Soapstone. Same look. Or granite.

I have pietra on the fireplace. Great color but stains easily with oil. Some do use it in kitchens but there are so many other choices.

I will be using this for my kitchen as well. If you do a search in the box at the bottom of the kitchen threads, type in pietra (you can also google it) and you will find a lot of info. you can also look up schist, which I believe is the type of stone that it is considered. It is very pretty!

That was choice #1 for me, but I had trouble sourcing it here (and some concern about porosity, given that it would definitely see a lot of action.) I ended up going with "raven" caesarstone. I like it quite a bit, and it has been impervious so far, but the Pietra is really lovely...

I have had Pietra for 6 years. Absolutely no problems. We did seal it with a color enhancer, so I don't know if that makes the difference or not. The enhancer changes the color to soft black/dark gray not the light gray color.

thanks everyone! I am looking for the right slab and can't wait.

Hope you find some beautiful Pietra and post pictures for us.

Out looking for Pietra (as well as other slabs) in Central NJ yesterday I found a stone yard that had Pietra but it wasn't at all beautiful. It had no veining and no swirls. It looked a lot like a lighter version of Absolute Black granite. The saleswoman couldn't really tell me anything about it. I suspect that it wasn't the real thing from Cardoso. Not that that would have mattered, if I had liked it.
But it did not look like the Pietra in this beautiful kitchen:

{{!gwi}}

yes, we were told the folks who complain about the performance of pietra de cardosa are probably comparing it to true soapstone. We were told PdC needs to be properly and regularly sealed as though it were a porous granite. PdC is a hard stone-much harder than most soapstones we sampled-so it doesn't scratch and chip like soapstone. But PdC will etch and it will stain, unlike soapstone. So, apparently if you just treat it like granite, you'll be golden. :)

Could someone please help me with what kind of cleaner and sealer to use for upkeep on my pietra Cardoso kitchen counters? Do I just use the same stuff as I would for granite or is there something special? Also, how often should we treat them? We have had our countertops for 5 years but have never had them retreated/sealed and I'm worried we are ruining them. Thank you for any guidance you can give me!

MKS: You need an impregnating sealer, preferably water-based. I know of one that is very recommend, it's online order. I'll email you the link so you can check it out. I would reseal once a year or so. You can also "check" when the stone is in need of sealing by just splashing some water on it, and if it darkens very much and absorbs in that spot, you know it's time for a seal. For cleaning, a ph-neutral and gentle natural stone cleaner is recommended. You can buy one at a home improvement store, i'll also send you info on the one that I recommend.

Have Pietra on my perimeter counters. I love the soft look, more gray than black than a soapstone (thought I love soapstone too.) Sales person did not recommend it, but I kept coming back to it. I originally thought we would use an ager, to make it darker like a charcol, but decided to hold off because we could always do it later.

Supposedly it has been sealed, but when I read the post above maybe not. When it gets wet it get a bit darker and lightens as it dries. Regardless, there has been no staining or etching that I have found. It does seem more brittle than other stones - the fabricator had a tough time with the seam (we had them take one side out to re-cut.) We do have a couple of small chips - around the undermount sink & next to the stove. The first one I noticed I was bother by, but the stone is so forgiving visually that it is a non-issue for me. But I wanted to let people know.

PS Raven caesarstone is very beautiful (I considered it but my husband was pro stone) and though it is in a similar color family the effect is different. My friend put it in and it has a dense dark almost brownish feel to the gray. It is much more uniform looking. The pietra has a lighter feel with light gray and whitish swirls. So it depends on the look you are going for.

