We’re considering granite countertops for our bathroom remodel, but not if we have to seal it every year.
10 years ago, we put in granite in our previous home and sealed it with a product called “SenGuard” that was supposed to seal it permanently. We only lived there for another 5 years, so we don’t know how long it lasted. It was fine for those 5 years.
The bad news is that SenGuard doesn’t seem to be available anymore. I found another product called “Stain Proof”, which says it will last 15 years - better than 1 year, worse than permanent.
So…
What is your experience with granite countertop sealers?
Have you found any that say “permanent”? How long did it last?
Do you know of any other long-lasting sealers that you would recommend?
It’s granite, so it’s more or less impervious to most everything that you can throw at it. It’s waterproof, heatproof, etc…
We’ve had granite kitchen countertops for a bit more than a decade, and I think we’ve sealed them maybe four times. It doesn’t seem to really do much, to be honest. My suspicion is that since it’s not a porous stone, and basically a mixture of quartz and feldspar, the sealant doesn’t really do much but get into some of the tiny cracks and keep water from migrating through those. But without freeze/thaw cycles that probably doesn’t matter either.
Our countertops still look great, and look the same after sealing, so I’m not convinced it’s necessary or even useful.
That said, we used Tenax ProSeal the last time we did it- a couple of years ago I think.
Have you considered engineered quartz instead of granite for the countertops? I don’t think that quartz needs to be sealed and some are designed to look like granite.
My understanding is that different granites have different porosity. (Or at least, that’s what the salespeople tell me.) Sounds like you got one of the less porous ones.
Yeah, we’ve looked at engineered quartz. Unfortunately, all of the samples we’ve seen so far are quite boring and not attractive. Maybe we just haven’t found the right one yet.