Office remodeling quartz services in Colorado Springs, CO? Both marble and granite countertops are quite durable, but ONLY if they are properly sealed every one or two years. Granite and marble are porous, so without a seal, liquids will penetrate and stain. When the seal fades and is not replaced, these stones can be easily marred by oil, wine, juice and anything acidic. Marble is especially vulnerable to acidic foods and liquids, so be very careful to keep them off the marble or to clean up immediately after contact.

Vanquish stubborn stains. If you can’t remove a stain by yourself, it may be time to call a stone refinisher. “They’ll do a professional cleaning using special grinders, and perhaps fine-grit sandpaper,” says Bruno. But Bruno doesn’t discourage homeowners from using fine sandpaper on a marble countertop themselves. “Don’t worry about hurting your stone,” he says. “If there’s a nick or chip, you can smooth it out with sandpaper. You can also try that on a stain—just remember to reseal the surface when you’re done.” As reassurance, he offers this extreme case: “My wife and I recently bought an antique marble table that had been left outside and actually had algae growing on it. I got all the stains out using an electric sander and some diluted bleach.” Bruno also recommends learning to live with the flaws. “In Italy no one would look at a natural stone countertop and say, ‘Oh no, there’s a stain from a New Year’s Eve party seventeen years ago!’ A little etching and staining is normal wear and tear—it just becomes part of the kitchen.

Because marble slabs are usually smaller than granite slabs, you may need more pieces to complete a full kitchen if using marble. Granite counters range in cost from $40 to $75 a square foot on average. More exotic stones, such as stones colored blue, may range in cost as high as $500 a square foot. For a 30-square-foot counter, the average material cost is around $1,000 to $1,500. Fabrication and labor add around $330 to the cost of the stone, a sink cutout adds another $100, and edging adds about $10 a linear foot on average. This makes the 30-square-foot granite counter cost between $3,000 and $3,500 installed. Fabrication, installation, cutout, and edging costs for marble are around the same cost. Material costs for marble are higher, starting at around $60 a square foot and going as high as $100. This makes the material costs for a marble counter of the same size between $1,800 and $3,000 making the total range $3,800 to $5,000 on average.

When it comes to countertops, quartz is quickly becoming an affordable and low maintenance alternative to our beloved marble. There are even new trends for accessorizing your countertops, like vintage plate racks made to display your grandmother’s china. Hardware and metal finishes continue to push the envelope—think brass, nickel, and matte black. Removable wallpaper companies are making it even easier to experiment with pattern on walls and backsplashes. Consider 2020 as the year of the kitchen! Carrara marble like that shown here will always be in style, but if you’re a red wine drinker, quartz could be a much better fit for you and your kitchen. While it looks like a natural stone, engineered quartz is more affordable and less prone to stains. See even more info at Premier designer stone and quartz Colorado Springs.

Appearance: The appearances of both marble and granite is quite different from each other. Granite’s color variation appears as freckling throughout the stone because granite has meddled stones in it like feldspar, mica and amphibole. Marble, on the other hand, has a grayish or cream color with veins running through it. The veins in marble are usually due to impurities like iron oxide.