We have used two slabs of Pietra Del Cardosa since 2008 for counter tops, counter-to-floor slab, back splashes and thresholds. Love the look and performance. Constant positive comments and queries about "what it is." Some darker color shift in high work areas, but retains gray shading that soapstone cannot duplicate. Much "harder" than soapstone. We were very particular in choosing slabs with "pleasing patterns." After rejecting, what seemed like, the entire New England inventory, we got support from Stone Source, and traveled from Boston to their national Teterboro warehouse to put our names on a pair of adjacent-cut slabs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Current Stone Source slabs

robertcgray and others: Thank you for posting on your Pietra Del Cardosa. We just installed yesterday. Fabricator didn't seal and said they only recommend oiling tops. I love the shade of gray and definitely don't want to oil and darken. At this point I am running around after everyone with a wet sponge ... afraid of staining. I can't imagine not sealing! How is the stone to be protected?
What has been your experience? Any tips for me? Thanks!

Jumping into this old post as we are supposed to decide on our countertops this week for our new house.. if anyone has any luck with sealers - please share your experience and if it has worked well in preventing unpleasing stains... Thanks!

We installed Pietra cardosa in our kitchen over 10 years ago - it was suggested and recommended by our architect. The salespeople tried to dissuade us pushing us to the more popular granites saying the pietra was less proven and stained easily.... I cook and entertain frequently. These are by far still my favorite counters I have seen. I have no stains, put hot pots on them, have never sealed them, they still look beautiful. They do have a small dings when people have dropped glasses but again like another reviewer, their beauty and sheer practicality make me forget about the few small chips. We are always complimented and i would pick them again in a heartbeat.

We just had counters installed and moved back in to our kitchen. I love the look of the pietra and all the veining and swirls, but we are having problems with them staining from the rubber footings on bowls, plastic food containers, wireless speaker, etc. No problems with food, oil or water stains, those seem to wipe right up. Will the cleaner/sealer help remove these marks or should I just resign myself?

Please be very careful when using pietra black pearl. Have had this fitted in my kitchen for just under a year and have had nothing but trouble with it. The polisher has been back twice to try and rectify it but to no avail. It looks lovely when it is first done, but after only a couple of weeks, it starts to show watermarks, cup rings and anything else you may place on it. My kitchen is now totally covered with place mats and worktop protectors as I am petrified to place anything on it. Very disappointed as it is spoiling a very nice kitchen, which wasn't cheap. BE WARNED !

Barbether26 - Did you have your countertops sealed?

I just had my brand new Pietra countertops sealed with a color enhancer and I don't like the way it turned out. Does anyone know if there is any way to strip the sealer off? Do the color enhancers fade? I want them to be grey not black.

I had Pietra Oatmeal installed 8 weeks ago. I am very disappointed. Fitter has been back to re-polish and within a couple of days there marks that are impossible to remove. I would never touch anything like this product or it's counterpart ever again and wish I stayed with good old fashioned laminate! A dreadful waste of so much money.

We have had someone else in now who went through the whole process of sanding and polishing again but this time finished it off with a wet polish, the worktop is still dull but the marks do not appear now - still not happy though but it is better.

So if I am reading correctly..those with honed/unsealed Pietra cardosa like their countertops while those with seal are having issues? thanks

Lot of confusing bits here. Here are some comments / responses from someone with PdC installed in a working kitchen for 4 years.

1) Pietra Oatmeal or Pietra Black Pearl are not Pietra Cardosa Pietra Cardosa is a medium gray schist from Cardosa Italy. It typically has cloudy white/light gray strips, swirls of contrast, which shapes can vary based on how it's quarried. Issues with those other stones shouldn't be conflated with real PdC.

2) Pietra behaves pretty similarly to Granite, but because it's more monochromatic, it can show markings more. The speckled deposits in most granites can hide quite a bit of stains, etching etc.

3) PC is porous, and like marble can suffer from etching with poor care. That said we use a lot of lemon and tomato in our cooking, and have not yet had an issue. We're not crazy about cleanups and don't follow people around with cleaning rags, but we're also not leaving spills for extended times like overnight. I would say anyone that keeps a dirty kitchen may have issues, but generally, I wouldn't worry about staining or etching any more than lots of other stones.

Our stone does not stain with oil or rubber footings as noted above.

