How to repair granite, marble or other stone countertop

Natural stone is a very popular material for kitchen countertops. Granite is one of the hardest materials. Although a hard and durable countertop, sometimes damage does occur. They may be chemical (made by chemicals or food acids) or mechanical (such as chips, scratches, cracks and broken stone). Some of these problems we can fix ourselves at home, but with others, we will need professional help.

Small mechanical damage:

These are the chips and scratches.

To remove a small chip you can use a repair kit, which you can buy in a store or online. The price is very affordable. The repair involves applying a specific gel, sanding and polishing chip area.

Scratches – If we are dealing with small scratches in a softer material (marble, limestone, and terrazzo), we can get rid of them by polishing. For that work we should use the stone polishing cream. If there are scratches in granite we have to use a more aggressive product that is pumice, Jeweler’s rouge, or “honing powder”, made especially for stone. Polishing also works if the countertop was etched by food acids.

Larger mechanical damage:

Here, we usually require professional help. Repair of broken stone consists of gluing it with epoxy glue. Stone countertops are usually multicolored, allowing you to hide the glued connection. Also you could use clear or colored glue. It is also possible to remove damaged piece of countertop and replace it with a new piece using epoxy glue.

Chemical and food stains:

Your countertop has a stain, which you cannot remove by the use of cleaner. If this is a shallow stain, then we can polish it with a non-abrasive cream, similar as in the case of small scratches. The most common chemical damage in the kitchen is food stains, such as coming from lemon juice, wine and oil. Rarely we have acetone stain. It is a product, which you need to be careful with, if you have a natural stone countertop. After the spill you should wipe it immediately. Acetone may be a component of several household products such as finger nail polish remover, some paint thinners, and in some brass and silver cleaners.

If it was a deeper stain, you would use stain remover, which is available for specific stains: rust, oil, ink, wine. These products may be in powder as well as in paste form. Usually such repair consists of applying a paste or powder, wait for some time (sometimes several hours) and then removing the applied product. Remover pulls fluid, which was soaked deep in stone.

As you can see, at home you can fix less serious damage to countertops. However, with the bigger problems we will need professional help. Also it is important to note that countertops could be protected from many chemical and food stains. We can accomplish this by periodic re-sealing the countertop.