Myths About Dish Soap
Dish soap is good for cleaning dishes, which are not porous and can be rinsed thoroughly. Granite, Marble and Grout are all porous surfaces; which means oils gets trapped in the pores and must be lifted out. More to the point, water tension has to be broken in order for the water to be able to penetrate the pores. We have all seen those commercials where “grease is moved out of the way.” However, this simply moves it to the side of the sink. MARBLELIFE’s Cleaners are designed to emulsify grease and oil by literally surrounding it with surfactant molecules until the water can no longer see the oil or grease. This allows these pesky deposits to be lifted out of pores and carried away with the water.
A problem with dish soap is that they can leave a residue. Even after rinsing with a rag or sponge several times, sufficient residue can be found to create suds once again. Dish soap is designed to be used in spaces where there is excess water for rinsing.
Counter cleaning tends to use very little water. Not much more than a damp cloth. It is difficult to flood a counter to rinse without getting water everywhere, so it tends not to happen. Even if not noticeable with each application, over time it builds up like soap scum in a shower to the point that the countertop begins to look dull and may even become stained from the residue build up. Dish soap is engineered for its purpose of cleaning dishes.
Similarly, MARBLELIFE Cleaners have been engineered for their purpose and environment which is Stone, Tile & Grout counter, wall and floor cleaning. Our ready-to-use products are just that ready-to-use on counters and walls with sufficient surfactant-water balance to enable grease, oil and debris to be flushed from pores and surface for a beautiful clean surface.
For larger surfaces, such as floors, MARBLELIFE cleaner concentrates are designed for larger jobs such as cleaning floors. A few ounces per gallon of mop water is all it takes to deliver a squeaky clean floor. It is so effective; MARBLELIFE guarantees that if a recently restored hotel floor uses this product along with MARBLELIFE’s prescribed maintenance services, they will never need to restore their floors again.
As a side note, MARBLELIFE has developed a MARBLELIFE Soap Scum Remover expressly to remove soap build-up in showers using an engineered abrasive technology designed to be harder than the soap but softer than the stone surface making it effective in removing soap without harming the surface. Never use an aggressive abrasive, such as comet on natural stone, as its abrasive will scratch the surface in addition to removing the soap, in which case you will need a stone craftsman to re-polish the damage. However, if you have or do, we can help with that too.
