Aaron , when you wipe it use water in a spray bottle with some lavender oil with a. Microfibre cloth. Then quickly dry with a different microfiber cloth.
We have this system at home and it's not that hard. I have 4 kids and work full time so not heaps of time for bench care and this works really well.
Ours is the fresh which is white so probably shows less but give it a go before you seal it. I can see sealer wearing off and being a nightmare to be honest. I would avoid it.

hi Aaron .

i did a lot of work for a large company that sold marble, stone and alike counters and we used to tell people that concrete is not great to be sealed as it does not last long and will need to be resealed.

my suggestion is try to lavender that every one is talking about.

As i have said previously i personally would never recommend concrete but some people say its not a big deal cleaning it.

Good luck as i honestly dont have a lot of suggestions but call up a builder of installer of counters and they may give you better advice so you can deal with it

I have it in my bathrooms and I love it but it would be pretty hard to look after in a kitchen.

Nelson interior designers, it's not actually concrete.. it's still a man made stone . It's just designed to give the appearance of concrete.

thank you Breanne. I do know that. I guess i did not make it clear in what i said.

Its only my opinion but as i said i really am not keen on it and many designers agree.

I hope every one that buys it is explained what they need to do to care for it prior to installation

I’ve now had the raw concrete installed in two bathrooms and powder room , also laundry and kitchenette bench and the fresh concrete in the pantry . So far I love it . Doesn’t seem at all difficult to care for . Very happy with . It has a nice organic look and I love the ‘imperfections ‘ in the texture , that is part of its charm .

Hi Sonia - could you please post some photos?

Melmcevoy Would be happy to . Give me a little time . It’s still a building site . Cheers .

After viewing all the comments on this site, and worrying about the marks and upkeep of Fresh Concrete Caesarstone, I went with my heart and put these benchtops in my kitchen. I absolutely LOVE them, they look so cool, I love the flecks of black and grey and veins of white which are so subtle. The Matt finish is perfect. We had decided we weren’t going to sweat it if it showed marks, and to be honest, it isn’t that bad. We have been cooking for about 2 weeks now and have no issues or complaints, we are very very happy. We also had a table made and used this as the top and we love that too.

Looks great

I have the white and the raw concrete in the bathrooms and also love it.
Cesear stone actually sell cleaners that you can use, I have them but now I only use Enjo products....just Too easy.

Looks great

We’ve been in our house 4 months now. I chose Fresh Concrete for the kitchen, all bathrooms and laundry. I freaked out at first. Don’t do this, don’t do that lol. I have come to realise that the marks do come out. Finger prints do come off. I don’t stress so much now, as a quick wipe over and polish with a tea towel cleans it well. My husband thinks differently. It’s driving him nuts. Especially after the grandkids have been here. He’s talking if replacing it but I’m not ready for that yet. I’ll just have to make sure it’s 100% spotless for his highness lol. Having said all that, I wouldn’t get it again but I never get the same thing twice anyway.

Hi , I’m thinking about installing the rugged concrete .. not sure about the MATT finish .. had anyone used it with black kitchen doors .. just not sure if the rugged MATT finish will look good , your thoughts pls ?

Scroll up on this lengthy post and you will see some reviews.

Vince , I think it would look great with black doors .

I am just about to get raw concrete caesarstone benchtops but after reading this i a worried- is it all that bad to clean? What is it like around the sink with water splashes??

@ mikimoo
it’s is fantastic and easy to clean I absolutely love it - i just use Jiff and then I go over it after I have rinsed with a microfibre cloth.

@mikimoo it’s fine around the basin . No problem . I love mine .

Just watching my 10yo wash his hands as I’m reading this. This is a real-time photo of my fresh concrete benchtop

I’m still bitterly disappointed with this product. Like many others we chose it to avoid the high maintenance of natural stone but this is far worse. It is NOT fit for the intended use and I will change it when I can. I will never use Caesar stone again

I have to agree with rozdebortoli7
I love the look and feel of it (Raw Concrete) when it’s just been cleaned but it requires a ridiculous amount of upkeep. Steer clear of this or at least do your research!! I am not a perfectionist but I want my new (now 2yr old) kitchen to look good! This product is not fit for purpose in my opinion. So over it I can’t be bothered pursuing Caesarstone.

I have the fresh concrete and the raw concrete in different bathrooms.
They do leave water marks and ring marks.
I have the Caesar stone cleaning products including their wipes which I use. Really nothing else works.
They do work, I’m very happy with them in the bathroom but maybe a touch annoying in the kitchen.

@Tilley try lavender oil . It woks beautifully for me .

Thanks

Whoops ... meant to say thanks Sonia for your suggestion and I will try the lavender oil.

About 6 months in and still in love with my Fresh Concrete. I use Enjo most of the time, the odd spray with Spray and Wipe, and occasionally need Glitz (the Bunnings version of Gumption). But really, they are great, no problems. Now thinking of using it in the ensuite reno

Like Tracye, I too use enjo but with the odd spray of the Caesar stone spray.

I don’t know Enjo . Do you just buy it st the supermarket ? Or, is it a Caesarstone specific product ? Thanks

Enjo are chemical free cleaning clothes. Enjo.com.au

Hi all. After scouring the net for photos and details on how Caesarstone Raw Concrete (4004) stands up to daily use in the kitchen, and reading varied, mixed, and mostly negative reviews - I decided to conduct my own scientific experiment to see if I could get some concrete results ;) Last week I ordered 3 4x4 in samples from Caesarstone and they just got here today. Here is the lineup:

1. Raw Concrete (4004) - honed finish

2. Sleek Concrete (4003) - honed finish

3. Nougat (6600) - regular gloss finish

Here's how they look on day one fresh out of the bubble-pack.

