Homemade Granite Cleaner is "Green", Safe, Effective and Made with Vodka

Granite countertops are durable, beautiful, and add value to a home. Many homes have granite slabs as their countertop material, and recently using granite tile as a cheaper alternative for countertops has become increasingly popular. Now, more homes than ever before have granite countertops. With this natural stone product, proper care is essential. With proper car, your countertops can last a lifetime.

Granite is a natural stone, a "green" choice for your home and a product that must be treated with special care. Though granite is not as fussy about what you use as say marble is, using the right products will keep your granite looking its best for a long time.

Staying with eco friendly or environmentally friendly cleaners makes for easy care of your granite and ensures that no damage will be done to your countertops. Before you worry yourself about cleaning granite you must first determine if your granite requires sealing.

Many types of granite require periodic sealing. However, not all types of granite should be sealed. Granite that needs sealing will absorb water and other liquids if not properly sealed. To test if your granite needs sealing you will need to place a few drops of water on the surface and wait to see if the surface of the granite darkens or discolors in any way. If it does darken, it will require sealing. There are many sealers to choose from and even some are environmentally friendly water based products.

Once you have sealed your granite, you will need to clean it from time to time to prevent build up of dirt and grime. There are all kinds of commercial cleaners for granite on the market. Many of these products do a good job of cleaning the granite surface, but some may damage the stone over time and others are actually hazardous to work with.

A simple, "green" option to clean your granite is a homemade option that is cheap, effective, safe, and environmentally friendly. The cleaner requires alcohol and water. Denatured alcohol is available at your local home improvement store, but this product is not an environmentally friendly as another source of grain alcohol that is widely available and that is Vodka. Yep, Vodka is useful for many things and one happens to be its cleaning ability and the fact that it is user friendly, safe, and a "green" choice. Use a ratio of 1 part alcohol to 4 parts water. The alcohol will kill bacteria and is effective at cleaning the granite surface. No residue is left behind and the product dries quickly and is safe for use around pets and children, provided they don't drink large amounts of it.

With proper maintenance and cleaning, your granite countertops may last a lifetime. By following the cleaning suggestion above, you and your family can breathe easy in your home knowing that this all purpose cleaner will not harm them, will not harm pets, is cost effective, safe to work with, and hard to beat in regards to its cleaning ability.