How often should you reseal your stone worktops?

Why bother

Worn sealer lets the stone drink wine and oil in. A thorough-tier job. Skippable when life's busy, worth it when it isn't.

Why it's a range

Marble and limestone want it twice as often as granite. Quartz never does, so let the water-bead test settle it.

What the job involves

1. Test before you bother. Drop a little water on the stone, and a dab of oil a few inches off, and wait about 15 minutes. If it beads, the seal's holding and you're done. If it soaks in and darkens, it wants resealing. Run that test every six months instead of sealing on a blind schedule.
2. Clean it properly, then wipe the whole surface with denatured alcohol to strip the grease, and let it dry right through, often a full 24 hours. Sealer won't bond to a dirty or damp counter, so this is the dull bit that actually matters.
3. Open a window, glove up, and test the sealer on a hidden patch first. Wipe a penetrating (impregnating) sealer over the stone in sections so it's damp but not pooling, and leave it to soak in for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Buff off every bit of the excess before it dries to a haze, then leave it to cure per the label, anywhere from 2 to 48 hours, before the counter goes back to work. Run the water test again to confirm it beads.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, for most homes. A quart of decent penetrating sealer runs about $47 and covers 100 to 250 sq ft, an hour does a typical kitchen. A pro reseal is roughly $200 to $350 (Angi). The one job worth paying for is acid-prone marble you want protected from etching, which needs a specialty anti-etch coating a basic sealer can't touch.

What skipping it costs

$200 to $1,000 is what a pro stone-stain removal costs once a spill has soaked into unsealed granite or marble, drawing the stain out with a poultice and re-polishing the spot, quoted at roughly $5 to $20 a square foot for granite and $4 to $20 for marble. A DIY reseal that would have stopped it costs $15 to $65. The sealer is the stone's raincoat: it buys you the few seconds to wipe a spill up. Let it wear off and oil, wine, or coffee sinks in and leaves a dark mark scrubbing won't lift. Worth knowing it only fights staining, not the dull cloudy etching that lemon and vinegar burn into marble. That's a chemical burn, and no ordinary sealer stops it.

Signs it's overdue

• The water test fails. A few drops no longer bead and instead soak in and darken the stone within 15 minutes.
• Spills sink in fast and leave a temporary dark halo around oil, wine, or water, usually near the sink and the cooktop first.
• It's simply been a while. Heavily used or more porous granite often wants it every 1 to 2 years, and marble kitchen counters every 6 to 12 months.

When to start thinking about it

A few days' warning does it. Grumpty grumbles 5 days out, then leaves you alone. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 24 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

Questions people ask