Granite Sealer

[radhak]

The last threads on this here are a few years old, so lemme ask this question again - what's the Granite sealer you can recommend?

I had my bathroom counter top replaced last week with a dark (black/brown) granite, and need to seal it. Online, HD seems to be displaying this prominently:




http://www.homedepot.com/p/Miracle-S...QT-H/100076375
(and comments said it's available at all their stores)

But when I visited today, they only had (and were pushing) this:



http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fila-Wet-...2AME/206392680

This latter is water-based (good) while the Miracle is solvent-based, but this is also twice as expensive! Did the Miracle get kicked out of HD? Any comment on either of these?

Apart from these, any other you liked?

[tfischer]

Watching this. We remodeled our kitchen 3 years ago and have yet to seal the countertops (the countertop guy said he didn't even do it on his own)

[vaking]

I don't think granite needs to be sealed. Marble does. Marble isn't a true stone even though it is considered one of "natural stone" materials. I believe sealing granite is a gimmick.

[radhak]

Everybody on the 'net seems to think Granite needs to be sealed because it's porous. My personal experience corroborates this: I put in a granite top on the vanity in my small bathroom some years ago, and did not bother sealing it. Somewhere down the line somebody left a bottle of baby oil on the counter overnight, and it left a neat little imprint, that has never fully gone away, however much I tried. I have refrained from using harsh chemicals because I dunno if it'd make it better or worse, as it's not very visible now.

We visited my brother-in-law in San Diego recently, and I noticed that none of his 3 bathrooms had any problems, and they are not very careful with their counter-tops. He had all those counter-tops installed and sealed professionally. So first-person anecdotally, I'd rather get in and seal it.

For what it's worth, this morning I got the Magic Impregnator from the local Floor & Decor and spent an hour sealing the counter top and the grout for the newly laid tile (they say it works for both). Not at all labor intensive. Now to see if it really helps!

[JimD]

I believe the need for sealer is greater for lighter colors. We had Uba Tuba tile and a slab on the island in the last kitchen. It is dark green with gold flecks. We never sealed it and had no noticeable stains. But the current LOML wants light colored counters when we redo the kitchen (drawing up ideas now) and we may do quartz - for lower maintenance and because she thinks it looks better. We'll see. But if it's granite and light colored, I'm planning to seal it. The darker colored granite probably absorbs some things but it never produced a noticeable stain (in 15 years use).

[sailor55330]

I have granite in my kitchen (hate it) and the builder said to seal it. From an NSF standpoint, granite is considered porous and therefore prone to collecting bacteria. We sealed it a few times throughout the years, but honestly, can't really tell.

We also had a granite vanity top installed in our master bath by a company that does nothing but granite. They never mentioned anything about sealing it.

So, is sealing granite necessary, or is it snake oil. It didn't hurt anything in the kitchen, but not sealing it hasn't hurt anything in the bathroom.

I call snake oil