Cleaning Soapstone
Today I had someone come in to clean and seal my Vermont soapstone counters in the house I recently bought. Afterwards I found that they used a floor sealant called ZEP to seal and despite the various marks did not sand down at all before sealing. The questions that I have are:
Couldn’t they have sanded down the entire counter-tops (as opposed to particular areas which may leave indentations) and wouldn’t this likely get more of the marks out than the scrubbing that he did; and
I am quite concerned that the sealant he used is for floors and therefore is potentially toxic for areas where I do food preparation. I can already tell that the waxy finish will peel off when a knife touches it and am worried that those flakes will enter the food and may be toxic to us or our kids.
Am I being overly paranoid?
Thanks
Mike
Hello Mike,
I have to admit that I can not consult you completely on the subject. Soapstone is extremely soft, yet very dense. This means very low absorption but your fingernail can scratch it. There is a long history of soapstone use for countertops and it is heavy pushed by Martha Stewart. I personally can not embrace the use of it for a number practical reasons.
The care and maintenance is total different from marble, granite or slate. It involves using mineral oil and generally accepting deformations that will occur. I really need to refer you to a supplier to properly answer your questions. Contact the people at www.SoapstoneWest.com. I met the owner once and found him quite knowledgeable.
Best wishes,
Tom Cordova
March 21st, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Hi
we are tearing down our house and starting from scratch. In the kitchen we would like white custom cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, medium dark brown hardwood floors and this is all open to the great room and dining room. We need to pick a countertop. All the magazines show black honed granite or black soapstone even on the cooking shows it is the same! However I have heard that these are not good choices. I don’t know what to pick. It is a contemporary cottage style house. Help! No speckle granite! I hate it!
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
Hi Tom:
Help! I’ve been reading your blog. We have a kitchen with shaker maple cabinetry and southern yellow pine floors, both of which have aged 12 years to a mellow buttery tone. The walls are sage green, and there is an antique brick fireplace in the space with a good sized island. After much debate about soapstone v. granite, we have decided to go with granite for price and maintenance reasons. My husband wants ubatuba. I like it, but fear it is too common and possibly too dark for the space? We are going to do just a 5 inch backsplash, not full as we first thought because you said it would look too dark in another posting. Will ubatuba look good, and/or do you have any other suggestions for our space? Thanks for your help!