Porosity

Porosity is the measure of how much liquid can soak into a material. Porosity is a relative concept, and stone is relatively not very porous!

All stones are porous to some degree, and this fact is sometimes used to scare people. But let's look at some facts about porosity;

People often insist that stone needs extra sealers "because it is porous". Something to consider is that the absorption rate of engineered stone is 0.05%, while the absorption in granite varies between 0.01% to 0.40%. White Ceramic tiles have an absorption rate of 3%, yet not many people insist that their bathroom and kitchen ceramic tiles need sealers. A high performance concrete is generally about 5% porous.

Never-the-less, Marble Art generally applies food-grade "safe" sealers to bathroom and kitchen counters before installation. Sealers slow down the absorption of liquids, generally giving you ample time to clean up any spills before they soak in.

Fire Rating

Granites have a melting point of about 2,000 degrees Celsius. Engineered Stone will melt at about 400 degrees Celsius. Granite benchtops have been known to survive house fires and just need cleaning off before being re-used.

Bacteria and Cleaning

There are some rumors that stone surfaces are prone to bacteria. This is false. Firstly bacteria can not eat stone, so if the surface is clean, bacteria cannot survive. Secondly, studies by the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management have shown that natural stone surfaces are the easiest to clean of all benchtop surfaces (including stainless steel, concrete, tile, wood, plastic and laminate). Also studies have shown that there is no difference in "cleanability" between different types of stone (Granite, Marble, or Engineered Stone), all are easily cleaned to meet the USA-FDA "surface sanitizer criteria" of 5-log reduction in pathogens on the surface.