Granite · technical reference
The chemistry of sealing granite.
The specifier's version. MineralProtect is the one and only next-generation sol-gel surface coating in Australia, and granite is a textbook fit for it: a siliceous stone whose own surface chemistry lets an inorganic silica network bond straight into it. Here is exactly how the bond forms, what the coating resists and where its limits sit, honestly bounded.
At a glance
The coating, on granite.
Water-based inorganic sol-gel surface coating.
A cross-linked silica network engineered at the surface, not in the pores.
In the order of 90 to 100 nm dry. Conformal, follows the stone's profile.
Grafts to the silanols on granite's quartz and feldspar.
Non-pigmenting. Changes surface energy, not colour or finish.
Does not cap the pores. The stone keeps releasing moisture.
The mechanism never relied on fluorine to perform.
On the repellency function. Sits on top of your ACL rights.
The bond
Why granite takes it covalently.
The shared mechanism in one line: granite is a siliceous stone, built from quartz and feldspar, so its surface carries reactive silanols, and our inorganic sol-gel condenses onto them into genuine covalent Si-O-Si bonds continuous with the stone. That is chemical integration on cure, not a film on top. We set that mechanism out in full in how sealing works and stone and sealer chemistry. What follows is what granite, specifically, does with it.
Polished versus honed and leathered
The finish changes how the coating keys in. Polished granite is dense with little open porosity, so the bond leans on the covalent grafting to the surface silanols. Honed and leathered finishes present more open texture, so they take the coating readily, and they are the finishes most exposed to oil in service. In both cases the protection is engineered at the face, which is where the stone is used.
A surface coating, not a consolidant
It is a thin surface coating, not a deep consolidant. It does not penetrate millimetres, strengthen the slab or re-cement the stone. Its job is the surface, and on granite that is exactly right, because the surface is where the wear, the cleaning and the staining all happen. A polished granite benchtop is used on its face, not in its bulk.
The wedge
On granite, the real gap is oil.
A surface in service meets four loads together at the face: cleaning and abrasion, chemical, UV and oil. Our architecture puts the protection there, where a pore sealer strands it millimetres down out of reach. The four resistances and their honest bounds are set out in full in the four real-world resistances. On granite, three of them are the easy story, and one is the whole point.
Granite already handles most of it
Cleaning, chemistry and UV
Granite's quartz and feldspar are hard and broadly acid-resistant, and a polished slab is dense. The inorganic coating adds cleaning and chemical resistance at the face and, being inorganic, does not yellow or chalk the way an organic film does on a sun-baked outdoor slab. None of that is immunity, and the honest bounds live in the pillar, but on granite these three are the straightforward part.
The exception that matters
Oil is the real gap
Granite's open weakness is oil: cooktop splatter on a benchtop, car drips on a slab. Surface-energy control means oil and grease sit on the surface and lift in cleaning rather than soaking in. Oil is an outcome here, never a number: standard non-fluorinated silane repels water only, and the fluoropolymer chemistry that repelled oil best is being regulated out. We reach it PFAS-free by design, not by reformulation, and we do not claim to match fluoropolymer's raw oil repellency.
One granite-specific note on the old ways: the popular consumer enhancer blends are formulated to darken the stone for a wet look, the opposite of leaving a premium granite exactly as it is. Ours is colourless and changes nothing you can see. For the full head-to-head against impregnators, enhancer blends and films, see sealer types compared.
How durability is measured
Proven the way a coating should be.
Surface durability is contact-angle retention across recognised wet-scrub and abrasion cycles, not a marketing multiple. These are the standards a specifier should ask any sealer to be tested against.
- Wet-scrub and abrasion. ISO 11998 and ASTM D2486 for scrub, ASTM D4060 Taber for abrasion: contact-angle retention across cycles is the honest measure of whether a coating survives cleaning.
- Glass-specific methods. ASTM C813 and D8380 apply to coatings on glass; do not conflate advancing and static contact-angle figures across methods.