And from this angle you can see the matte look of the two honed samples on the left compared to the slightly glossier Nougat sample on the right.

I plan to test out the following common offenders tonight:

1. Water

2. Olive oil

3. Coffee

4. Red wine

5. Greasy fingerprints (yes, I'll be forced to consume a slice of pizza for this)

6. Pot/plate scratches

7. Cilantro (only because I read a bizzare scathing review about this one)

Stay tuned for more!

Love it. I'm looking forward to the results. I have been testing my samples of Raw Concrete with a variety of stains, and for me so far so good, so it will be interesting to see your much more scientific testing!

I look forward to seeing the results. I have been conducting my own testing over the last month on the raw concrete samples i have and so far so good, so be interesting to see your results. Avocado is also a good one to test.

You should have ordered the Fresh Concrete too Stuart! What I find is it doesn’t “stain” so much - it watermarks.

I don't think we have Fresh Concrete as an option. We're purchasing from IKEA in the US and I don't think they offer that.

Ok, so here we go. Day 1 stain test. 2pm PST. I decided to add in an additional test of lemon juice since we use a lot of citrus in our home.

Initial observations:

1. The surface definitely makes a difference. The drops of liquid dispersed immediately on the Nougat sample, whereas they stayed in place on the honed surfaces.

2. The water, lemon juice, plate scratch and greasy fingerprint were nearly invisible on the smooth surface.

I decided to give it about 24 hours as a worst case scenario of a mess being left on the countertop, so I'll check back in tomorrow evening.

great to see that you are testing it first.

very smart choice

I read all the pros and cons on this thread before making decision. Initially I had ordered Fresh Concrete for all my kitchen bench tops, island bench, laundry and bathroom vanities. In the end, I decided to go with French Concrete for my island as that was the star item in the kitchen and for my vanities but changed the kitchen bench tops to Caesarstone Clamshell, as I thought the benchtops would get more dirty and greasy. Have not regretted the decision. Fresh concrete is lovely. I liked it from the start because of the matt finish. Watermarks do come up more compared to the Clamshell but I’m ok with that. I probably would be ok if it had all been French Concrete having lived with Fresh Concrete for over 1 year. The Clamshell hides more dirt. Have attached photos of the water marks on Fresh Concrete. Comes off easily.

If you want the look of concrete but without the maintenance try a laminate like Formica 'Weathered Cement' or 'Elemental Concrete'. This is from their special effects laminate range and has a textured finish (images below). Unlike porous surfaces like concrete and marble the laminate does not absorb stains and does not scratch. Modern laminates have gone beyond the bland boring finishes and have been able to perfectly replicate the look of finishes like stone, timber and concrete without any of the maintenance issues associated with these materials. The concrete laminate look is very authentic and being high pressure laminate the maintenance is minimal. Formica also have marble and granite laminates for those looking for a marble finish without the issue of staining.

Okay, sorry this took a few days. We're in the middle of moving. Here are the results after about 26 hours of sitting:

My first attempt at cleaning was with a wet, nonabrasive paper towel. It did a decent job on all three, better than I had expected. Nougat was nearly wiped clean except for a hint of green from the cilantro. The major offenders seemed to be the oils and the pot scratches. See below.

awesome that is such a great test and helps me also confirm my decision to go with raw concrete and live with the industrial look. Thanks for your time and effort!

Arden, thanks very much for the photos and write-ups. Your experiment has been extremely helpful to me.

Ours is a heavily used kitchen. We don't use any chemical cleaners at all, so before we get this, we need to understand what natural cleaners will work best on this raw concrete look.

Has anyone used the rugged concrete from @ceasarstone or the valour from @stoneambassador??? Interested to hear any feedback on these two? The valour is a textured finish not smooth.

Hey guys. It’s been more than a couple weeks but we finally got around to having a housewarming party this past weekend and made good use of our new Raw Concrete countertops. We had 20+ guests over about 9 hours on Sunday, greasy Puerto Rican food, mac n’ cheese, and various cocktails in and out of the kitchen all day. These are photos the from the next morning after I have the counters a wipe-down with Windex and a soft rag. Needless to say, we’re quite pleased! No complaints whatsoever so far.

Great to see arden_stuart. Thanks for sharing these photos, I was interested to see there is a bit of "veining" which I like. Our top is due to be installed within this month.

Just a follow up, we have now completed our extension and we are loving the Caesarstone Raw Concrete top. Interestingly we have a plain white on the rear of the kitchen and it is much harder to look after, showing stains and harder to clean than the Raw Concrete. Bonus is the Raw Concrete is now available in a larger size so we didn't need a join. I just bought the cleaners from Caeserstone and so far these seem to be doing the job fine and we have had a few red wines and dinners on the bench.

Any colour recommadtions as to a white polytec thermal wrap that will go with fresh concrete?

@arden_stuart, can you tell us how you like the countertops now? :)

It has been almost 4 years since we installed the Raw Concrete in our kitchen. I love the LOOK of it but hate the maintenance. I’ve learned to live with it, but honestly if I had it to do over I would find a different material. It shows everything and needs to be buffed dry if you don’t want water marks. BUT it all depends on how much natural light you have — I have TONS of windows in my kitchen so it shows everything.