Words by Kenzi Wilbur, AD CLEVER
The marble kitchen counter of your dreams (and Pinterest boards) is finally installed—but wait, there’s a catch: how to clean marble? Keeping marble countertops and tile clean is actually simpler than you'd think, but, as with maintaining any surface and most things in life, you need to know what you’re dealing with. Now there's day-to-day marble cleaning and then there's the kind of tactics you'll need to employ if Uncle Pat puts the punch bowl on his head at dinner and spills Cabernet across the length of your beautiful, white marble island. You got this—here’s how to clean marble and make it stay that way.
Supplies You'll Want to Keep on Hand
- a sealant of your choice (food-safe, if for use on a marble counter)
- soap and water (for counters)
- a dust mop (for floors)
- hydrogen peroxide
- ammonia
- liquid cleaner
- steel wool
How to Maintain and Clean a Marble Surface
Know your marble. Think like the marble. Be the marble.
Marble is more porous than other common countertop materials like engineered stone (sold often as simply “quartz”) or soapstone, so it can be prone to staining and etching (a.k.a light scratching or physical changes to the stone itself). You’ll want to clean and seal yours regularly (more on that below—and easy enough to do before you’ve had coffee, promise).
Prevention is key.
Whatever marble you have in your home, sealing it every few months is a good idea. According to the Marble Institute, sealants don’t make the stone stain-proof but they do make it more stain resistant—giving you a bit more time to get to big spills. Check with whoever supplied your marble for their recommendations on the right products to use (and remember to make sure it’s food safe if you’re using it in the kitchen). For marble floors, coffee tables, and other high-traffic surfaces invest in some furniture pads and some coasters—better safe than sorry.
Feature Image: Pexels
