I got two prefabricated marble tops with under mount china sinks--I'm in love! They're as sturdy as all get out! Your post helps a lot! I'm set up with PH neutral and soap so as not to as not to stain the stone, and am getting stone cleaners and sealers from the SCI company. What I'm uncertain about is which materials, (ceramic, metals, wood, etc.) will NOT leave a mark if left on the marble counter top for any length of time. I need to choose a container for hand soap and such. Thanks to anyone who replies!

Lhylcn- sealing should ideally be done both by the fabricator in his shop, and again in your kitchen once installed. Most sealer manufacturers I've spoken to say there's no exact number or times it should be done, but it usually takes several applications until every part of the marble is sufficiently sealed. This is tested by letting water sit on the surface of the marble and making sure it beads up well rather than soaking right in. Honing is just a process that makes the marble "dull" rather than shiny. It's a personal preference. My Vermont Danby marble is very honed, very little sheen. Red- two things that have etched my marble instantly are tomatoes and lemon juice. I'd think ketchup would etch, too, being tomato-based. Etching, though, seems not to bother most marble owners, myself included. You can only see it in certain lights, and it's a part of the patina of the living stone. As far as staining, my counters are sealed with Porous Plus 511, and could easily handle ketchup sitting on them for awhile with no stains. I've had coffee droplets that splashed from the Keurig sit overnight and just wipe up the next morning. I have no stains at all. The counter have only been in for about 2 months or a little less, but I've cooked a lot in these months, have had house guests and hosted Easter at the house, no stains! That said, the Vermont Danby marbles are known for being less porous--and therefore a bit more stain-resistant--than many other marbles.

I've resurrected this thread to show my newest experiment. rjr220, you are right! Read on: fori, your suggestion gave me an idea. I decided to use the 'reject' marble tiles for my prep-sink in our new addition. The ten tiles that I used cost $14.80, the substrate materials cost ap. $30.00. Tile adhesive and grout for both the counter and backsplash will be ap.$32.00. I used mostly scrap tiles for the backsplash, but the tiles that I bought cost $15.00. If you're keeping score, that's almost $92.00 for the counter and backsplash. I'm listing the cost of materials, because this may be a wasted effort--if it doesn't work out, I'll tear it out and start over. If it works, then I'll use the 'good' marble tiles for my kitchen counters, whenever we start the kitchen facelift. In the meantime, I'll have ample time to test my new counter. (But I won't be dropping tomato sauce cans on it.) So far, I LOVE the counter, and my husband, who didn't share my vision of taking highly-polished, second quality tiles, and turning them into something that (I hope) will look like a slab of soapstone or slate on an old chem-lab table, LOVES it, too. I haven't grouted yet, or sanded the epoxy in the edge seams, and the sink and faucet aren't installed. I plan to paint the cabinet GREEN WILLOW (leftover paint), and maybe repaint the beadboard to the right of the counter. It's SUGAR COOKIE to match the window-seat wall, but I'm thinking the HEAVY CREAM on the other wall would look better with the tile. There are a few wonky spots in the backsplash, but I cut most of the mosaic pieces myself--cut some of them in the rain, today :(, so maybe the grout will even things out. I plan to use dark charcoal grout for the counter and backsplash. The backsplash in the kitchen will probably be the light tan tiles, cut in subway, with a black marble 'pencil' accent, and possibly a similar mosaic over the stove. Thanks again for your help and ideas. Sorry for the long post. If anyone is still reading, here's my 'new baby': Here is a link that might be useful: Marble counter, mosaic backsplash

Shouldn't marble not stain if it's sealed? I think the real issues are etching and scratching. Those pictures are helpful for people, but they should also realize they're kind of the "worst case" scenarios. Carrera will etch, every bit as much as those pictures show, but it usually won't look as bad as those pictures, if that makes any sense. The pictures have to be taken at the right angle to get the etches to show for a picture. That last picture looks so awful because it's stained, which doesn't seem to happen to most people who have their counters sealed when needed. The first three pictures are fairly representative of what friends with carrera-type marbles live with, but their etches are not very noticeable when you walk in their kitchens. On the whitish marbles at least, those etches would not be noticeable in most light conditions to someone who's just walking through the kitchen. (I don't know about the third one that's brownish--I've never seen anyone with a polished counter in that color of marble.) A good friend of mine has carrera counters in her kitchen that gets lots of light, and she has hundreds of etches. Unless you bend your head and crane your neck to look for them, you won't notice them. Her honed finish makes a big difference to this--with a polished finish, the difference in finish between the etch and the rest of the counter will be more noticeable. She also doesn't have direct sunlight hitting them through most of the day. I also have marble counters, but they're dolomitic marble, so they're a bit slower to etch. In other words, we can spill lemon juice on them, and it won't etch if we wipe if up within a few minutes. Our counters are just as soft as non-dolomitic marble in most places, and we have thousands of tiny scratches on our polished finish counters. Most of them are like the ones visible in the fourth picture, and with the veining of our counters, they're not noticeable unless you look for them. Over time, the polished finish is developing its "patina" and getting less shiny. They're still gorgeous, and I'd do them again in a heartbeat. But I would not have risked polished counters with carrera. I did want to mention the scratching because I think it sometimes gets overlooked as people worry about etching. Both will happen to marble, no matter how much you baby it.