HELP! Granite Stain removal mishap!


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Old 08-04-07, 07:59 AM
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HELP! Granite Stain removal mishap!

Hi all- I bought my condo a year ago, and it had a fairly new kitchen (year old ?) with granite countertops. But I knew that you had to seal the granite every year or so, so I bought a sealer from Home Depot, and a stain remover to use first. There is a dark ring around the built-in sink soap dispenser which I wanted to try to remove before sealing.

I used "Stone Specific Stain Remover", a paste you spread on the stain and cover with foil overnight. When I removed it, it actually left a BIGGER stain and made the granite looked etched- white-ish, almost like shattered glass. The granite doesn't seem to be cracked at all, but it looks AWFUL. I feel sick that I may have ruined the countertop in that area. Any solutions? Thanks!
 
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Old 08-04-07, 08:32 AM
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See if applying some sealer to the area helps bring back the luster. It sounds like you "unsealed it" down to bare stone.
 
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Old 08-04-07, 08:38 AM
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Originally Posted by czizzi
See if applying some sealer to the area helps bring back the luster. It sounds like you "unsealed it" down to bare stone.
Hmm.. that is a possiblity. It doesn't really look dull, or powdery, like I thought unfinished granite is. The actual finish on it feels the same as the rest of the countertop, but it just looks different, and it has the same dark ring as before, only bigger now. Could this be what unsealed granite looks like?
 
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Old 08-05-07, 05:10 AM
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You know how when ou leave a glass on a table and you get one of those rings? Well that's what's happened here. The sealer should have been stripped of the area first. You now have eveything trapped between the sealer and the granite itself. Poultices work great for stain removal but a sealer will stand inbetween them. For the rest of your counter, put a quarter sized drop of water on in and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Wipe it up and if the stone darkenned there, it's seal time. Otherwise, don't reseal. Not all stone needs to be sealed and you see problems such as yours most frequently when a stone that did not need to be sealed was sealed. There is a tremendous amount of stone care and cleaning info at stoneadvice.com.
 
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Old 08-05-07, 01:24 PM
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To see what it looks like unfinished, look at the underside where the sink is mounted or the lip overhangs the cabinets.
 
 

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