We love a shiny clean surface. In fact, we subconsciously attribute shiny with clean. Perhaps its in knowing that dirt will interfere with a naturally shiny surface. The fact, is however, this affinity of gloss can be used against us, and is by many unscrupulous cleaner manufacturers.
If clean is the absence of dirt, then naturally we would be disappointed if someone told us a product that was sold to us a cleaner was actually depositing an oil or a wax to the surface. It maybe shiny, but it is certainly not clean.
DID YOU KNOW…that 1 in 5 homeowners who thinks they are cleaning are actually waxing their counters?
Looks nice, clean and shiny…right up until the wax begins to look hazy and oily at which point the cleaner “does not work.” Worse the honest to goodness cleaners don’t either, cause they are not designed to remove a coating. They are designed to clean granite…not clean wax or worse yet to remove wax.
Now the poor homeowner has a bigger problem, but one they don’t even realize is going on, because they never intended to wax their counter. They need to first remove this unwanted deposit before they will ever be satisfied with the “cleanliness” of their surface. This either requires a professional stripping (no not stripper) treatment from a professional stone craftsman or a quick treatment of ammonia or acetone, it depends on the wax that has been deposited. A quick dab will tell you. If you see a shiny clean surface underneath you are on the right track. It only needs to be PRE-CLEANED once, after which the focus becomes how to keep it truly clean – MARBLELIFE GRANITE & QUARTZ CLEANER. This product is wax free. Its designed to clean you granite counters, not hide them.
It gets worse. When a wax is deposited by a cleaner it builds up over time. Being soft and heat sensitive it gets disrupted by day to day material and kitchen heat. When it does guess what you have to use MORE “cleaner” and more frequently in order to soften and re-smear the wax around to get it to LOOK clean again. Of course, what is really happening is we are depositing more ON TOP of what was on the counter. The ingredients used to keep the wax in solution are able to soften and reflow the wax on your counter so that it “looks” clean again…ie shiny…right up until its too thick a coating. So now we have to use more in order to keep this soft surface looking “shiny.”
It gets worse…Eventually, just like on a floor, the wax gets so thick that it becomes hazy. A hazy surface will look like it has grease or oil on it, but it is resistant to a degreaser…because you guessed it, its not an oil or grease.
How often does this happen? 1 in 5 purchases of a cleaner are purchased because their granite is no longer “shiny” clean.
Now what do you do? Particularly if you don’t know what you are dealing with. If you don’t know you begin a review of cleaners…but none gives the result you want. Why? Because your counter never lost it shine, it’s just hiding behind the wax buildup. We need to remove the wax. In effect, we need to re-strip the surface to get back to a clean granite surface which can then be maintained in an honest manner without introducing oils and gloss to play on our desire for shiny, create an artificial need to over apply and over use the cleaner, as it continues to deposit more material. Once we have removed the wax from the prior cleaner, the surface can be maintained in an honest manner, allowing the granite’s natural polished surface to shine forth.
So how does this happen? Either the manufacturer doesn’t realize the problem they are creating, or does and just wants to sell juice. Either way we have brought the wrong product and partner home with us. What we really want is results from someone knowledgeable about what is happening (so they can save me time, money and provide a healthy easy to clean surface) and a product that can JUST clean, not make me believe its clean.
A little ammonia or acetone will quickly tell you if your granite counters are suffering from this malaise and can look better than they already do. (Be careful not to do this on a plastic counter such as Corian as these solvents can soften plastic). If not sure, call a professional craftsman. MARBLELIFE® can assist you here. You can pop the shine, with LESS, versus with MORE.
What you want is MARBELIFE GRANITE & QUARTZ CLEANER. Help a friend. Life gets a lot easier when we know what is REALLY going on. Dispel the myths. Then order the product that is designed to maintain these surfaces, was formulated by the largest company in North America focused on restoring these surfaces, and has addressed more of these problems than anyone else. How are you going to know if the next cleaner is wax-free when the manufacture is using it to impart a false result? You want a true clean.
Share your new found knowledge. As you can imagine, this message was written after working with a client to reclaim their beautiful counters.
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