How Do You Sanitize Marble, Granite, and Other Surfaces Without Damaging Them?
Fighting fire with fire is an excellent way to end a battle.
However, if you use this strategy too often, you’ll find that you and your surroundings get burnt more often than you’d like.
The same philosophy – on a much smaller level – can apply to our everyday cleaning toolkits. Right now, when there’s a pandemic raging and even smaller antagonists such as the flu and the common cold running around, it can be tempting to bleach every surface in sight. After all, it’s the only thing that will make you feel safe, right?
As it turns out, it might make you feel like you’ve sanitized your surroundings – but you might also cause harm to a lot of your personal effects. Let’s turn to a gentler (but equally as effective) technique for making your atmosphere clean.
A System for Safe Sanitizing
(Hint: It’s simpler than you think.)
The main thing that you must remember is that natural stone like granite, marble, quartzite and other types of stone are not as hard as you might think. Even though they may feel like it to the touch, a closer look reveals that they’re very porous. As this is the case, you’ll need to treat them with care.
Common cleaning agents that feature widely in DIY cleaning guides (such as vinegar, bleach, and even soap and water) are much harsher than you might think. Using them frequently will result in etching, staining, dullness, and even erosion of your beautiful natural stone surfaces. This type of damage could be permanent. Fixing these issues could cost a lot of money.
If you think about it, the money you may save by relying on abrasive DIY cleaners is far from worth it when you consider the damage you’re causing to your natural stone countertops and other surfaces.
Instead, we’ve got a better solution. Treat your natural stone with care; it’ll look good and be clean and safe for years to come.
Disinfecting Granite, Marble, and Other Natural Stone Surfaces Without Damage:
Your Go-To Method
Granite is a naturally porous stone and therefore vulnerable to substances with very low or high pH’s, like common household cleaners, bleach, ammonia or vinegar.
Marble is also very porous (so porous that acidic foods like tomatoes are a no-no for marble countertops).
Other natural stone options such as slate and quartzite exhibit varying levels of porosity. We realize that this can be a lot to remember, so we’ve put together a simple two-step safe sanitizing procedure for you: Seal and spray (using the right solution).
Let’s go into just a little bit more detail.
The secret to making granite more sanitary and easier to clean is by regularly sealing the stone. How often you will seal your natural stone will greatly depend on the porosity of the stone (lighter natural stone is more porous than darker natural stone) and the kind of use your stone sees in any given area. Locations that see a lot of use will need to be resealed more often than areas that are not. We recommend conducting a water test to determine if your stone needs to be resealed or not. Sealing granite makes it less porous – making it far more difficult for tiny microorganisms to hide in its crevices. As this is the case, sealing your granite properly is your first step for antiseptic granite care.
Once you’ve ensured your natural stone is sealed, it’s time to sanitize your granite surface. Use a stone-safe cleaner such as Granite Gold Daily Cleaner® to effectively remove dirt and grime off the top of your granite, and then follow up with a multi-action disinfectant antimicrobial spray to ensure that the only thing on your granite is, well, granite – no dangerous microbes or viruses around.
MicroGold® is Ready to Keep Your Surfaces Clean Without Damaging Them
Your home is your haven. It’s also full of gorgeous natural materials that enhance the value of your property and the quality of your life. You must strike a balance between safeguarding your health and preserving the integrity of your home’s aesthetics and architecture.
Fortunately, you don’t have to settle for just one or the other.
MicroGold® Multi-Action Disinfectant Antimicrobial Spray is non-abrasive, phosphate-free, bleach-free, alcohol-free. Perfect for disinfecting hard non-porous surfaces such as sealed natural stone.
It’s also powerful. It’s the only multi-action solution approved to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus associated with COVID-19 in 3 minutes on hard non-porous surfaces. It’s both a disinfectant and an antimicrobial. What does that mean? First, the disinfectant kills the microbes such as viruses and bacteria. Second, antimicrobial agents have the ability to kill both bacteria and viruses as well as suppress their future growth by molecularly bonding to a surface and mechanically killing microbes through microscopic spikes. Excitingly, the EPA is expediting testing and review on the long-lasting properties of antimicrobials, which the agency states can remain effective for weeks to years.