Slippery Rock Gazette

Bob Murrell 

M3 Technologies

Photos by Bob Murrell

If you have never had to refinish Absolute Black granite, count yourself lucky. In my humble opinion, this is one of, if not the hardest stone to refinish, and have it turn out looking really good. I would certainly not recommend it for the faint of heart, and definitely don’t even attempt it until you have plenty of experience in this field. In fact, I would go so far as to say steer clear of it as long as you can. Of course, there is also very good money in doing this type of stone, too!

Absolute Black granite is not one of the hardest materials on the MOH’s Hardness scale, and certainly is not as hard as most larger crystal granite materials, like African Red or even Dakota Mahogany. It is simply the fact that it is an intrusive igneous stone with a tight crystal, somewhat hard, and black in color material. The black color is probably the biggest reason it is so unforgiving. You see, every little scratch or imperfection seems to be magnified by the very black color.

First off, as with most any granite, you normally just can’t re-polish like we do with marble. You will normally have to do some mechanical honing prior to polishing, even if it is only a 1,500 grit and/or 3,000 grit granite diamond. Remember, chemicals don’t really affect granite like they do marble. So all of the refinishing, including polishing, is strictly a mechanical process. It is possible to polish granite if you catch the problem early enough, but this rarely happens, and it normally doesn’t get addressed until the wear pattern becomes particularly noticeable. 

Above, left: Picture framing present after grinding shows remaining  Above, right: No picture framing left after complete lippage removal.

Another hurdle with black granite (and basically most darker colored stones) is lippage. Any lippage issues are exacerbated by the dark color. If you try to just do a light hone and polish, without removing the lippage, chances are the low areas will show up big time at the end, after polishing. You see, picture framing, which is the lower areas (height difference between adjacent tiles) that never get touched, remain with their original, dark-colored polish. Even though we can bring a very good polish back to the black granite, it may not exactly match that of the original finish. Also, some materials may have been previously dyed, so the level of blackness may be somewhat different, even though you might have a higher gloss meter reading on the stone than when it was newly installed.

Therefore, in the beginning, removing lippage is the best way to attack this stone in most situations. This, of course, means the project will be very slow as compared to most marble and other natural stone restoration jobs – and also much more costly. In fact, you can easily more than double the price of marble projects when doing Absolute Black. So if you are charging $10 per square foot for lippage removal to polish on a marble, I would charge a minimum of $20 per square foot for Absolute Black. And that is if the project has a fairly simple layout, not highly detailed with loads of edge work, and has minimal lippage.  

Now, after all of that, you still have to manage the customer’s expectations and work within their budget, if you can. It is possible to blend or feather areas that are extremely worn to those that are not, with some degree of success. Just be sure to complete a test area which shows this blending, the final result, and confirm the procedure works satisfactorily.

For mild lippage removal, a 50 grit resin diamond will work. Keep in mind that a metal bond diamond will remove lippage faster ,so you might start with a 50 grit or 70 grit metal before your 50 grit resin. Metal bonds just tend to impart some deeper scratching to the perimeter of your work area if you’re not very careful. 

I like to use red polyethylene tape to lay out my feathering technique. For example, if I am doing seven steps of diamonds (lippage to 3,000 grit), I might lay down six or seven strips of the red tape butted together and take my machine with each diamond to that tape line and then pull it up. Then I proceed with the next diamond to the second tape strip, finish it, and pull up that tape strip, and so on.

The red tape is extremely durable, waterproof, and pulls up easily when removing it, with little residue left behind. Of course, this method will work on most any stone when feathering of grinding, honing and polishing is required.

Above, left: aBlack granite floor honed to 3,000 grit, feathered to edges and ready for polishing. Above, center: Lippage removal in main wear areas feathered to edges. Note the red tape used to aid in feathering the honing steps. Above, right: After polishing with Majestic Granite Powder Dark, Majestic Spray Polish Crystallizer, and #0 steel wool.

Keep in mind that polishing granite, especially black granite, is a very difficult and labor intensive process. I recommend using Majestic Spray Polish Crystallizer, Majestic Granite Polish Dark, and a #0 steel wool pad. Use as much weight as your machine and you can handle. This part of the process is extremely hard on your machine’s motor so I definitely recommend using a heavy duty machine built for stone working. Oh, and trust me when I say, you will have “Popeye” arms when you are done!

So to sum up, when doing Absolute Black Granite it is definitely possible to do a touch-up without committing to a complete lippage removal grind. Just remember that some picture framing will be present as well as some transition lines, where feathering has taken place. This needs to be part of the customer’s expectation management understanding, and definitely in the scope of work description. Will it look good? Absolutely! (pardon the pun) Will it look perfect? Not so much. The only way to make most any natural stone project look perfect is with complete lippage removal and total restoration. Even then, we are talking about natural stone, with all of its natural inclusions, and of course, then there is the grout, too. 

Most all granite can be done in a similar fashion. Most varieties will be more forgiving than Absolute Black. I did not write this article to scare you into not attempting restoration of black or any granite. I just wanted to prepare you for some of the obstacles you will face. Of course, even doing black marble is normally more of a headache than lighter colored marbles, too.   

As always, I recommend submitting a test area to confirm the results and the procedure prior to starting a stone or hard surface restoration or maintenance project. Use your smartphone to take plenty of before and after pics! Also the best way to help ensure success is by partnering with a good distributor that knows the business. They can help with technical support, product purchase decisions, logistics, and other pertinent project information.

Bob Murrell has worked in the natural stone industry for over 40 years and is well known for his expertise in natural stone, tile and decorative concrete restoration and maintenance. He helped develop some of the main products and processes which revolutionized the industry, and is currently the Director of Operations for M3 Technologies.