Using Hand Held Burnishing Blocks to Renovate a Black Granite Sink Countertop in South London

This Black Granite sink countertop was damaged by a cleaning company during an end of tenancy clean at a rental property in Clapham South London. Granite is a very robust stone, but acidic cleaning products will etch it and damage the factory polish thereby ruining its appearance.

Naturally the landlord was not very happy and was considering having it replaced at the cost of the cleaning company who really should have known better. This however would have taken time to source and replace so after searching for a solution on-line I was asked to pop round and see if I could resolve the problem. We don’t just help resolve problems with tiles, jobs like this add a little variety to our day.

The landlord was relieved to hear that the problem could be fixed when I visited site. My solution was to re-polish the granite using a combination of hand-held burnishing blocks and six-inch burnishing pads fitted to a flex machine. He agreed my quote which he passed on to the cleaning company and we arranged a time to get the work done ahead of his new tenant moving in.

Restoring the Appearance of a Granite Countertop

To bring back the appearance of etched Granite we have found its necessary to use various grits of polishing pads and handheld blocks which are made from industrial diamonds. The larger 6-inch pads fit into a handheld buffer which helps to make the process easier.

I started though with the application of a coarse 200-grit hand block to remove the deeper etching from the damaged areas and then moved on to refinishing the surface with the diamond burnishing pads of increasing grits. Water is used to lubricate the process and remove the fine slurry that is generated. I finished on a 3000-grit pad which is applied dry with only a small amount of water to really bring up the polish and ready for sealing.

Sealing a Granite Countertop

To protect the Granite a couple of coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer was applied. This sealer is an impregnator which soaks into the pores of the stone giving long lasting protection, it’s formula also contains a colour enhancer which brought out the dark Black colours in the Granite.

Once done the countertop looked new again and my the landlord was so happy the problem had been resolved, I’m sure the cleaning company were pleased as well as it saved them lot of hassle and money to replace the countertop. The cleaning company took our details for any future mishaps, hopefully they had learned a lesson though!

The property was now ready for the new tenant.

Source: Stone Countertop Renovation Service in Clapham South London