More Myths in the Stone Industry
It seems like everyone wants to be an expert … and yet everyone is still a little afraid of the unknown. So, like a host of urban legends, stories of an average situation are made worse by applying misinformed common knowledge.
The result is another episode of Myths of the Modern Stone Age. Trying to find answers are slightly easier than trying to figure out the next twist in an episode of Heroes.
1. Sandstone is porous/not porous.
This one can go either way and it usually depends on who you’re talking to. (Word of advice: Avoid the creepy guy outside the 7-Eleven.)
In my personal opinion, commercially available sandstone in North America is a sponge. It’ll soak water to no end and eat your sealer for breakfast.
But if you talk to, say, a geologist and park ranger working at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, that person will tell you that the sandstone there is dense, and doesn’t allow any moisture through.
So who are you going to believe? A schmo writer or park ranger with a degree in geology? It’s a simple matter of looking at the stone you have in front of you and taking it case-by-case.
The ranger sees the cave’s sandstone every day, but doesn’t see it absorb and filter water even after a local gullywasher. On the other hand, I (and c’mon, a show of hands out there please – don’t leave me hanging) have witnessed sandstone that could drink more liquids than Dean Martin in his prime.
But, I’ve also seen stone classified as sandstones that aren’t porous at all. So, is this myth busted?
Not really. Because there are two sides to the argument and each stone will give you the answer. Bottom line, not all Irish men are drunken brawlers and if you dispute that, I’ll set my drink down and smack you one.
And in the same note, we cannot be equally prejudiced about any stone species. Even though they are named the same and may have similarities, they aren’t all alike.
2. Remove excess sealer by applying more.
Just who came up with this one? Really? Oh, it says so on the bottle. Let’s walk through this one together.
To remove excess sealer, just add more. I can see if it hasn’t cured and is still damp, but after a few days? But if it isn’t hardened, can’t you just wipe it off with a rag?
And, if adding more removes excess, why not just remove excess paint after it’s dry by adding more? Aren’t you are just adding more of the same problem?
Let me illustrate the logic here with my own bit of advice: You can understand this section – and anything else I write here – better if you go out and buy one of my books. Get it?
Now before I start getting a string of emails and nasty phone calls from sealer companies – yes, adding more sealer will work, if it hasn’t cured. But the whole idea is to remove the product completely from the surface so that it penetrates the stone and doesn’t coat it. If it hasn’t cured yet, adding more isn’t the fix for the problem. Wiping it off is the best answer.
If it’s cured, in my experience, only a solvent will remove excess solvent-based sealer. And, in some cases, alcohol (not for drinking) or water will remove excess water-based sealer. And any questions about durability are for another day.
3. Granite can kill you.
Yes, but only if a large-enough quantity falls on top of you, or is thrown in your direction at incredibly high speeds.
Aside from that, granite will not radiate you, bacterialize (a nifty word I’m trying to coin) or smother you. It is not the Boogey Man of countertops.
If granite in and of itself is harmful to people, we’d better start investing oodles of dough to teleport us off of this rock we call Earth. Has anyone bothered to consider where granite comes from? Volcanic activity. And what do volcanoes make? Mountains.
If granite (and it has been around longer than dirt) is the silent killer of the new millennium, then everyone living near the Canadian Shield, the Rockies or the Alps is in danger of going nuclear. And it’s the land itself and major building components made from it that offer risks far, far beyond a granite breakfast bar and kitchen island.
I mean, it’s only taken eons for granite to finally become a threat (this is sarcasm, for those who aren’t sure), and for some overeager reporter to finally blow the lid off this huge conspiracy involving the whole stone industry and the Creator Himself just at this exact moment in time ….
Seriously folks, you have much-greater odds of receiving that money from your new “trusted partner and friend” out of Nigeria who’s trying to expatriate a dead relative’s fortune than you do of having your hair fall out because you chose Uba Tuba over a man-made imitation. But hey, fear-mongering is the new reality, isn’t it?
4. Not buying your favorite Stone Business writer a double Crown and Diet Coke will never hurt you.
Come on now. Does this one even need mentioning? We all know that writers are poor and have expensive tastes.
Until next time, tune your eyes and ears to the facts, and keep your stick on the ice.
Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone Care, a Huron Park, Ontario-based stone-cleaning and -restoration company servicing all of southern Ontario. Tom offers corporate and private consultations, serves as a trainer for the Marble Institute of America, and is also on the organization’s board of directors. He can be reached at stone_rx@earthlink.net.