We all love the natural beautiful look marbles add to our flooring, walls, island tabletops, and countertops. Marbles are natural stones so it is a lot more susceptible to stains, scratches, and etches. One of the things you will do from time to time when these stains and scratches do appear is to polish them. But can you use car polish on marbles?
Polishing marble floors, tabletops, or countertops with a car polish or car wax is a good alternative for marbles especially if they are polished marble. This is because car polish contains polishing compounds that will help to fill in the fine, minor, and even the major scratches on the marble while bringing it to a nice clean glass-like shine. The key to using car polishes on marbles successfully is to ensure you maintain gentle consistent pressure in a circular motion during the car polish application.
Although there are some reasons for you to use car polish to polish your marbles, I always like to lay everything on the table! – as in the good, the bad, and the ugly. So for the remaining parts of this article, I’m going to juxtapose the advantages and disadvantages of using car polish on your marbles so that you will know in advance what you’re getting yourself into and make a better decision. But first…
Let’s Get Into A Few Important Facts About Marbles
Marble is a type of material that has stood the test of time for many many years. Marbles are a type of limestone that has been exposed to extreme heat and pressure treatments.
As mentioned earlier, marbles have a long history that dates all the way back to world-renowned artists like Michelangelo who used marbles for masterpieces like David. Another one is the very popular Taj Mahal which is also a well-known landmark made from marble.
Marbles are simply beautiful and a staple in most modern homes today. But marbles come with their downsides and I find it very important to highlight this so that you will understand what’s at stake when making a decision about what to use to clean or polish it.
Some of marble’s major setbacks include how it easily gets scratched, stained, and etched. All of this is because of how soft of a stone it is and how porous it tends to be.
While scratches and stains are quite obvious after you have used marbles after some time, most people get confused when they begin to notice etch marks on their marbles.
But the fact is that etch marks are kind of a normal thing too for marbles as they will begin to appear when your marble gets exposed to things high in acids like vinegar, citrus, acid-based cleaning products, and even foods like tomatoes.
Types Of Marbles & Why This Matters
To be able to arrive at a reasonable conclusion as to whether using car polishes is okay for your marbles surfaces, you need to know the various types of marble there are (and to be clear, I mean the types of marble finishes). Knowing this will help you know if at all you even need to polish your marble or not.
Before you get bored, let me quickly mention that there are only two common types of marble finishes: Polished marbles and Honed marbles.
So before you take out your car polish or any other type of polish to use on your marble, it helps to know and understand these two different types of marble finishes before embarking on a fruitless attempt at giving shine to a marble that is not meant to be polished.
Polished marbles are very common and a great choice for kitchen countertops. This is because they are less porous and are less likely to stain. Honed marbles, on the other hand, are marbles with moderate matte and with almost no shine on them. Honed marbles are significantly less slippery which makes them best suited for floors.
I personally like it when honed marbles are used for countertops because of their scratch and etch resistance. Honed marbles are perfect for hiding scratches and etch but are the most likely to stain when compared to polished marbles.
So which of the two needs polishing? Honed marbles or polished marbles? You guessed right. Polished marbles do need to be polished from time to time. Not that the name gives it away but this is the type of marble you would want to be polishing.
If your marble is a honed marble, you would want to consult a professional who would have special skills, experiences, and the necessary equipment to help polish or otherwise give it an optimal level of shine.
Hopefully, by now you know the type of marble you have and whether it actually needs polishing or not. Now let’s set the ball rolling by taking a look at the pros and cons of using car polish on your marbles.
Reasons Why Car Polishes Are Good For Marbles – Details
1. Car Polishes Gives The Marble A Glass-Like Finish
Using car polishes is a good alternative to putting a nice clean shine on your marbles. If you have run out of professional marble polishes or you do not have the budget to purchase a marble polisher but have a good quality car polish laying in the garage, then you can make do with it on your marbles.
The only catch is that you would want to use car polish on polished marbles and not so much on honed marbles.
This means that your old marbles that have dulled up over the years can be restored using the car polish to achieve a nice glass-like surface that is absolutely gorgeous.
2. Car Polishes Seals Scratch Marks On Marbles
Car polishes contain polishing compounds that will help it buff out minor scratches from the surface of the marble and also seal off any major scratches on the surface of your marbles.
With a car polish and a good drill polisher in hand, you will be able to do a fairly good job of removing all major and minor scratch marks even if you do it yourself at home – without employing any professional.
If you do not have a drill polisher or cannot afford one, you can give it a microfiber cloth buff. But you would have to work your elbow muscles though.
3. Car Polishes Makes Marbles Stain And Water-Resistant
Some car polishes may come with ingredients that will make them very useful for polishing marbles. Ingredients like the waxes and the silicons contained in car polishes make them great for use on marbles.
If you know anything about waxes they are great for treating and waterproofing porous materials like leather, wood, etc.
The presence of waxes in car polishes will allow you to buff off the surface of your marbles while giving it a nice water-resistant shine.
You will particularly be able to do this by completely sealing off and preventing any porous inlets that may cause water or other liquids from getting into the marble to cause discolorations or stains.
Car polishes will particularly be able to render a marble completely water-resistant especially if it’s a cultured marble made from acrylic finishes.
4. Car Polishes Help To Make Your Marbles Fingerprint-Resistant
Polished marbles in particular as I have stated over and over again are more likely to scratch than honed marbles which are somewhat matte. Not only do they scratch easily but they are also quite visible when scratches do occur.
Another thing that will easily show through especially on your polished marbles is fingerprints when you touch to use them. This can largely be due to how shiny and glossy polished marbles are.
If you wouldn’t want to always clean or wipe off fingerprints from your marble countertops, tabletops, or centerpieces whenever you use them, then you can use the car polish to make your marble fingerprint-resistant.
Tips on using car polish on marbles
- Use car polishes that have a bit of grit to them like the Maguire ultimate compound and work your way down to car polishes with even finer grit like the turtle wax clean finish polishing compound.
- You also want to use some form of sealer on the surface of your marbles after using the car polish. This helps to give the marble extra lasting protection.
- One tip to help laminate and make your marble have the best-looking surfaces shine is by maintaining a circular motion when you’re applying the car polish.
- Make sure your marble surface is always clean before applying the car polish.
- You would want to buff off any excess car polish after each application before re-polishing if you want to do multiple layers of polish applications.
How To Use Car Polish On Marble
Here’s a useful resource on how to use car polish on marbles. Enjoy!