4) I've had Pietra (Island and perimeter counters) for 4 years with no major issues. I used Ager to seal it annually, which slightly darkens the lighter from a cooler gray into a slightly more medium gray. It's a subtle difference. It is NOT black. The real benefit, particularly around the sink, is how it behaves with water on it. Whether you use a color enhancing sealer or not, you'll want to seal at least once a year, or whenever water stops beading neatly on the surface. Some people report years between seals without issue, and some do it every 6 mos. YMMV, depending on your use, habits, etc. With a more porous stone, this is pretty standard maintenance as with marble or granite anyways.

As with any treatment, you should start in a small remote area and see if you like it, before hitting your entire kitchen. It's hard to fathom how someone could end up hitting the whole kitchen before knowing it they liked it, and then hating it. That's not a problem with stone, but with user-error.

5) I appreciate the comparisons to Soapstone. Soapstone is a great product with it's own nuances, but we were unable to find a real genuine medium gray sample. Most have a slight green tint to them, which didn't work for our design and style goals.

6) Only complaint, is that we did chip our counters by accidentally dropping heavy water glass on the counter. It was quite a hit, and we had a couple small chips where it landed. After the most recent seal, the spots are no longer really visible, and can only really be found by touch.

We took a bit of a leap going with the PdC, given all the misinformation and confusing posts like this thread features, but it was really the only stone that met our design goals. Bottom line, we get a ton of compliments on our counters, and they're holding up and performing great. They still look just like what we wanted - a medium gray, interesting but subtle stone with a honed finish (this stone is too porous to polish, so if you're looking for a high shine, look elsewhere.) Our kitchen was recently featured in a major design magazine.

No regrets so far. Make sure you're using a trusted dealer with authentic PdC, and if this is the look you're chasing, with the real stuff and pretty standard maintenance, you'll be fine.

We had PdC counters in our last house and loved it - bought them again in our new kitchen reno and had to actually yank them out - so many water stains and marks they looked terrible (same installer for both kitchens) - we tried resealing then sanding and resealing and still, the heavy stains were all there. I love the movement but after completing a kitchen then having to yank counters out and re-do a lot of tile in the process - we won’t use it again. Non-porous for us!

a lot of helpful opinions and advice on PdC. I'm currently trying to decide if I want them in my kitchen. I absolutely love the look. Does anyone from this old thread have any updates on their PdC countertops? Thanks.

We just had PdC installed three days ago. It is beautiful! My question is about sealing it. The installers "sealed" the counters, but I noticed that they used acetone at first, mostly likely to clean it (?), but they used something else when they "sealed" it. I made dinner last night and brunch today and there are spots from small grease splatters even though I kept wiping the counters near the stove while I was cooking. I've read that liquids should bead on the surface and that is definitely not happening especially when washing dishes where there all small water splashes on the counter all around the sink--No beading. When I wipe up the water it absorbs and streaks, but dries just fine without water marks. I don't want to cook again until I know how to seal it properly. While the crew was installing the counter (and before I knew that they were "sealing" it), I ordered this product as my research found that it is used on sandstone: Miracle Sealants Plus PT6 511 Plus Penetrating Sealer. Has anyone used this product? When installers told me they were sealing it, I asked them what the product was, but they didn't know what it was. They said to get anything that is used on granite, but that does not seem to be true. Even three days later, when I run my hand across the stone it feels gritty, so I don't think it is fully sealed. I plan to test the product that I ordered on a remnant piece before using it, but would like any input on sealing products, even if the recommended product darkens the stone a little bit. I appreciate any feedback! Thanks in advance!

Aubrey,

We are having our fabricator here today to measure for our PdC. We were told they were going to use a water based deep penetrating sealer. We bought a bottle of a product we found from Amazon and tested it on our sample. It worked against wine, lemon and oil. It's called Stine Tech Bullet Proof Sealer. Would you mind sharing a photo of your countertops?

Thanks!

Dina