LESLIE: Alright. Now to take a cleaning question from Julie. What’s going on? It sounds like it’s busy at your house.
JULIE: Hi, I’m just wondering about granite countertops. I haven’t had them before and I’m not sure what to clean them with. Somehow I missed the day where they explained how to clean those granite countertops. I’m nervous to scratch them.
TOM: You were absent from school that day. (chuckles)
LESLIE: They usually don’t explain it either. (chuckles) They usually are like, “Here’s your beautiful, fancy, expensive countertop. Best of luck.”
JULIE: Yes, exactly.
LESLIE: You really want to make sure because you don’t want to use harsh chemicals on it. There are several stone-cleansing products that are available. You can even go to any sort of store. I know Target has, you know, that Method brand which is all natural and very organic. They have a granite-cleansing product, even a wipe. But if you’re looking for something maybe that you’ve already got in your house, you can use like a dish soap solution with water and just a wet sponge and then a dry cloth.
JULIE: Oh.
LESLIE: Or if you find that you get a stain on it, I mean it’s not porous and it is sealed so you’re going to find that stains really aren’t going to soak into it. But if you do find that you get some stains on it that are giving you a tough time, you can mix a paste of flour with dishwashing liquid and water and make it sort of like a paste and let it sit on the stain.
And if that’s not working or if you find that the stain is oil-based – you know, like a grease or oil – you can use – instead of the dishwashing liquid, you can use hydrogen peroxide and the flour.
JULIE: Oh. OK.
LESLIE: And those are sort of natural solutions that’ll work really well on the granite countertops and they do recommend resealing your granite countertop every year. However, I find it takes more than like a year or two to notice some imperfections in the granite surface you might find. You might find some pocking or some areas where the solution that they put on top to seal everything starts to pock out.
JULIE: Right.
LESLIE: Once it gets to that point, you definitely need to reseal it. So I wouldn’t go every year but pay attention to it and do use special care on the products you put on it.
JULIE: And I can just get that sealer just at a supply store? Like Home Depot or something or …
TOM: There’s a good website called Stonecare.com and they …
LESLIE: Oh, that’s a great site.
TOM: And they have all sorts of granite cleaning and sealing products there.
JULIE: OK.
TOM: They’ve been around for a long time and seem to make a pretty good product.
JULIE: OK. Oh, I appreciate it.
TOM: You’re welcome, Julie. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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