Is Rainforest Green Granite or Marble?

by Fred
(Queens, NY)

QUESTION:

1-Is Rainforest green 'marble' better than the standard marble counter top surface? Does the same precautions apply to it?

ANSWER:

Rainforest green is most often sold as "marble", but is actually a "serpentine", which looks like marble, but is not as susceptible to etching (chemical corrosion from acidic/alkaline substances) as a typical marble countertop is.

However, you are bound to run into confusion with this particular stone and name.

Often the naming of granite, marble and all stones can be inaccurate or misapplied or simply vary along with the variations of color, etc. for a particular stone variety.

For instance, you may find a stone is called "rainforest" green sold as a granite. Some warehouses may do this since, like granite, the stone does not etch, but it is not a granite.

And then there is "forest" green, which is a granite.

You see how the confusion could occur.

But you can eliminate the confusion and answer the important performance questions for yourself very easily by doing the simple lemon juice test on a sample of the exact slab you are considering for your countertop purchase.

Performing this test will tell you if that stone is sensitive to acids (which you don't want for a kitchen countertop) and it will tell you how absorbent a stone is, so you can determine if applying an impregnating sealer would be beneficial.

The lesson here is not to get hung up on the name or search for a stone based solely on the name. You should pick out a stone you like based on the color/pattern and then test it.

Of course, in most cases with "marble" you can rule it out for kitchen countertop if you don't want to deal with the etching and marble polishing, but there are a few "marbles" (green ones) that can pass the test and perform well in as a kitchen countertop.