Improve Your Home’s Value With Natural Stone Counter Tops
Design trends come and go frequently, but one feature that always adds elegance and distinction to a home’s interior or exterior is the addition of natural stone features. From siding to walkways to floors and counters inside, there are a variety of ways to incorporate stone into your home decor, and even more to ensure it keeps looking good for years and years after installation. Right now, one of the more prevalent trends is in natural marble, because the material’s appearance is varied enough to work in many design styles and durable enough to keep looking good year after year.
Protecting Your Marble Counters
While marble is a durable yet soft stone, its one weakness traditionally has been the fact that it can stain easily when it comes into contact with the wrong materials. Luckily, when you work with experienced professional installers like Colonial Marble, you can count on access to additional stone treatments like a stain-resistant seal that protects your new marble and makes cleanup easy, so it keeps looking like new no matter how many messes your countertop sees, making it easier for you to enjoy the like-new polish your counter started with for years to come.
Etching, Resealing, and Increased Protection
Since it’s mostly acidic foods that can stain marble, the sealer fills the stone’s pores just below the surface level, giving it a barrier against absorbing material that can discolor it. Unfortunately, it can’t stop etching, which is when the surface is damaged by contact with acidic substances that can eat into it. That’s why fast cleanup is so important even after it is sealed. Similarly, if you have a scratch or any other damage that opens up the stone below the level where the seal protects you, it will need to be resealed to protect against stains. In that event, you can talk to the same people who installed it for help with minor repair and resealing efforts. To reduce the chance of etching occurring in the first place, you can also opt for honed marble instead of polished marble. It still has a unique look that is striking to the eye at first glance, but it resists damage better.
Other Advantages To Marble in the Kitchen and Bath
Natural stone increases the value of a home significantly, especially when it is something as beautiful and elegant as marble, but there are many other reasons to consider this upgrade beyond upping the resale price. For starters, every slab is unique, so you don’t have to worry about any other homes looking just like yours, even if neighbors decide to adopt the same approach to their counters. On top of that, you can count on marble to act as an insulator. That means it resists heat, so your hot dishes won’t warm up the counter below them as much. Natural stone also resists heat damage, so it’s often fine to leave hot dishes on stone counters without having to worry about putting a trivet under each one.
Learn More About Marble and Other Stone Counter Options
If you’re interested in learning more about a home upgrade that will improve the interior beauty and resale value of your house for years to come, you need to take the next step and talk to an installer. Remember, not all marble counters are the same. There’s a lot of difference in where they come from, how they’re sourced, appearance options, and more. To get the best information, you need to go to the people who make interior stonework their focus because they’ll have a depth of experience you just can’t find elsewhere.