Cleaning Travertine Stains on Honed Bathroom Countertop

by wjo
(Tennessee)

QUESTION:

Our master bath has honed travertine slab countertops. They have numerous stains particularly around the sinks.

1. How do you remove stains?
2. What is the best sealer to once they are clean.
3. Can an enhancer sealer be used to darken the counter to the color they look when the are wet?

ANSWER:

I appreciate the picture. That helps, but the coloration makes it difficult for me to tell if it is a stain or etch mark. Or it could be both. I'm leaning toward etch mark though since it appears whitish in parts, which is common with etch marks.

Stains occur when a substance absorbs into the travertine creating a darker spot.

Etch marks are caused by contact with acidic foods/products or alkaline cleaners and leave dull and lighter colored spots and is a known travertine maintenance issue.

For cleaning travertine stains follow the instructions in the Removing Stains Manual.

To repair etch marks follow the instructions in the Removing Etch Marks Manual.

If the travertine was polished you could use ETCH REMOVER / Marble Polishing product, but there's no product that you can simply apply for cleaning travertine stains or etch marks.

You may be better off just getting the Cleaning Marble Secrets Guide, which contains all the information in the above two guides plus info about sealing travertine and everything else you should know about how to properly protecting, cleaning and travertine maintenance. (Marble and travertine are in the same family and have the same maintenance requirements)

Regarding sealing....

The best sealer is SenGuard Sealer which forms permanent bonds and will only require a one-time application.

You can also apply a product like Color-Enhancing Sealer to make the color similar to when the countertop is wet.

BUT you must apply the enhancer first... before the SenGuard.

It may take a bit of work, but the stains and/or etch marks can be removed and repaired fairly easily and inexpensively.