How to Clean Marble Floors and Countertops
Marble is a beautiful material but it's not the easiest to keep clean. Did you know that you aren't supposed to us anything acidic on marble? Also, did you know that almost every cleaner is acidic.
How you clean your marble depends on what you are cleaning. Are you cleaning a stain? Are you just trying to clean your counters on a regular basis? Are you trying to get rid of etch marks (rings)? There are different methods to clean each.
How to Clean Stains
This is the hardest one, so we will start with it. Marble is a very porous stone and you can pull stains out using natural products, but it takes time. For this you will need to make a paste called a poultice.
A poultice that is suitable for marble is baking soda and water. Make it thick enough where you can smear it on the stain and cover it.
The next step is to smear the poultice over your marble. Smear it on like thick tooth paste. Cover the poultice up with saran wrap and let it sit over night.
After it sits over night, wipe it clean with some water. As you can see, having marble floors in a bathroom has it's limitations. 
How to Clean Marble Floor and Counters
Regular cleaning of your marble floors should ONLY be done with products that are no acidic. Never use cleaners that contain vinegar. It can also damage or discolor marble if you use bleach.
In addition don't use lemon or any cleaner with an ingredient that has the word acid in it.
Target, Home Depot and Amazon all have cleaners that are made for marble. It might be a little more expensive, but it's worth the price if you have marble floors.
You can use a diluted ammonia on marble, but you need to be sure to rinse with water after. Use 1/2 cup of ammonia to 1 gallon of water.
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Did not see a lot of difference from the picture. Will not be tryingthus
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Photos, especially in shadowy areas, often do not do justice to the subject.
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JH ! It should work on granite.
Granite countertops also don’t like it when you use something like Windex on them because it strips the “seal” off of the stone.
Apparently there are some very nice countertop/granite cleaners out there that do a great job…but $7.00 for a 12-ounce bottle? YOU can do better than that! :-)
After researching several homemade options out there…I discovered they all had the same basic ingredients…just in varying amounts. Some had a LOT of alcohol in them…some very little. I think the following “recipe” has a good balance of the ingredients, based on the information I read.
Homemade Granite Cleaner, 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol (or cheap vodka), 3 drops of Dawn or other dish soap (Castile soap would also be a good alternative if you prefer), Water, 5-10 drops essential oil (optional – to help mask the alcohol smell).
Put the rubbing alcohol or vodka into a 16 oz spray bottle. Add the dish soap, essential oil and fill up the rest of the bottle with water.
Now give it a few shakes….THEN give it a try! It should give your countertops a nice, clean shine. Works on appliances too! All at a FRACTION of the price of the store-bought stuff.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
What about cleaning a marble fireplace
I have a marble topped vanity that someone has used the wrong cleaning products on. It’s drawn all the colors out of it and turned the top to mostly. Mottled gray color and white. Is there any way to restore the beautiful Rich golds and reds. blacks/browns back into it? Or is it ruined for good?