Hi Joaney & Lainy I also use only windex on all my bench tops. The granite I had before was a white with a few burgundy streaks and gorgeous highlights through it. Can't remember the name, might have been River White but not sure and I found nothing stained it at all. The marble in my bathrooms I have now look very expensive and impressive but I know every single mark on them even though a visitor mightn't pick them out. In my kitchen I now have Caeser stone and if you want a virtually indestructible bench top this would be it. I have blackbutt timber floors and as they have a lot of color, I chose all white in the kitchen with just a tiny fleck. I just love granite because of the beautiful grains you get running through it.

Well now after reading all these posts, I have a dilemma. We would like to maximize the practicality of the deep and soft closing drawers. Corner drawers, the under sink u-shaped drawers etc. Thirty five years ago (yep that's right 35 yrs) when our budget did not allow us to buy new, we bought a dismantled u-shaped show-room demonstration timber kitchen. For years it was blonde pine. Solid pine benchtops, re-sanded and stained a couple of times. Then my husband painted all the solid timber doors with antique white USA marine paint which has worn well. New satin knobs (that have not worn as well) Now it's becoming a little 'shabby chic'. We thought of a complete reno. But we have no space to enlarge on the 3x3 metres. and new 'plastic' kitchens somehow seem less durable than our existing old one. Sink, stove and fridge in the recommended triangle floorplan. So what to do? Our pantry is in the corner with shelves that items at the back of are inaccessible. The microwave is the perfect shoulder level. The cabinets allow me to display favourite tins, crockery and vintage scales. Being a split level house I need the broom cupboard and ironing board stored close at hand.

Hi Tina, Granites are non-pourous and really easy to maintain. When they are installed you should wipe them over with a liquid sealer; something like Rainstop and this will just give it an added protection, but you should not be concerned about staining (not sure where you heard this because it really is not a problem with Granite). The sealing process can be done once a year and it really is as easy as wiping your tops over with Rainstop, which is a thin liquid consistency like Terps, leaving it to dry for around 15 minutes and then wiping this over again with a dry clean cloth; it's that simple. Hope this information helps, regards Malcolm.

Yes, I used Granite transformations, back in 2008. The home we purchased had a terracotta coloured laminate on kitchen benches. I had the kitchen transformed for around $4000. Even the realestate agent thought it was real caeserstone, when we sold our property in dec 2018, before looking and noticing the layer of engineered stone, that is placed over the original laminate bench. The thickness of stone layer over laminate is about 10mm. The area covered was about 5 metres of bench. I have attached the before and after. We did not change the cabinets, just took the hutch off the end of island.