How do you remove a stain or etch on a marble countertop?

Marble countertops, vanity tops, floors, and showers all are susceptible to staining. Oil, coffee, wine, fruit, spices, rust, and many other things will stain or etch marble countertops. Often stain removal, and sometimes etching removal can be done without having a stone professional come to your home. Here we show some of the products we use, so you have the option to tackle your stone restoration project yourself.

We often recommend having some of the below products on hand to help remove stains and light etching quickly after they occur. The sooner you treat a stain, the better your results will be.

Removing Organic Stains

For organic stains, (coffee, oils, fruit, wine, etc.) we recommend customers use a poultice to treat the stains themselves. Mangia Macchia is the poultice of choice at Rose Restoration for organic stain removal!

Mangia Macchia on Amazon

Apply the product directly on the stain and allow it to dry completely. This usually takes a full day or overnight. When it is wet the poultice interacts with the stain and then as it drys it pulls the stain out of the stone. Sometimes it will leave behind a wet mark, but do not fear it will dry after a few days.

Removing Rust Stains

We recommend customers use a different poultice, RSR-2000, for rust stains, which you can purchase below. Apply this product over the rust stain and remove it in a few minutes as it turns purple.

To remove stubborn stains, you may need to apply this product several times. It is very important when using this poultice to remove it as it starts to turn purple. If you don’t, you will have a purple mark that will take a few weeks to go away.

RSR-2000 on Amazon

Etching Removal

For etching, whether or not you can treat it yourself depends on how much and how deep the etches are. For light etches on polished stone you can try a polishing powder or paste to polish the spot by hand. This polishing powder works on white and black stones only.

MB Stone Care Etch Remover on Amazon

Most of the time with etching you will need a professional to come and use diamond abrasives to remove it. However, for light etches you can often do it yourself!