Andy from Colorado Springs asks:

“You installed my new black granite countertops last month. They look great and I get lots of compliments. My old cabinetry, which we didn’t replace, barely gets noticed. Thanks!”

“How should I best clean my new counters without risk of scratching or dulling them?”

Good question, Andy, I’m sure others are wondering the same thing.

First, your granite countertops are naturally strong and durable. Have you noticed all the cornerstones laid with 100 to 300 year time capsules within them are made of granite? Your new countertops can last that long and you don’t have to handle them with kid gloves!

For daily clean-ups, use your favorite kitchen and bath cleaner. Doctor Granite likes Cinch by Spic & Span, it seems to streak less for me.

For periodic deep cleaning, you’ll want to use a specialty product designed for granite, marble, quartz and other natural stone surfaces. Here, Doctor Granite’s favorite is Lustro Italiano Stone Polisher and Rejuvenator, an outstanding product from Tenax. Its purpose is to clean away the day-to-day grime that accumulates on granite. In the process, it restores the gleam of your original finely polished surface. Your granite surfaces should be cleaned in this manner as needed … as often as daily and as infrequently as every few weeks … depending on your usage patterns. There are other comparable cleaners, but I feel Lustro is one of the very best products on the market.

Note that I’m not talking about a granite polish which I’ll talk about in another article. These polishes are designed to give granite an entirely new surface. They remove a very small layer of granite; the layer that is dull, scratched and/or stained; to reveal fresh, smooth, gleaming stone beneath.

The good news here is that you don’t need to re-polish your granite often … typically only every five to fifteen years! This depends, of course, on the traffic or use your countertops receive.