- Independently tested. The JUMBOGUARD stack is tested at independent houses including TUV Rheinland, SGS, Intertek and under REACH.
A note on numbers
We cite the family, not a figure we don't hold
Our sister coating GlassProtect is still beading above 100 degrees after 3,000 cream-cleanser cycles, wearing around three times slower in comparable testing. That is glass. We do not publish an invented scrub or hardness number for MineralProtect on granite; we cite the standards above and the family evidence, and let the mechanism carry the rest.
The limits, stated plainly
What it cannot do.
- Not permanent, not maintenance-free, not stain proof. A long-lasting treatment that degrades predictably and needs periodic reapplication. It makes cleaning faster and far less frequent; it does not remove it.
- Acid resistance is the stone's, not an absolute. Granite's quartz and feldspar resist most household acids, but strong acids left to dwell, and any calcite veining in the slab, can still dull. A sealer slows absorption; it cannot stop acid attacking the stone itself. Etch prevention is a claim we make only for glass.
- Chemical stability is bounded. The network is more resistant to alkaline cleaning, not alkali proof; silica hydrolyses above about pH 8. Stable at routine cleaning pH and short contact only.
- Oil is an outcome, never a number. It sits on the surface and lifts in cleaning. It does not match fluoropolymer oil repellency, and no non-fluorinated coating durably does.
- Beading fades before protection. Loss of beading is a prompt to re-test, tied to the guarantee, not proof of failure. And it is a guarantee, backed by certified application and per-job registration, never a warranty against every kind of damage.
Technical questions
For the specifier.
Is the bond to granite genuinely covalent?
Yes, on cure. Granite's quartz and feldspar carry surface silanols, and the sol's silanols condense with them to Si-O-Si, continuous with the stone. Initial contact is physisorption and hydrogen bonding; the covalent bond forms as the network cures, and it is in addition to the coating keying into the surface texture. On a polymineralic stone it grafts to the siliceous fraction rather than every grain uniformly.
Does it consolidate or strengthen the slab?
No, and we will not claim it does. This is a thin surface coating, not a deep consolidant. It does not penetrate millimetres into the stone, re-cement loose grains or add structural strength. Its function is at the surface: repellency, easier cleaning and stain resistance, where the stone is actually used.
How do you substantiate PFAS-free?
As a design and composition statement, not a lab certificate dressed up as one. MineralProtect protects through an inorganic silica network that never used fluorine to perform, so fluorine is not a formulation input. We provide the safety data sheet, including composition and VOC, for the product as applied, and where a project needs confirmation against a PFAS analytical method rather than composition alone, we request that statement in writing before application.
Do you hold a slip rating for the coating?
No, and we make no slip claim. The coating is a thin conformal treatment that follows the stone's profile and changes surface energy, not a film that lays over the surface texture, so unlike a topical film it does not add a layer over the profile a pendulum or ramp measures. Where a slip classification is part of a specification, the correct route is independent accredited testing to AS 4586 on a sample of the actual stone, coated and uncoated, which we support rather than self-certify.
Go deeper
The shared science, in full.
This page covers what is specific to granite. The mechanism it rests on lives in the three pillars below. Start there to go deeper.
Pillar · the mechanism
How sealing actually works
The third class of sealer: how a sol-gel bonds a dense, colourless, breathable network at the surface itself. Read the pillar
Pillar · the chemistry
Stone and sealer chemistry
Why siliceous stone bonds one way and carbonate anchors another, and how the covalent Si-O-Si bond forms. Read the pillar
Pillar · the resistances
The four real-world resistances
Cleaning, chemical, UV and oil, with the honest bound on each, and why a pore sealer buries its protection out of reach. Read the pillar
Prefer it without the chemistry? Read sealing granite in plain English. Weighing up a related stone? See quartzite, or browse the whole Sealing Library.
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Specify it with confidence.
We'll prepare and seal your granite with MineralProtect to a certified standard, registered under a 10-year guarantee. Documentation and safety data sheet on request.