Granite is a wonderful choice of natural stone for your kitchen worktop, but that doesn’t mean that you can simply install it and forget about its needs and wants!

Every single stone, whether it is quartz, marble, or granite, needs a little care and attention from time to time, and if you want to keep your worktop in the best condition possible, for as long as possible, then it’s important to know exactly what you’re doing in terms of cleaning.

Yes, there is other maintenance that needs to be done occasionally, such as proper installation by a professional and also annual sealing, to ensure that water doesn’t seep into the interior of the stone and cause any issues in the future, but the one area that you need to be special attention to more than anything else, is cleaning.

If you can keep on top of your cleaning, and if you can do it properly, then your granite natural stone worktop will stand up to the rigors of daily life, and the test of time.

Here’s a few tips and tricks on how to clean your granite work surface.

Avoid anything abrasive, such as scouring pads

Granite is a strong stone, but it is not totally scratch resistant. If you regularly clean using scouring pads then you may find that a few small scratches occur, and these will soon become even more noticeable over time. Stick to soft cloths for cleaning and buffing, to avoid any issues with abrasive cleaning pads.

Avoid any harsh chemicals, stick to warm, soapy water

Bleach and ammonia-containing cleaning fluids are not a granite’s friend in the slightest. Stick to warm, soapy water and you will be more than fine. Bleach and anything chemical is simply going to erode granite, and it will become slowly weaker as time goes on. Sticking to warm, soapy water means that the strength will remain for years, as it is meant to.

Mop up any spillages as soon as they happen

Spillages do happen, this is just part of life, but the key is to mop them up as soon as they occur. Whether this is simply water or it is something which could potentially stain, just mop it up and you won’t have to worry about any issues. Granite work surface is porous, and that means it does absorb liquids – if you keep water on the surface of the worktop then it is just going to slowly seep inside. Similarly, granite isn’t stain-resistant to a huge degree, so anything which is potentially staining could cause an issue over time.

Use worktop savers to elongate lifespan

You can save yourself a lot of time and effort, as well as many issues, if you simply purchase some attractive worktop savers, which complement the beautiful colour of your granite worktop. Put your hot pans down on them and you won’t have burn marks, use them to chop things up on, and you won’t get scratches – worktop savers are literally savers, i.e. granite savers.

As you can see, there is nothing particularly difficult about maintaining and cleaning granite worktops, it’s really about common sense to a large degree, and if you can stick to that advice, then your granite work surface will see you through, no matter what else you throw at it.