How to remove vinegar marks on marble worktop

[kansas]

We have some vinegar marks left on quite a large area of our marble worktop. Anyone know how to restore it to it's original condition.

Thanks in advance

[Devil]

No pun intended, but you may have an insoluble problem here. Your marble is chemically calcium carbonate and your vinegar is diluted acetic acid. When the two meet, it is normal for a chemical reaction to take place, meaning that the mixture of marble and vinegar becomes calcium acetate and carbon dioxide. As you are aware, the carbon dioxide or CO2 is a gas, so it floats away in thin air. The calcium acetate is a soluble salt so that, if you wipe it off your surface, there is nothing to take its place. Result: the marble is practically more or less damaged and cannot be replaced.

What to do? There is little you can do, at least easily. If it is a valuable item, it may be worthwhile having it done professionally, where they will have to dig down into the marble deeper than the vinegar ate into the stone and then re-polish. If the damage is superficial, a professional would know how to deal with it but if it is deep, he may have to remove a whole layer – get a quotation before asking him to do it.

Too late now, but this is a case where prevention is better than cure. The best prevention is to prevent a spill from happening; the easiest way is to spray the surface with a plastic coating. This would give you a chance to wipe up the spill before it did any damage to the marble. Sorry!

[kansas]

Thanks for your informative reply, Devil. Sadly, while OH was preparing the ingredients for his chilli pickle, the vinegar bottle exploded and the marble top caught most of it. This morning we found some marble paste, bought from Amazon a long while ago, spread it on and used the polishing pad on the drill. Hot work but it has improved it somewhat and the shine is back. It will never be restored to it's original finish but a few more goes with the paste and pad may improve it even more. Thanks again.

[WHL]

[kansas]

Thanks WHL I saw the second video when I googled but not the first. We've just tried the sandpaper method and it does work to a certain extent on raised stains.

[WHL]

Thanks WHL I saw the second video when I googled but not the first. We've just tried the sandpaper method and it does work to a certain extent on raised stains.

Use wet and dry paper, use it wet it sands down better

[Devil]

Thanks for your informative reply, Devil. Sadly, while OH was preparing the ingredients for his chilli pickle, the vinegar bottle exploded and the marble top caught most of it.

Golly! That must have been a helluva good pickle! Scotch Bonnet???

[kansas]

Thank you WHL for the information. We have been successful in removing the vinegar etching by using wet and dry, then using a polish paste with a drill pad, and finally restored the shine by using a product from Paphos Home Market called Mercola Marble Polish. This product also worked well on the marble top in the bathroom which had lost it's shine many years ago. It now looks brand new! Thanks again and I hope this helps others who have faced similar problems.

[trevnhil]

Thanks for coming back and posting what actually worked