Following are 6 maintenance & cleaning tips for Granite Benchtops:
• Removing dust: Dust easily settles on anything and everything in your house, and your bench top won't be spared too. You need your bench top cleaned from dust before you place or prepare food on it. You can always clean your bench top with a microfiber cloth. You can dampen it with water for cleaning thick layers of dust. It would be nice if you could use a white cloth so you could check if there is still dust on your bench top.
• Avoiding harmful chemicals: It is not advisable to use the common kitchen cleaning materials whenever dealing with the tough stains on your granite benchtops. This holds true especially for those chemicals which are highly acidic. Instead, you can always make use of a mixture of detergent, water, and rubbing alcohol.
• Preventing staining: A Granite bench top does not stain easily. But if you let spills such as coffee, spaghetti sauce, or red wine on your bench top, then do not be surprised if you observe stains in the future. Never let spills & sticky residue sit. Always have a towel handy on your bench top for quick & easy cleaning.
• Drying and buffing: Most of the people, after getting rid of the tough stains on the granite benchtops, forget that these also need to be dried and buffed up. A microfiber cloth (dry) would work great in drying a granite bench top. If you get your microfiber cloth wet & soggy, you would have to make use of another dry one for your bench top to be buffed up and polished.
• Sealing your bench top: Regular cleaning is essential, but if you really want your granite bench top to maintain its beautiful look for a much longer period of time, you have to have it sealed in a seasonal rate. This is more often than not done once in a year. You have to watch out for indications that your granite benchtops need re-sealing. These include stains, cracks, shifts, and scratches.
• Preventing scratches: Granites are not very easily scratched. It is even more scratch-proof as compared to its other counterpart, which is marble. However, sharp tools such as kitchen knives, bone saws, and screwdrivers, can easily scratch them. When you use these things near or on your granite bench top, you have to be extremely cautious while making use of it.