Stains
Coffee, wine, oil, rust. Something soaked in and won't come out. Most stains in natural stone can be drawn back out with the right chemistry for that stain and that stone.
Diagnose my stain →Your countertop isn't dirty. It's damaged.
We fix damaged.
Stains, water rings, dull spots, chips. If cleaning hasn't helped, it won't. That's damage, not dirt, and most countertop damage can be fixed without replacing the top. Show us a photo of yours and see exactly what we can do with it.
See YOUR Counters Restored
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The New Homeowner's Guide to Stone Countertops , published on Google Play and Amazon Kindle.
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Start with what you see.
Water rings & dull spots
Those aren't stains. They're etch marks, where something acidic ate into the polish itself. No cleaner can fix an etch. Re-honing and re-polishing can.
Diagnose my dull spots →Lost its shine
The whole top looks tired: hazy, scratched, nothing like the day it was installed. Whether it's wear, buildup, or the wrong cleaners, the original finish is usually still recoverable.
Diagnose my counter →Something just spilled? What to do in the next sixty seconds →
Not sure what your countertop even is?
You're not alone, and it matters more than you'd think. Two of the four stones look almost identical and need opposite care.
Identify your stone →Or start with your stone.
Marble
Elegant, and the most vulnerable stone in your house. Acid etches it no matter how careful you are. Fully restorable, and worth maintaining on a schedule.
Marble restoration →Granite
Tough, but not maintenance-free. Seals wear off, shine dulls, edges chip. Almost always restorable to install-day condition.
Granite restoration →Quartzite
Natural stone with granite's hardness and marble's looks, when it's actually quartzite. A lot of what's sold as quartzite isn't. We test before we touch.
Quartzite care →Quartz (engineered)
Stone aggregate in resin. The resin sets the rules: some damage polishes out, some is permanent. We'll tell you which is which before any work begins.
Quartz polishing →See your counter fixed before we ever step inside.
Send a photo
Snap your countertop damage and send it through. Takes about a minute.
See YOUR counter, restored
We send back your own photo with the damage gone, plus what's actually wrong with it, in plain English, and what we'd do to fix it.
Book it
Like what you see? Your quote is attached. Text or call to schedule and we'll make the photo real.
See YOUR Counters RestoredStraight answers.
My marble has dull rings where glasses sat. What are they?
Etch marks. Something acidic in the glass, or its condensation, took the polish off the surface in a ring. They have no color, they won't wipe off, and no cleaner fixes them. They're re-polished mechanically. Diagnose my dull spots →
Can't I just polish it myself with something from the store?
Store "stone polish" is a wax or a topper. It sits on top of the mark and shines until it wears off; the etch or stain is still under it. Etch repair is abrasives in steps. That's a mechanical job, not a bottle.
Is my countertop granite or quartz? How do I tell?
You're asking the right question; they need completely different care, and mislabeling is common. Natural stone never repeats from one slab to the next; engineered quartz repeats its pattern and never needs sealing. Our stone identifier walks you through it, or send a photo and we'll tell you. Identify your stone →
Do you replace countertops?
No. We restore them. When a top can't be saved, a crack through the slab, for instance, we say so and point you to a fabricator.
How do I find out what my repair would cost?
Sealing and chip repair are flat-rate and published. Honing, etch repair, and stain removal are quoted from your photo, because depth decides the steps and the steps decide the price. What's flat, what's quoted, and why →
Does sealing my marble stop the rings?
No. Sealer goes into the pores and slows down what soaks in. Rings are etching, which happens on the surface the moment something acidic touches it. Sealed marble etches exactly like unsealed marble. Sealing protects against stains; it does nothing for etches.
My quartzite is getting rings. I was told quartzite doesn't etch.
True quartzite doesn't. A lot of stone sold as quartzite is a marble-family stone with the same look, and it etches like marble. One drop of lemon juice on a hidden spot settles it: if the spot dulls, it's marble-family. We test before we touch it. Quartzite care →
Is it a stain or an etch?
A stain has color and sits in the stone: coffee brown, oil gray, rust orange. An etch has no color: a dull, lighter, cloudy mark, usually a ring. Stains are drawn out with chemistry. Etches are re-polished mechanically. Nothing cleans an etch, and nothing polishes out a stain.
Can I seal my counters myself?
Yes. The product isn't the hard part; the application is. Run the water test first: pour a small puddle, wait fifteen to thirty minutes, wipe. If the stone darkened, it needs sealing. If it beaded, it doesn't, and sealing it anyway is what causes haze. The New Home Stone Guide →
How often should stone countertops be sealed?
When the water test says so, not when a date says so. The trade's rule of thumb is every three to six months for marble and six to twelve for granite and quartzite, but porosity swings slab to slab. Some dense granite never needs it. Quartz is never sealed.
Can you fix a heat mark on quartz?
Sometimes. Quartz is stone in resin, and heat damages the resin. Light marks often polish out. Resin that's scorched through is changed permanently; we can usually reduce it, not always remove it. Send a photo and we'll tell you which before anyone comes out. Quartz polishing →
My granite looks dull all over. Is it worn out?
Almost never. Dull granite is a film of store "polish" built up over time, hard-water residue, or a finish worn down by abrasive pads. The first two strip off. The third is re-polished. Granite is the stone we most often bring back to install-day condition. Granite restoration →
Do you use a poultice to remove stains?
Stains are drawn out of the stone with the chemistry that matches that stain and that stone. What we don't do is tell you to try it yourself. Most of the stains we can't fully lift were bleached, scrubbed, or acid-cleaned first. Blot it, use mild dish soap, and send a photo.
What's the difference between quartz and quartzite?
They share a mineral and nothing else that matters. Quartzite is a natural rock, harder than granite, cut from a quarry. Quartz countertops are ground quartz bound in factory resin. One is sealed and re-polished like stone. The other is never sealed and its weak spot is the resin.
Can I use vinegar or a "natural" cleaner on my counters?
Not on natural stone. Vinegar, lemon, and most all-purpose sprays are acidic, and acid etches marble and marble-family quartzite on contact. Warm water and a drop of mild dish soap, or a pH-neutral stone cleaner, is the entire product list.
How long does a countertop restoration take?
Most kitchens are a single visit. A spot repair on one etch or one stain is a short one. A full top re-honed and re-polished is a longer one, and the kitchen is out of commission while it's done. You'll know which from the photo before we schedule.
What happens if I just leave it?
Depends what it is. Etches don't spread; a ring you got last year is the same ring today, and what grows is the count. Stains set deeper the longer they sit. A worn finish keeps wearing. None of it is the end of the counter, but the longer the list gets, the bigger the job.
Just closed on a new home?
Your builder handed you manuals for the AC and every appliance, and nothing about the most expensive surfaces in the house. Your stone counters have a care clock, and it's already running. We wrote the manual that wasn't in your closing folder.
Read the New Home Stone GuideThe specialist, not the side job.
Restore My Counters was built by a Southwest Florida surface restoration operator with deep, hands-on experience restoring stone. Many stone restoration companies treat counters as an afterthought squeezed in between other jobs. We flipped that. Countertops are the entire business: the training, the tools, the products, and every hour of the workday. Your island gets the specialist it deserves.
More about us →Your counter's next.
Send a photo. See it fixed. Decide from there.
See YOUR Counters Restored Prefer to talk? Call us