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Honed vs Polished

12 years ago

I've seen a lot of threads on honed granite lately. I have only seen a couple honed pieces but I really liked them. It never even occurred to me to ask about honing the granite we picked out. Does honed granite tend to stain more than polished?

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Comments (7)

NinoJ
12 years ago
What about soapstone?
vabeachgirl2
12 years ago
Not sure if it is different in my area, but I found that there really wasn't an option to hone the granite if it was already polished by the distributor and the selection of honed granite was rather limited. I ended up with my final choice between honed Uba Tuba and Soapstone. In the end, I decided on the honed Uba Tuba since it was 1) MUCH less expensive and 2) I was a bit worried about the patina that you get with Soapstone. ( I read many GW posts on the topic of Soapstone.)

I am very happy with the honed Uba Tuba! If fits my kitchen perfectly and it is incredibly easy to maintain. Hope this helps :)
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We are getting granite for the perimeter counters as well as the island in an antique finish (Cambrian Black and Persian Pearl). We decided on that finish due to not liking a really shiny finish and hearing from others that they were very low maintenance (several people on the forum appear to have Cambrian Black and all seem to love it). The slabs we saw have a slight texture to them, which looked more interesting than honed. As far as price, you do tend to pay a premium for the specialty finishes. When we were first looking, we considered Bianco Romano, however could only find it in a polished finish. The supplier offered to hone it, however were going to charge approx. $5/sq ft more, so didn't really make sense to do it. And since we couldn't see it in a honed finish, we weren't sure how it would look. It really may depend on where you are as to whether a supplier has many examples of special finishes. When we were first looking toward the end of last year, most places were telling us that due to so much inventory and the economy, they weren't ordering much new stuff. I would bet that hasn't changed much now. We had a really hard time finding the Cambrian Black and finally found a place with just 2 slabs - the problem was that they were from entirely different batches so looked very different. We finally realized though that it appeared as if one had already had sealer applied for some reason (it was prettier and much darker). We got the salesperson to break off a little piece of the other slab and put sealer on it and we couldn't tell the difference, so decided to go with them! Hopefully it will turn out OK - they are supposed to be installed next week!
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" but I cant justify that price for a manmade product trying to mimic the au natural that speaks to me." Exactly the way I felt. I sat their tonight with the granite thinking about how lovely nature made this (and trying not to think of the big hole it left in Brazil somewhere :( Are you talking about countertops or backsplash? If you pick marble, be aware that it will not look like the day you installed it for long. I was at a friends recently with honed carrera on the island maybe for 10+ years. It still looked natural, smooth, but certainly not shiny new. Think about bars that you have been to with marble on the long surfaces. Or the bistro tables. Nothing wrong with the look, just not shiny and new looking. It's all in what YOU want ;) Are you the type to love the stone or the type who wants it all shiny/perfect/pretty?
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vabeachgirl2
12 years ago
Just realized that I didn't really answer your question... The Uba Tuba is a very dark stone - so staining is not really as much a risk. (This is why you will usually only see darker stones that are honed.). My fabricator did tell me to make sure that I reseal every six months or so because it is honed. I have had it over a year and have not resealed it yet (though am planning to shortly.) I have not had *any* issues with marking or staining. While I am somewhat careful with the stone, I am not that meticulous (and my DH certainly isn't :-) and it still looks as good as the day it was installed.

cheers!
babs711
12 years ago
I JUST posted a thread called "I thought countertops would be EASY!" I found today that here, if it's in the stone yard polished it stays polished. I guess the super expensive million dollar honing machines are not located here in New Orleans. and like VABeachGirl, the honed options are pretty limited. Frustrating.
lisa_a
12 years ago
It depends on the fabricator, which, yes, depends on your area. We've found a local, well-regarded fabricator that owns the machinery to hone or antique ANY slab we purchase for only $350 a slab. They also do incredible, barely detectable seams. Guess who'll be doing our kitchen counters? Oh, that was too easy a question. ;-)

I'm delighted since I much prefer honed or antiqued surfaces over polished and was also frustrated by the lack of choices at the granite yards. That said, I think there are more choices than there used to be. I've heard from a few designers that honed and antiqued surfaces are gaining in popularity and that's likely why I'm seeing an increase in choices in my area.
vabeachgirl2
12 years ago
I think the reason they don't want to hone a polished stone is because the have already finished the stone and it is probably cost prohibitive to do it again. I did find that the stone distributor was open to finding/requesting stones in a honed finish but that takes time and at my stage of the project I really didn't have any time to burn.

Good luck to you both on your quest for your countertops!
vabeachgirl2
12 years ago
I just read another thread and realized that my countertops are not honed - but rather "leathered". Sorry about the mistake! (I can't believe I messed that up!)

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