Keeping a black granite countertop clean?

[susannah]

In the cleaning and organizing thread, this month's habit is "Shining your sink." Shining my sink isn't really a problem - for me it's shining (or at least, keeping clean) that awful black granite vanity top in what is now the "master bathroom". Really, it looked SO NICE in the showroom. And the white painted vanity with a contrasting black granite top seemed perfect for the color scheme in that bathroom.

And it looks wonderful until someone uses the sink. Water drops show up on the black surface like you would not believe. After the next remodel project, this will no longer be the master bathroom and will be used a lot less - at least, less when it's just the two of us. It WILL still be the main bath for company.  But we're talking maybe two years until it isn't our main bathroom.  Meanwhile, hanging a sign that says "There are five other sinks in this house, please use one of them" is not an option - well, not a good one anyway.  

Is there something I'm overlooking?  Some way to be able to keep that sink looking...at least, presentable?  We do love the look of the vanity when it's relatively spot-free.  And while we'll be replacing the vanity in the first floor powder room when we turn that into a full bath, the vanity currently in there is too big to fit in the current master bath.   And we still like the idea of the black topped vanity better.

Any tips for keeping that vanity top clean(er) or quick ways to speed clean it would be appreciated!

[countrymom22]

I don't have any suggestions, but I have been thinking about a black countertop in my kitchen, over the white cabinets. After hearing this, I'm starting to rethink the color/materials.

I'll be interested to see what others have to say!

[Deleted]

Granite... I did the math and figured out how many hours I had to work to have granite in my kitchen - strike one. Granite and tomato based foods aren't a good combo - strike two. No granite in my house.

I've not read anything that one can use on granite to repel "spots". I don't think Rain-X is an option. Plenty of info on removing mineral/water spots on granite but I've not seen much info on how to prevent them. Appears there is some type of protective coating but I've not seen the name of said product.

[shin]

I found a granite countertop for the bathroom at a garage sale once, cheap. I thought, "What a find!" then I reached down to lift it up. . .

[solargeek]

Our 3 double sink bathrooms, kitchen and island are all UBA TUBA (a black granite with flecks of pearl and greenish colors). susannah, not sure if you got the solid black granite but ours cleans up easily and it is hard to find spots or water drops that have dried.

We got it at Home Depot and it does not need to be sealed for 15 years. I can and use tons of tomatoes and not a problem.

I am thinking you should talk to HD or Lowe's and seal yours with a recommended product. It is possible the sealant has worn off or was poorly applied.

This is the 3rd time we have had this granite (2 homes we owned; 1 we rented) and my sister has had it also in her last 2-4 homes (yeah, we all move too much in my family).

countrymom22, please don't be scared off. Go to HD and check out UBA TUBA. Pretty, guaranteed for 15 years and easy. But it is not just solid black. We do have a solid black 12x12 tile surrounding our white baths and showers and YES that shows every water spot. Luckily it is at 7 feet tall for the shower (in 3 years NOT 1 person has taken a bath here!)

Hope this helps.

[susannah]

solargeek , there are some very, VERY tiny pearl-ish flecks in the granite if you look closely but at first glance it appears solid black.

I have granite vanity tops in all three bathrooms - one of the other ones is very light in color, the other is brown tones. Neither one of them shows water spots. We do have a water softener that adds sodium to the water - and increases the "salt rings". I'm thinking that sealing the vanity top again may help - probably wouldn't hurt, anyway. Since we've had issues from day one, it's possible it wasn't properly sealed to begin with. It's not a huge surface, so it's not that big of a deal to wipe it down multiple times per day, but that's gotten real old, real quick.

We had granite countertops in the kitchen of our last house, and despite being told horror stories about how much maintenance and time was required, they were pretty low maintenance. They weren't solid black, however. We had quartz countertops installed when we remodeled the kitchen in our current home two years ago and talk about maintenance free and stain resistant - I love them. So I guess maybe the zero effort kitchen countertops balance the constant maintenance bathroom ones?  Seriously, though, I think re-sealing might be the way to go.