Water Chemistry vs. Natural Stone

All right, when we think of natural stones, we're talking about stone that is quarried and mined out of the earth and then cut into a shape and installed, right? It's just how the earth made it.

It's natural, you know? When you have synthetic stones, I think of like my countertop at my old home that I renovated was quartz.

Quartz itself is a natural stone, but a quartz countertop is actually synthetically made.

They kind of like compress it, I think.

And so you can get any pattern you want.

It's a little more resilient to a lot of things except heat because of whatever resins they use to make the countertop.

I mean, it worked great as long as you don't put like a really hot pan on it.

But the price difference, at least at the time, this was, I guess, right after COVID.

So it's probably more expensive now.

But the price difference between a natural stone like granite or marble was substantial.

Like quartz was less money in my case.

And I don't know if that's the case where you are, but it was a lot less money and it was a lot more budget friendly for me.

And I liked the way it looked.

So I went with quartz.

But I've always in the back of my mind thought of like, If I was to rank like the fancy, fancy kind of natural stones for a countertop in a house, marble's probably at the top.

But I also know that you're supposed to seal marble.

And, you know, if you pour, if you spill red wine on it, like it dribbles down a wine glass, you could have a red ring that gets absorbed if you don't have it sealed.

Consult your manufacturer.

I am no stone expert.

So let's get that right out of the way.

I've just done some research.

I've never installed stone.

I am not an expert on how it can be sealed or what products to use or what, just talk to them.

But I think of like marble.

I think of travertine.