinary surface. Surely, they have persisted well enough, though there are some marks and scratches that don’t worry me. I feel happy to have invested in marble.
Stains
I’ve not come across staining of any kind. As our installed marble is honed and plastered; I would suggest both for a kitchen specifically. Honed implies there is a smoothness in the look, but it exhibits less scratching, and the plaster acts as a permanent guard against staining. At the time, when our marble was installed, I had guides and reference material on handling every kind of stains, and what particular handling each one needed.
When my kitchen had to be left in the hands of a babysitter or a visitor, I was pretty anxious about how they will deal with the marble, which I considered vulnerable. What would happen if they left a drop of black tea or red wine, or spilled a little oil or lemon or tomato? And what would happen if they didn’t take enough care – for instance, they forget to wipe up immediately after a spill.
However, soon after, I stopped worrying. The surface could be easily cleaned with diluted bleach. Even stains like oil spilled around the cooker, tea bag spills, and drops of red wine left there for days together easily come out with a wipe.
Scratches
Compared to manmade composite or even the stronger granite, marble is a softer substance, so expect that it will scratch and quite easily I have noticed. It will scratch if you drag something over it. It will scratch if you cut food on it without using a proper cutting board. But I have also noticed that the scratches merge together and eventually vanish. In all likelihood, you might have learned that marble develops a coating and it all merges over time. On certain occasions, just with a bit of a wipe or rub with a cleaner is sufficient to remove them, but usually over the period of time, they wear out. Nonetheless, if you prefer your kitchen benchtop to look as new without getting a mark or scratch on them, then certainly marble is not the right thing for you. As marble will age and will appear more worn and weathered (at certain parts and angles) compared to other thicker surfaces. This aspect doesn’t bother me.
Etching
Etching is an obvious thing that’s not avoidable; it appears a bit like a water mark or having a light dullness, and the surface can look a little bit dull. Anything acidic like fruit juice, soda, lemon, vinegar or wine etc. can affect marble. I have found some etching in different places around the benchtop mainly where the kids have their meals, but you can only notice it if you place your head at a certain angle and where it attracts the light; else it isn’t visible. It looks etching is a portion of marble that is extremely hard to do anything about unless you are available to wipe and clean away the spills the moment they occur, as the chemical reaction happens instantly the minute acid gets into the marble.
White Spots
White spots in our kitchen are something that bothers me. At certain places white spots appear where I guess something bulky has been spilled or jerked on the surface. On that particular portion, the surface has crushed and become white. These white spots are certainly somewhat deeper in the marble surface and I can’t find a way to remove them. If the surface was honed again, they could be cleaned, I guess. From what I can make out, this is probably what is identified as stun marks. They emerge as an effect of small bursts occurring inside stone’s crystal and are caused by pin point pressure on the marble, like banging something pointed or piercing.
Chips
The only noticeable dent was induced on the sink’s rim, and I don’t even know how it happened. I guess something bulky like a cast iron vessel or a frying pan was being cleaned, and it might have struck the rim that caused the chip. I’m quite certain, it can be fixed by the professionals but it doesn’t worry me much to spend the money.
Suppose you are pondering on installing marble in your kitchen, I believe this information will be helpful for you to decide as you will be aware about marble’s benefits and drawbacks. Nonetheless, it all depends on – your personal choices, your preferences and the kind of lifestyle you and your family are accustomed to.
Marble is a wonderful and fine-looking natural stone that has been widely used as a building material all through the world for centuries. It’s used in churches, halls, restaurants, bars and in many other places. If marble can endure in all these places, certainly it can meet the needs of your family.
