I built a new home about 1 year ago with all Carrara marble countertops. The marble is honed and I love the way it looks but after heavy family use it has lots of etching. Staining is not a problem and the etching is only noticeable in certain light. If you want a perfect new look, it may not be for you.

Since marble is so common now, I am hoping someone will come up with a DIY solution for etches.

The baking counter of my island is covered in a Thassos slab. No one recommends this marble, but I was fixated on having the whitest countertop for rolling out dough, so I went ahead and got it. The polished surface is now quite etched from use. The worst offense occurred when someone spilled cranberry sauce on the marble, then apparently placed a cotton cloth over the spill, and a synthetic cutting board over that. When I found it the next day, the cranberry sauce had etched the pattern of the flour sack towel into the marble. It could be buffed out, but I won't bother. I say those etches are mommy merit badges for making stuff in my kitchen. Eventually, it will become a honed surface. The etching appeals to me, but I suspect it would really bother many people a lot. (Martha Stewart has her marble counter tops re-polished annually. She was the reason DH wouldn't let me get all marble counter tops seven years ago when the house was built.)

I have had honed Callacutta marble for a year. Most of the etching has been water rings from glasses and spots around the sink. Since it bothered me, I had our fabricator buff the area to a new finish. No problem and it looked beautiful once again. What I discovered is that they actually finished it polished instead of honed. I almost insisted that they return right away to hone it but agreed to live with it and see how badly polished marble was in a kitchen. Sure enough, the next day my daughter knocked over a container of juice. I wiped up immediately but it left etching. I decided to try a product made by Miracle to remove fine etching and water rings on polished marble.To my amazement, it worked! I've had the polished marble now for about a month and haven't had any etches since. I still am careful about splahes and spills, but feel more relaxed knowing that this product helped. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will work just as well in the future.

I've had honed Vermont Danby Olympian White marble for about 14 months now.

I'd say I have about 10-12 pretty noticeable etches--my kitchen is very sunny, so they really show.

I'm not one bit careful, though, and the etches have just become part of the living stone. I know it'd drive many people nuts, though.

One disappointment with my marble--and this is something I hardly considered before deciding on marble--is that it chips very easily. The Olympian White is *very* white, with areas of no veining at all. When small chips occur in these areas--always on the edge of the counter from a mug or pot banging into it--they're pretty noticeable.

That said, I have no regrets. The chips are a small price to pay to have such lovely countertops!

Farbricators should come up with the idea of when you template the countetops why not offer the marble buyers an acrylic piece to fit on top of some of the counterspace. Sort of like when you throw down a pad on the dinning room table. When you are doing heavy work or leaving your kids and their friends home for a few hours you take it out and place it on top.

Glisson4 - what specifically is the name of the product you used? I have water rings on a small marble table top. Thanks.

I've hand my honed statuary island for about a year. I have etches. They actually seem to fade a little over time, or maybe it's just my imagination. I don't have any chips; I think that might bother me more than any etching. If I was doing the kitchen all over, I would have gone with a marble perimeter too (instead of granite). I love it!