Care & Maintenance
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Kitchen Counter and Bathroom Vanity Worktops in Shrewsbury
If you’re looking for a quartz worktop, no doubt you’ll be expecting beauty and durability. All of our work surfaces have both those things in abundance, able to bring an instant element of class and dignity to your kitchen, bathroom, bar or anywhere else you could care to use our quartz. With over 40 years of combined experience producing high-quality kitchen worktops, bar tops and bathroom vanity worktops in Shrewsbury, we’ve learned the tips of the trade that will help to keep your worktop in tip-top condition. With a little care and attention, your worktop will serve you well, weathering the wear and tear of home life, while retaining the beauty that first caught your eye.
We produce all of our quartz kitchen worktops in Shrewsbury, from stone that we import ourselves and also from all the major suppliers. If you’re looking for a certain style, we guarantee we can source it for you.
Quartz Maintenance
How Do I Clean My Quartz?
Unseen dirt and other elements remain the number one enemy of quartz. What’s more, Coronavirus germs can actually survive on quartz surfaces for about one to two days. This means that you should not just clean off the surface, but actually disinfect it as well. This eliminates germs and bacteria not visible to the naked eye, while also ensuring that the food you serve to your friends and family is sanitary.
What Cleaning Products Should I Use?
The key to maintaining a tiptop quartz worktop is consistency, meaning that you should, as much as possible, wipe your worktop with warm water and mild fairy-liquid-type soaps on a daily basis.
This is especially essential for busy kitchens, like those that are often bustling with constant cooking and prepping for meals. This includes restaurant worktops and big family kitchens.
This is also necessary to prevent dirt build up. Simply put, when you clean every day, you get rid of dirt daily as well. Spots, stains, and other types of dirt will not have the chance to pile up and harden, keeping your quartz surface as clean as the day we installed it.
What About Dirt Build-Up?
In the event that gunk has already piled up, use a plastic scraper to get rid of the dirt. This prevents scratches on the surface of your worktop while you clean. This tool is perfect for removing superglue, stuck gum, and dried grease.
Of course, it is best to scrape the dirt off immediately, as we said before. With this in mind, we would recommend keeping a handy scraper in one of the kitchen drawers.
We cannot stress this enough: use the best-quality quartz cleaner you can buy!
There are products you can buy in most supermarkets that are great for cleaning quartz worktops. Once you choose one that you are comfortable with, use it as often as necessary.
An important piece of advice: use the kind that does not contain bleach, to prevent the discolouration of your worktop.
When choosing a product, always check the label for information on worktop safety and protection.
How Do I Clean Stains and Spills?
Of course, sometimes, the dreaded event occurs, like when a big spill that causes stains suddenly turns your kitchen countertop or bathroom vanity worktop in Shrewsbury into a hot mess. Again, if you have the cleaning products you need, this will not be much of a bother. Just spray the products and let them sit for a few minutes. Then, wipe with a wet cloth to remove the mess. In times of emergency, with no one to turn to, there is no better way to deal with the immediate threat than to do it the DIY way: using different home products. One great alternative is rubbing alcohol, which is great for inky stains. After wiping the stain off with rubbing alcohol, make sure to follow up with warm water!
Another alternative is a glass or window cleaner. While there are products for worktops, you might not have them in stock. You will, most likely, have glass cleaner though. This is still effective when used on worktops.
A word of caution: it is not advisable to use glass cleaners on all types of quartz worktops. Make sure to read the instructions carefully.
How Can I Prevent Worktop Damage?
Cleaning a quartz worktop does not just mean getting rid of immediate dirt so that the surface looks nice and clean – it is part of the entire process of maintaining the durability of your quartz worktop. Always remember that, no matter how expensive your worktop is, without proper maintenance, it is bound to break down earlier.
As previously mentioned, a little instant cleaning after dirt and stains arrive goes a long way!
Will High Heat Damage the Worktop?
Nothing good ever comes from too much exposure to heat. The same goes for your worktop. Buy products that raise your pots and pans from the surface of your worktop. This way, you will not constantly be putting your pans on top of your precious quartz, thereby reducing damage and degradation.
Can I Chop Straight on the Quartz?
While it may seem tempting to chop away on your quartz surface – do not! Some people think it makes it look more authentic. Others are just too lazy to grab a chopping board. While some think that knives will not scratch, they most certainly will.
Debunking these notions is very important. Nothing good ever comes from using knives and other sharp objects directly on a worktop surface.
How Durable is Quartz?
Our kitchen countertops and bathroom vanity worktops in Shrewsbury are constructed and fabricated with durability in mind. That said, a huge part of how durable your worktop is (and how long it will retain that durability for) is how well you treat the surface. Smashing things down does not at all help in maintaining durability. Know that excessive smashing will eventually cause brittleness and cracks.
Tips and Tricks for Cleaning
Following the above advice, your lovely new worktop will remain stain, bacteria and damage-free. The coronavirus, however, is a different monster entirely. With that in mind, we need to be doing more than simply disinfecting our quartz worktops – we need to be disinfecting them from coronavirus particles, so that we can stay safe and COVID-free.
