Marble Countertops in a Kitchen

Why marble countertops are a bad idea for your kitchen.

Marble is porous and cannot resist stains. A kitchen contains lots of ingredients that are capable of staining. It’s that simple. Marble countertops are a big no-no in a kitchen. For the technically-inclined, all our minerals are represented on the Moh’s Hardness Scale, a method of grading minerals invented by Friedrich Moh in the year 1812. This scale shows the scratch resistance of minerals and is on a range of 1 to 10 with 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest mineral.

If you were paying attention in chemistry lessons in school, you’re already thinking about diamonds, that favorite rock of all ages. Diamond, it is no surprise, is a “10″ on Moh’s scale. On the other end of the scale is Talc. Number 3 on this scale is of particular interest to us because it represents calcite.

Now, the marble that we use on our countertops are most commonly composed of calcite. Although the colors may vary for a wide many reasons largely known only to our creator, the fact remains that marble is a soft mineral that occupies the spot “3″ on the scale of 1 to 10. Naturally, it is not hard enough for some uses around the kitchen and not stain resistant at all.

For those of you who have followed my ramblings on kitchens and renovations, you probably have realized that I place a high value on practicality. Being in the business of renovating kitchens, I want your purchase to be satisfying for many years to come. I am going to do everything that I can to share my knowledge and experience with you to steer you in the right direction towards choices that make sense and keep you away from those product choices that are a fad or a fancy and have no room in the practical realm.

So, coming back to our topic.

Marble countertops are not suitable due to the softness and porosity of marble. Simple as that. A marble countertop will not resist stains from coffee, tea, red wine, strawberries, turmeric (for my Indian friends who like their masala), oil, grease and the numerous other colorful stainers in our kitchens. Marble countertops are not suitable for one more reason – they etch very easily. How? The juice of a lemon, or any citric juice, will etch and dull the glossy surface of polished marble, reducing its luster over time. Granite, on the other hand, is too hard to be etched in the same way.

Some of our designer friends may say — ok, why don’t we use a honed marble instead of a glossy one?   The surface is already softened and won’t etch any further. This is a big mistake. A honed marble, or granite for that matter, is a nightmare from a staining point of view. I don’t understand why many top-notch designers will recommend honed countertops to their clients. Unless the kitchen is used very sparingly (perhaps to make 6 sandwiches in the entire year!), any honed surface is not recommended. You see, what happens is that the very process of polishing to a high gloss will close off micro-pores on the surface of the stone making it less prone to staining. But, as we’ve just seen, a high-gloss marble surface is not stain-resistant enough for a kitchen. So how do you think a honed marble countertop will perform?

So the next time you’re having a conversation with a designer who is helping you with a kitchen, ask them if you can have a marble countertop in your kitchen. See what they say. Hopefully, they will educate you about the characteristics of marble countertops. And if you happen to be of the mindset that you are ok with seeing your marble countertop age as you use it, by all means go for it. After all, most of Europe, especially Italy, is covered in marble, some of it hundreds of years old.

My take is very simple – look at the marble countertops in magazines with interest and learn from trends, just don’t follow what you see in the glossed up pages blindly.