In my original renovation ignorance I selected expensive solid black granite floors & several counter / desk tops.  What an idiot I was, because they show the dirt without remorse & my efforts to clean / polish have only made the condition worse.  Eventually I just re-did the floors with a more forgiving color.  But that is not an option with the counter / desk tops.  Eventually I can travel back to a professional shop to discuss this with them (in my feeble Thai), but I thought I'd ask for opinions here first.

 

Appreciate any suggestions as to what cleaning materials to use to remove the streaks & dirt from the counter / desk ops without my causing further problems.   Thanks.

try alcoholic window cleaner and newspaper to polish with after. treat it like glass.

don't forget to seal it frequently, granite is porous and will absorb liquids. those stains i.e. cola glass rings or tomato juice etc. are not removable.

Spray with a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and detergent solution.  Wipe clean.  Finally polish with a microfibre cloth.

 

Don't forget to reseal the granite every year or two to stop its becoming porous.  (You did seal it first, right?)

Thanks all for the above advice & any further suggestions to correct the problem I have caused myself by never sealing the counter tops.

 

No, I never did use anything special to "seal" it.  I thought (again ignorance) that a car apholstery / leather wax that I had on hand would serve that purpose.  It looked nice & shiny while apply it wet but the counter tops are now just streaked & look terrible.  Needless to say I will try the suggestions that each of you have already provided.  Thanks again.

 

Edit: Perhaps they were sealed by the shop before installation in my condo.  Fortunately no stain food stains yet, just the stains from wax.  

PS: What does one use as a "Sealer" (I'm guessing I need to buy something special for that, my leather wax is not working)..

Boonthavorn sells granite sealant.  It's not cheap.  Imported from the States.  It's on sale in the fitted kitchens area.  Not sure, but they might sell special cleaner as well.

 

I think I might have also seen these products at True Value.  Not sure.

Hg ( I think that's the brand) do a range of specialist stone cleaners, available in home-pro.  

 Just checked online and HG is the name and they do do a kitchen top natural stone ( ie granite) cleaner. 

  Home pro have a big range from HG so pretty sure you will find it there.

You should seal it btw as others have said, but check how it cleans first

 

For those who would be renovating in the future, grey granite has the least maintenance issues...

I second that.  Learned the hard way.

Glad this popped up, I have just finished installing a new kitchen and the idiots have chipped and scratched my nice new Black Granite bench tops, plus the idiot wife left a plastic cutting board sitting on it with water under it which has now left a mark.

I shall go look for the cleaner and sealer and hopefully I can resolve some of the issues with it.

15 minutes ago, Pungdo said:

Glad this popped up, I have just finished installing a new kitchen and the idiots have chipped and scratched my nice new Black Granite bench tops, plus the idiot wife left a plastic cutting board sitting on it with water under it which has now left a mark.

I shall go look for the cleaner and sealer and hopefully I can resolve some of the issues with it.

try a weak mix of white vinegar and water, 6 parts water to 1 part vinegar for cleaning

8 minutes ago, norbra said:

try a weak mix of white vinegar and water, 6 parts water to 1 part vinegar for cleaning

 

Noooooooh! Never, ever use vinegar to clean granite.  Never anything acidic.  Really bad advice.

You could have the supplier back to repolish it for you, then seal it before use.

I use Mr Sheen, a furniture polish, on my granite every couple of weeks.  It leaves a slightly oily feeling.

I repolished a marble bench top with 3000 grade wet and dry paper with good results, so that may be worth a try, but perhaps you should get some professional advice first.

You're right about black, bad choice.

My wife uses a weak mixture of vinegar to clean our granite floors. I told her it was a bad idea because acid will eat away the joints, however, I've not pushed the issue because that was just my instinct. Does anybody uses vinegar for cleaning? I must admit I've never heard about sealant before, either, and vinegar can't be good for that.

 

I use glass polisher for cleaning the granite benchtops and that seems to work well.

Sorry to jump in on this with a question but I am about to change my kitchen work tops and was going to go for granite thinking it would be more resistant to scratches, I wanted a light coulor rather than a darker coulor to make the kitchen look brighter, could anyone make a suggestion of what material would be easier to keep clean and be scratch resistant?  

what about car polish maybe one with a little cut in it ?????????????

42 minutes ago, wayne07836 said:

Sorry to jump in on this with a question but I am about to change my kitchen work tops and was going to go for granite thinking it would be more resistant to scratches, I wanted a light coulor rather than a darker coulor to make the kitchen look brighter, could anyone make a suggestion of what material would be easier to keep clean and be scratch resistant?  

Yeah buy cheap formica tops, hard to scratch, look great, and when you grow tired of the color just replace, who are you trying to impress with stone?  Cheap Tile too.

Why not Google it next time?   http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Granite-Countertops

Be careful of soda water. It destroys marble & granite in no time.

We have to get repolished commercially every 18months 

you can buy bottles of spray on granite cleaner and I use kitchen roll to polish surfaces  

This is kind of odd. I also have a black granite kitchen top, never did any pre-sealing, just use a sponge and dishwasher soap to clean it, we cook pretty much every day and it still looks as good and shiny as it did when it was new 12 years ago.

20 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

This is kind of odd. I also have a black granite kitchen top, never did any pre-sealing, just use a sponge and dishwasher soap to clean it, we cook pretty much every day and it still looks as good and shiny as it did when it was new 12 years ago.

 

Granite from different sources varies in how porous it is.

 

There are tests you can do involving putting water on it, leaving it, and seeing what happens.

 

However, safest is to seal it with a commercial sealant every year or two.

1 hour ago, wayne07836 said:

Sorry to jump in on this with a question but I am about to change my kitchen work tops and was going to go for granite thinking it would be more resistant to scratches, I wanted a light coulor rather than a darker coulor to make the kitchen look brighter, could anyone make a suggestion of what material would be easier to keep clean and be scratch resistant?  

 

Go for the lighter color granite, it looks great and it very resistant to scratches and more importantly a hot pot or pan. 

Also using the same color granite for the back wall is a great idea.

We have grey/black counter counter tops and I don't ever remember my wife doing anything particular to clean them... still looking fine 15 years later... 

Yes, I googled cleaning granite. Vinegar is a no no.

 

Despite my wife using this, our black benchtops and pink/red granite floors still look new. I think granite is a pretty tough surface and it probably takes a lot of abuse (over a lot of years). It's certainly nice and cool on the feet and cheap in Thailand. I think ours was about 750 Baht per square metre including fully installed.

4 hours ago, Mrjlh said:

Why not Google it next time?   http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Granite-Countertops

Thanks.  An excellent link.

7 hours ago, Pungdo said:

Glad this popped up, I have just finished installing a new kitchen and the idiots have chipped and scratched my nice new Black Granite bench tops, plus the idiot wife left a plastic cutting board sitting on it with water under it which has now left a mark.

I shall go look for the cleaner and sealer and hopefully I can resolve some of the issues with it.

Granite is extremely hard and shouldn't chip or scratch. I asked for black granite to be used for the window sills but they used black limestone which is much cheaper. They put the sills in before the windows and by the time the window fitters had finished there were several scratches on every sill.

I built the kitchen myself and used grey granite that I had cut at the factory in Saraburi.

Maybe this link can be any help.

But there is so much more on youtube.

products from other countries often can be sended to you.

good luck.