How to Properly Sanitise your Stone
Currently, the world is in the midst of a pandemic because we don’t fully understand the virus. We do not know how long it can live on our surfaces. So far, scientists have only been able to estimate that it can live for a few hours on metallic surfaces. But what about stone surfaces?
Because we do not know how long it can stay on stone surfaces, we don’t know if we can get infected with the virus by simply touching it. Nevertheless, we should treat any surface like it’s still infected, just to be sure. Here’s how the sanitisation of quartz worktops works:
- Put on rubber gloves to protect your hands and a face mask to protect your face (an N95 or a surgical mask).
- In a spray bottle, mix 1 part bleach with 10 parts water and spray the entire worktop surface. Bleach is a very strong substance and you might be worried about using it on your quartz but you shouldn’t worry – this is a diluted solution that won’t cause any discolouration or damage.
- Do not wipe it off immediately. Leave the disinfectant on the surface for 10 to 15 minutes before wiping it dry.
- When using rubbing alcohol, use a 70% isopropyl or ethyl alcohol solution. Spray the entire surface generously and wipe the entire surface. Repeat the procedure again, at least once more.
- Discard the piece of cloth that you used and grab a new one. Rinse the worktop surface with water to remove all traces of the disinfectant.
- Immediately throw away your disposable gloves and mask.
It is recommended to clean quartz surfaces daily and disinfect them at least twice a week. Scientists believe that ordinary household disinfectants are enough to sufficiently get rid of the coronavirus. By following the steps above, you can make sure that your family is safe and COVID-free.
Can You Use Disinfectant Wipes on Quartz?
No! You can’t use disinfecting wipes on quartz worktops. Disinfecting wipes contain citric acid as their primary ingredient and are not diluted in any way. When you use these wipes to clean your countertop, they will weaken the seal on your worktop’s surface leaving them vulnerable to discolouration.
The Top 7 Mistakes When Caring for Your Quartz Worktop
Quartz countertops are expensive so damaging them is a costly mistake. You won’t have to spend a lot of money on repairs as long as you avoid these 7 mistakes when caring for quartz.
Not Wiping Spills Immediately
Spills are bad news for quartz worktops. If you let any type of spill sit for too long on your quartz, this may cause the surface to stain. Quartz is often marketed as being highly resistant to stain but it is important to remember that the stone is not completely stain-proof. This is why you should always wipe and clean spills as soon as they happen. Yes, there are ways to remove stains but it’s a long process. The best way to avoid stains is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Wiping spills immediately is the best practice in maintaining quartz worktops.
Using an Inappropriate Cleaner
Using any cleaning product that is not recommended to be used on quartz worktops will have the opposite effect, causing lasting stains. Avoid both acidic and alkaline cleaners as these will break down the bonds between resin and quartz and permanently damage the surface. Harsh, acidic cleaners like lemon, lime, and vinegar will weaken the sealant of the worktops’ surface over time and will make the surface more prone to staining.
There are cleaners that are safe to use for cleaning quartz worktops but using dish washing soaps, antibacterial soaps or hand soaps mixed with water is enough to keep your worktops clean and beautiful. You can use this soap and water mixture for the daily clean-up of your quartz and it will be just as effective as any quartz cleaner in the market.
Using Abrasive Brushing Pads
Do not use cleaning pads that are in any way abrasive to wipe your worktop because this may cause small scratches on the surface. These small scratches are not noticeable but they will cause your countertops to lose their shine and luster. Using a microfiber cloth in cleaning quartz is recommended by experts because this type of cloth is soft, highly absorbent, and doesn’t leave watermarks.
Setting Hot Items Directly on the Worktop
Quartz is highly heat resistant but it is not entirely immune to heat. If you can help it, don’t set hot pots or pans directly on your worktop because extreme heat will damage the resin of the worktop’s surface, causing it to discolour. Discolouration caused by heat damage usually can’t be fixed and you will need to replace that entire slab of stone to get rid of the damage.
In addition, sudden extreme changes in temperature can create thermal expansion and cause the surface to crack. Always use cooking pads or trivets when you have to put something hot on your quartz worktop to guard it against direct exposure to heat.
Cutting Foods Without Using a Chopping Board
Prevention is the key when it comes to caring for quartz worktops. With the right amount of force, any sharp metallic object will cause permanent scratches on the surface. This is why you should always use a chopping board, when cutting up foods, to prevent any scratches from happening.
Using Metallic Objects to Scrape the Surface
Let’s face it. No matter how careful we are, spills still happen and, once in a while, you will need to scrape off the gunk on the quartz surface, as part of your worktop’s maintenance. When you do this, use plastic objects such as a plastic knife or a scraper, and never use any sharp metallic objects. They scratch, just like a knife.
Using Hot Water to Clean the Surface
Make sure that when you clean your countertop, the water that you use is at room temperature or only mildly warm. This is vital to avoid damaging your countertop’s resin.
High Quality, Durable Quartz at Competitive Prices
If you have your eye on a new kitchen counter or bathroom vanity worktop in Shrewsbury, or anywhere else in the Midlands, Shropshire, Birmingham or Mid Wales, look no further. Give us a call on 01952 936021 or 07850 982885, or email us at sales@quartzpro.uk to begin.