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"&amp;quot;My husband is a wonderful cook, but he leaves everything out as he putters around the kitchen. I&amp;#039;m concerned about our new granite counters. Which should I worry about more \u2014 oil-bottle rings, wine splatters, what?&amp;quot; FLORENCE PERCHUK (kitchen designer): In my 38 years designing kitchens, I&amp;#039;ve seen stains from both oil and wine. I&amp;#039;ve also seen them from cranberry juice, all citrus juices, salad dressings, vinegars, and coffee. The key is to wipe a spill up as soon as you see it: I can&amp;#039;t emphasize that enough. If you don&amp;#039;t let the spills sit there, they won&amp;#039;t penetrate. Also, keep Drano, nail polish remover, and any other household acids off the counter. Oils are less of a problem, once the stone has been sealed, and kids with sticky fingers are no problem at all.  What&amp;#039;s the right way to seal the stone? Have the supplier seal it a few times as soon as it&amp;#039;s installed. You&amp;#039;ll know it&amp;#039;s sealed properly when water beads and forms droplets on the surface. Then have it sealed again a year later \u2014 that should do the trick. Can I seal it myself? People do, but I recommend using professionals who know which sealer to use on your particular stone. Don&amp;#039;t take advice from a retailer who has a vested interest in selling one particular product. The same goes for everyday cleaners \u2014 StoneTech is a good one, but there are slews on the market.  What&amp;#039;s the worst stain you&amp;#039;ve ever helped remove? I had a client who spilled melted lard all over his stone counters and tile floor. You can&amp;#039;t imagine how that stuff spreads and penetrates. The tile grout was ruined and had to be redone, but we managed to poultice out the stains on the counter. We put down a few layers of cheesecloth soaked in water and a powder called whiting. You can get it at most housewares stores. We left the layers on for two or three days. The stained areas ended up only slightly lighter than the area where the lard hadn&amp;#039;t reached. Remember, if you do poultice your stone, it needs to be resealed afterward. What other kinds of stains can I remove myself? Quite a few. Many are listed on the Marble Institute of America&amp;#039;s Website [marble-institute.com]. You can poultice away rust. You can remove soap scum or mildew with a solution of a half cup of ammonia in a gallon of water.  How about common stuff like coffee?  You can remove most coffee or juice stains with a little hydrogen peroxide in water, plus a few drops of ammonia. For everyday wear-and-tear, buff away small scratches with superfine dry steel wool called &amp;quot;grade 0000.&amp;quot; But if you&amp;#039;re really worried about your counters, put in those new engineered quartzes, like Zodiaq or Silestone. They&amp;#039;re almost impervious and indestructible. Or be extra careful to cover the counters completely with cutting boards whenever you work in the kitchen. Which kinds of stone are the easiest to keep clean? Granite is good and strong. Marble is more porous than granite, but tougher than you&amp;#039;d think. I&amp;#039;ve had honed, sealed white Carrara marble counters for 10 years. I abuse them and they&amp;#039;re just now beginning to develop a patina, with slight weathering and chips that I love.I suggest French limestone for kitchens, too. The color is intense creamy-gold and there is veining. It&amp;#039;s more durable than the lighter limestones from Greece or the Baltic regions, which are beautiful but too porous. You haven&amp;#039;t mentioned slate or soapstone. They&amp;#039;re beautiful too, but require so much maintenance and constant mineral oil treatments, they&amp;#039;re not practical. Soapstone has the added problem that it&amp;#039;s soft and can chip. I only recommend them if it&amp;#039;s a no-cook situation. Are honed or polished surfaces easier to maintain? It doesn&amp;#039;t matter, really. But we recommend honed \u2014 it looks more interesting, and is more user-friendly for fingerprints than polished, which can be too sleek and off-putting.  How about color? I&amp;#039;m terrified whenever I see someone&amp;#039;s new white kitchen. Actually, black is the hardest to maintain in any stone or finish, polished or honed. You can seal and seal and seal, but you&amp;#039;ll still see every finger-mark. There&amp;#039;s nothing you can do.  FLORENCE PERCHUK, KITCHEN DESIGNER, DESIGNS BY FLORENCE PERCHUK LTD; 212-245-0999; FPERCHUK@AOL.COM "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/cleaning-tips/advice/a113/maintenance-stone-countertops-0508/>