If you’ve just had a shiny new granite worktop installed in your kitchen, the chances are that you’ll want to keep its clean new look a permanent fixture of the kitchen. Granite needs a healthy amount of care, attention and maintenance if it’s going to keep its shine. So, if you’d like to find out how you can do this without spending a fortune, just read the following tips. If you don’t want to pay for expensive specialist cleaning products, it’s very easy to make your own at home!

There are three main things you will need to do in order to keep your granite countertop nice and shiny – regular cleaning, stain removal and sealing. Whilst creating your own cleaning solution for daily cleaning and stain removal of your countertop is easy enough, sealing the worksurface is best achieved by using specially made granite sealer.

Note: take care not to use any type of cleaner that contains acids, e.g. white vinegar, as this will damage and dull the granite surface.

Home-made daily cleaning solution

The daily clean of your granite work surface should be a pretty quick process and will only take a short amount of time to do. Here are some quick tips on how to carry out a daily clean of your granite work surface:

• Start by clearing the work surface and removing appliances such as toasters and kettles from it
• Clean up any spills or stains with a warm damp cloth and remove any debris (crumbs etc.)
• Make up a cleaning solution by filling a bowl with warm water and add a mix of three parts detergent to one part of surgical spirit/rubbing alcohol.
• Soak a microfibre/lint free cloth in the cleaning solution you just created, wring out any excess liquid and then use it to clean the countertop.
• Then, simply dry and buff the countertop with a fresh microfibre cloth afterwards to bring up a wonderfully clean and sparkly shine!
• The colour of granite can sometimes make it difficult to see areas you may have missed so, to make sure you haven’t missed any areas, just run your hand over the worktop before you dry it

Note: Using acidic solutions to clean granite will damage the surface of the stone so never use things like vinegar, lemon and ammonia.

For more tips and tricks, make sure to regularly check the Marble & Granite blog for new articles!