Category: Articles

Do you have or are you considering soapstone? Here are some tips for caring for soapstone and keeping it beautiful.

For New Installations

If your soapstone has just been installed, perform weekly oiling with a food grade mineral oil or enhancer made for soapstone for the first month, and then twice a month for the next three months. After the fourth month, you should only need to oil once a month or less. As the oil evaporates, the stone will lighten, telling you that it is time for another oiling.

To Enhance or Not…. This is the Question

Versatility of finish is one of the great pluses of soapstone. Some homeowners love the natural, untreated soft-gray look, while others prefer to color enhance it to bring out the deeper colors. The choice is yours.

Virtually Stain Proof

Alkalis and acids found in many foods and drinks are not likely to stain the dense and inert surface of soapstone (which is why it is so popular in labs and science classrooms). Any staining that occurs can be quickly and easily remedied with scrubbing or sanding.

Scratches

Soapstone is a very soft stone and scratches will occur. Light scratches will disappear with a direct dab of FDA approved food-grade mineral oil or soapstone enhancer. To permanently remove a deeper scratch, apply medium pressure to the scratched area with an 80 grit sanding sponge.

Apply a light coat of FDA approved food-grade mineral oil or soapstone enhancer to the sanded area. The mineral oil application should be repeated 2-3 times over a 2-3 day period until the sanded area matches the coloration of the rest of the stone. The enhancer should be applied twice with the second application about 24 hours after the first.

Returned to Its Former Beauty…

Even after 100 years of hard use, soapstone can be re-finished to a new state as though it had just been installed. Give us a call if you need any help. As a stone care professional we can expertly perform the services needed to repair or restore your soapstone.

See the full article, Stone Showcase: Soapstone in the Spring 2014 issue of Stone Advisory Magazine.

This is one of a series of articles written and published  on behalf of Stone and Tile PRO Partners.

It is time to select your granite for your kitchen countertops. What should you look for? Two things: Absorbency and acid sensitivity. You do NOT want a stone that is too absorbent, and you do NOT want a stone that is mixed with calcite (the main component of marble and limestone).

The Lemon Juice and Oil Test will help you determine the suitability of any stone you are considering.

Collect a sample of any stone you are considering. Line them up on a table or countertop, dust them thoroughly, then spill a few drops of lemon juice and cooking oil on each one of them. If you notice that where the juice and the oil hit the stone, its surface turns dark im-mediately, eliminate them as an appropriate candidate.

If you notice that the juice and the oil take a little time to get absorbed (a half a minute or better), then you have a stone whose absorbency can be effectively controlled with a good-quality impregnator.

If you finally notice that some samples will not absorb anything within, say, half an hour or so, then you may have a winner. That stone will not even need to be sealed.

Now, how to eliminate the word ‘may’ from the equation? The answer in another question: Why use lemon juice instead of, say plain water? as you’re not just look-ing to determine the absorbency of the considering, also want to determine that your samples are 100% silicate rocks to some stones—which may be traded as granite of calcite. If there’s even a little calcite in the stone, it will (citric acid) and, when you wipe your spills dry, you will notice a dull spot of the same shape of the lemon drops. In such case, once again, these stones would not be appropriate for a kitchen countertop. If instead it’s still nice and shiny under where the drops were, then you eliminated the ‘may’ factor!