I have two soapstone kitchen counters that need to be resurfaced. As I have spent a lot of time lapping Arkansas stones, this leads me to think that I might be able to resurface the countertops myself. As far as electric sanders go, I have a half-sheet sander and a 6" random orbit sander and a Shopvac. Any advice from folks having experience with this would be appreciated. For example, what kind of grit progression would I want to use and when would I switch to hand-sanding with finer grits?
Resurfacing Soap Stone Counters?
- Thread starter Alum of Potash
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I would start with a very fine grit. Soapstone grinds down pretty fast. I have soapstone and would consult a pro. I would be very afraid of ending up with a less than flat surface. How bad is it? Is it cosmetic or something worse? I assume a mineral oil rub didn't do the job.
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- #3
Thanks for your comments. I have two counters. One has a cutout for a stove. We have maintained it, but people who have stayed in our house and our cleaning lady's assistants have done damage in seeking to "clean" it with the wrong cleaning materials. The other has the kitchen sink. We've pretty much let that go as soapy water is splashing on it all the time. There is an affected area near the sink and an unaffected area further away. The rise of the patina or unaffected area can be easily felt in passing a fingertip from the affected area.
I am in the process of consulting a specialist, but as I have experience lapping Arkansas stones, as well as sanding large areas of laminated plywood, I'm thinking that the process would be pretty analogous, Mark out a grid each time before sanding. Here, the most difficult would be bringing down the unaffected area of the sink countertop to the affected area. I imagine that one marks out a grid and starts with the unaffected area, continually remarking the grid there, until it arrives at the level of the affected area. Then one remarks everything again and does the whole surface, re-marking with each grit change. Where to start and where to end there?
I don’t have experience with soapstone but I did do a stint for a couple months resurfacing marble and travertine.
We used rotary floor polishers with diamond discs, some chemical emulsions, scotch pads for final polishing and whatnot.
For countertops we used slow speed orbital polishers with normal wet dry sandpaper, so I think it’s possible to DIY it, though your equipment should be able to handle wet sanding.
We never used grid marks as the surfaces were always flat, with the goal only to bring back the sheen and take off water deposits. I would suggest buying some cheap marble tiles from the HD or wherever and testing it out on that first.
Good luck! Worse come to worse you just call in a professional if it doesn’t work out.
We used rotary floor polishers with diamond discs, some chemical emulsions, scotch pads for final polishing and whatnot.
For countertops we used slow speed orbital polishers with normal wet dry sandpaper, so I think it’s possible to DIY it, though your equipment should be able to handle wet sanding.
We never used grid marks as the surfaces were always flat, with the goal only to bring back the sheen and take off water deposits. I would suggest buying some cheap marble tiles from the HD or wherever and testing it out on that first.
Good luck! Worse come to worse you just call in a professional if it doesn’t work out.
- Thread starter
- #5
I decided to go with a pro on this. I'll be interested to see what the progression will be like. Itemized sequence reads "diamond hone followed by Festool sander with vacuum hook-up." Will the diamond hone be a DMT plate applied manually? If so and the Festool sander is what I think it is, then it is possible that I could have done it myself. But I don't have much time to lose so this still seems like the best option. Finishing protection involves matching-pigmented milk paint, which I've worked with in the past with woodworking projects. "Much better than mineral oil" says the pro.
- Thread starter
- #7
Watch like a hawk so you can do it next time.
Exactly. LOL. But who knows, maybe they will haul out the "rotary floor polishers with diamond discs" that you mentioned instead of a DMT. I'll try to report back after the deed is done.
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