Marble Backsplash Pros and Cons

A stone finish for your kitchen is a great consideration due to the aesthetic nature of some of the materials such as marble. Marble, for example, is beautiful and you’d want to consider for the backsplash in your kitchen. But what are the pros and cons of marble backsplash?

The marble backsplash has aesthetic appeal, durability, and the ability to improve most kitchen designs. On the downside, a marble finish is prone to scratching, acid etching, and staining more than any other stone option. However, it needs sealing since it is porous.

The Marble backsplash is a soft and porous nature material commonly used in kitchen designs because it offers an incomparable aesthetic value to your house. If you are considering installing new or changing your floor, consider these pros and cons of marble backsplash.

I always prefer to look for a great way to protect my kitchen and bathroom walls against heat and moisture damage while still expressing my personal style. That’s why marble finishes in backsplash are some of my go-to designs when doing my DIY projects.

In this article, We’ll explain the pros and cons of using marble backsplash for your tiling project and the maintenance considerations you’ll need to keep in mind.

Pros of marble backsplash

The marble backsplash is a soft and porous nature material commonly used in kitchen designs. They offer an incomparable aesthetic value to your house; kitchen and bathroom. If you are considering installing new or changing your floor, consider these pros and cons of marble backsplash.

Here are advantages of installing marble backsplash for your flooring:

1. Low-maintenance when sealed

If you seal your marble backsplash after installation, you’ll protect your kitchen walls from stains from food splatter, which means it will be low on maintenance especially in terms of the frequency of cleaning. Even if staining does occur, you can apply various poultice recipes to restore the coloring on your marble.

But when should you seal the marble backsplash in your kitchen or bathroom? It’s an important step to seal it before you grout. Marble is porous and easily absorbs color from the grout.

Make sure you apply the sealant early when installing and before grouting the pieces in. You might also want to use unsanded grout for the small joints.

But how often do you have to seal marble backsplash? Consider sealing marble backsplash every 3-6 months. Whenever you notice any discoloration on an area you poured water, then it’s time to consider resealing the marble kitchen.

Here a video guide on how to seal marble backsplash:

2. Marble backsplash is eco-friendly

A marble is a natural stone, and no chemical processing goes into the process of making marble tiles. By installing marble backsplash, you’ll be contributing to environmental sustainability.

See also: Pros and Cons of Marble Flooring

3. Marble is visually appealing

With its intricate veining and sparkling white background, installing marble backsplash will instantly enhance your kitchen’s visual aesthetics.

What’s more, marble backsplash surfaces are more receptive to polishing than any other type of natural stone backsplash tiling and can – therefore – be easily shined to a sparkling finish that’s beautiful to look at.

4. Enhances your property’s value

Polished marble is considered as a luxurious building material due to its sparkling appearance. Using it for your backsplash will improve your property’s market value.

In fact, the rarer and more luxurious/expensive type of marble tiling used for your backsplash, the more your property is likely to cost in the property market.

5. Diversity of choice

Marble tiles for backsplash come in various types, depending on the region where the stone was mined, and homeowners are always left spoilt for choice. The pricing also varies depending on how luxurious the particular type of marble is.

Still- you’ll find some marble tile varieties that both affordable and visually-striking. For instance- Carrara marble- mined in Italy, is revered by many homeowners; as it strikes the perfect balance between beauty and affordability.

Other popular marble tile types that are used for backsplash include Emperador marble mined in Spain, and Calacatta marble mined in Italy. The latter features heavy grey-veining that contrasts with the white part of the marble for an overall chic appearance.

Here’s a brief table outlining various popular marble backsplash types, their appearance, and where they originate from:

The marble flooring (such as Marble Herringbone Adhesive Backsplash Tiles) makes your kitchen and bathroom look great and provides a good ambient to your room.

Disadvantages of Marble Backsplash

As I’ve explained above, using marble as your backsplash material is a sure way to enhance your kitchen’s design and aesthetics. It adds luxurious appeal, elegance, timelessness with a diversity of choices for your kitchen.

However, although it offers unrivaled aesthetic value, marble backsplash is more prone to scratching, acid etching, and staining.

Below are disadvantages of marble backsplash flooring:

1. Etching

Since marble is a relatively softer type of natural stone, marble surfaces are susceptible to etching. However- the severity of the etching usually depends on the type of marble backsplash that you have.

For instance, if you have polished marble, the etching will be much more vivid compared to a honed marble backsplash.

2. Staining

Marble is also quite porous, and marble surfaces- if left unsealed- are susceptible to staining. If you have a honed marble backsplash, it’s more likely to pick up stains than a polished marble backsplash would.

3. Requires Resealing

After initially sealing post-installation, you’ll have to reseal your marble backsplash bi-annually to maintain its sparkling appearance and protect the surface against staining. Failure to do so will most likely result in splatter from acidic foods permanently discoloring your marble surface.

4. Hard to install by yourself

For DIY die-hards, beware that installing your marble backsplash tiles by yourself is a job that will take a lot of your time and energy. If anything, marble is a relatively heavy natural stone and cutting through it to make intricate mosaic designs takes special tools that you’ll have to rent.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, chances are you’ll end up with poor-quality backsplash that looks nothing like what you had in mind. This is one job you’re better off leaving to the pros.

Here’s a video guide of how to install marble backsplash

5. Marble is expensive

Compared to other types of natural stone tiling, marble tiles used for backsplash are relatively expensive, given that marble is an aesthetically-valued natural stone.

What’s more, marble backsplash- especially unsealed marble- needs regular maintenance in terms of cleaning to keep it looking good. If you’re paying for cleaning services, you’ll likely have to part with a significant amount of money in the long run.  

Is marble backsplash easy to clean?

Yes- despite requiring regular maintenance- cleaning marble backsplash is actually quite simple. All you need to do to get rid of stains from spills and splashes is warm water, a scouring pad, and some dish soap.

Here’s how to clean your marble backsplash:

1. Smear some dish soap all across the surface of your marble backsplash.
2. Next, dip a new scouring pad in the warm water basin.
3. Now, scrub the entire backsplash surface repeatedly with the scouring pad to ensure the combination of the soap dish and warm water works out the stains.
4. Finish off by rinsing the surface with some more warm water, then leave it to dry, or dry it up using a dry piece of cloth.

For extra-tough stains, just replace the soap dish from the procedure above with baking soda and use the same procedure.

References

• Marble.com: Stone Backsplash Prices: How Much Do They Cost?
• Jong-Jin Kim and Brenda Rigdon, The University of Michigan, College of Architecture and Urban Planning: Sustainable Building Materials