You’ve finally gotten the marble countertop of your dreams (and Pinterest boards), but the hard part comes: cleaning marble. Just as with maintaining any surface or everything else in life, knowing what you’re dealing with is essential to keeping marble countertops and tile clean. Everyday marble maintenance differs from the strategies you’ll need if, for example, Uncle Joey knocks over the punch bowl at dinner and wine stains your white marble island. Right, here’s how to marble clean, so it stays clean.
Tools and Materials You Should Stock Up On
- Anything to seal it off with (food-safe, if for use on a marble counter)
- Use of a Soap and Water Disinfectant (for counters)
- A broom and dustpan (for floors)
- Peroxide of hydrogen
- Ammonia
- Thinners and Cleansers
- #0000 steel wool
Learn to use your head. Try to put yourself in the mind of a marble. Do the marble thing. Because of its porous nature, marble is more susceptible to staining and etching than other typical countertop materials like engineered stone (sometimes offered simply as “quartz”) or soapstone (a.k.a light scratching or physical changes to the stone itself). More on that below;
The best approach is prevention. Maintaining a sealant on any marble surfaces in your house at least once every few months is recommended. The Marble Institute claims that sealants make stone more stain resistant, buying you some time to clean up significant accidents. If you use marble in the kitchen, you should ask the company that provided it for advice on the best cleaning chemicals. Better safe than sorry; get some furniture cushions and coasters for your marble floors, coffee tables, and other delicate surfaces.
Every day, you clean it. Warm, soapy water is excellent for routine maintenance and spills you catch quickly, but thoroughly rinse, sop up any remaining water, and dry the surface afterward. Remember that wine and lemon juice (or even cleansers that include vinegar) are like kryptonite to marble, so avoid getting them on the surface if possible. Also, if they leak, clean them up as soon as possible. It’s best to start with a dust mop on marble floors since vacuuming may scratch the surface by dragging debris and sand over it.
Eliminating pesky stains. It’s not hopeless if you don’t clean up a spill immediately (hello, red wine at a dinner party that goes on until 2 in the morning). If you’ve spilled anything oil-based, like vinaigrette, and the stain has set, attack it (gently) with a liquid cleaner that includes “household detergent, mineral spirits, or acetone,” as recommended by the Marble Institute.
The etching is being fixed. It would be best to use dry #0000 steel wool to buff your marble to remove water stains, minor scratches, and nicks. If you left a lemon on the counter and it etched the surface and left a stain, you should have a professional fix the etching, but you can get rid of the stain by following the instructions for food stains above. Be cautious where you put your sliced lemons since the etching will probably need to be cleaned by an expert.
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