Let’s talk facts.
- Marble is a natural, metamorphic rock which has thousands of microscopic pores throughout the stone.
- Calcite, one of Marbles main components, only ranks 3 on Moh’s scale of hardness making Marble softer than granite & quartz.
- Marble is a heat conductor.
Now, let’s take these facts and makes some sense of them.
Is Marble the right choice for my kitchen?
Staining, scratching & cracking. Marble is a delicate stone, you really need to take care of it. With kitchens comes a lot of cooking, and with cooking comes a lot of messes. If you spill something on marble, there is a great chance that it will stain if…
- The stone was not sealed properly or has not been maintained.
- The stain was left on there for an extended period of time.
Something trending now-a-days is marble cutting boards, which doesn’t make total sense to me. Sure they look nice, but Marble is a soft stone and can easily be etched and scratched. Using a real marble cutting board will just scratch the marble and dull your knife. Now nobody wins!
If you really want to cut on your marble countertops, I recommend going with a honed finish instead of a polished finish. This is because the polished finish will show the scratches a lot easier and will dull the surface overtime. With the honed surface, it appears more matte and can hide the scratches more efficiently.
Have you ever noticed Marble is cool to the touch? This is because it has a low thermal conductivity which means it is susceptible to thermal shock. In a nutshell, that means if you place your hot pots right of the surface of marble, there is a great chance that the surface will crack.
Marble is essentially one of the coolest looking natural stones out there. It would look great in your kitchen, but do you think it would survive? That is for you to answer.
