@remodeling1840 not all granite needs to be sealed and resealed. I had Golden Leaf granite in my previous house. Sealed it after it was installed and never sealed it again after that. When we moved out 15 years later it still looked as good as it did the day it was installed. Current house we put in leathered steel gray granite. Sealed at install and that was it. It’s been 5 1/2 years now and no staining.

@darbuka It may not have been etching in the true chemical sense but there were substances that left large spotches on our stone that were impossible to remove. They stayed there for years. And yes, it was real soapstone bought from a soapstone only dealer in the Philadelphia area. And this was after it was refinished by Florida Joshual who was the soapstone whisperer back in the day so it was sanded with the correct grit. My husband and I are both chemists and I can tell you there were things that marred our benches in the lab. It's not as impervious as everyone here claims it is.

@vinmarks I had the same experience with granite. Heck, I had the same experience with marble. In our soapstone kitchen we had a marble baking counter, 45"x25", calacatta gold. Sealed at install and not again in 12 years. Lots of etches but no stains.

@cheri127, yes, Florida Joshua helped many people up and down the East Coast, with his traveling soapstone repair business. It’s a shame he shut his Florida operation, moved to PA, and went out of the soapstone business entirely.

I’m surprised to hear Joshua’s magic didn’t work on your soapstone. Which variety did you have?

I think I confused things by using the word "consistent" (maybe inconsistently!) in my post.

One thing I meant was that I liked the darker charcoal to mostly medium gray colors (and some green probably, which is OK) that are in the website photograph; however, in the photo that was taken in the shop of the wet stone for me, the colors seem to be (even wet) a much lighter gray with all over white veins/inclusions. My question is, which of these two photos is more representative of the stone's actual colors? Does it appear so light/white because the slab was highly polished or because the overhead lights were so bright? Would the usual finishing process bring it closer to the appearance of the website photo?

In reference to the finished stone in my home, I believe that I would likely treat any soapstone with occasional (at least eventually) oiling/waxing in order to even out the coloring as it goes through the changes to be expected. In that sense I would like more consistency in color, while at the same time being just fine with the stone changing over time, and I would expect it to get darker. My other question was about whether the lighter/whiter areas would also become darker over time, or would that just be happening to the darker areas.

@darbuka - thanks for the detailed description and photos of your Belvedere soapstone. I know that I want one of the harder soapstones, so Belvedere was one of the varieties on my shortlist. Thanks for sharing your preferences and experience and showing me the soapstone as you live with it.

I have seen and touched a honed Virginia Mist granite at one of the local shops, but I didn't really like the surface. I have not yet touched a properly finished soapstone counter, but I've read enough descriptions of it that I know I will love it.

Thanks again, everyone!

Wetting any soapstone in a warehouse, under the weird lighting, is never going to mime exactly, a counter top oiled infrequently and used over time.

Pay for the slab and to get the slab shipped, and be prepared not to use it if you don't like it - at which point you select something else.

Or pay for the "fly over" plane ticket to go see it in person.

Soapstone results are in part, how you cook, prep, slice, dice chop, and even what you eat. Whether you bake, broil, saute or sear. Frankly, it is odd that it even contains the "stone" word, given it is...... a rock : ) A talc schist. It's a "rock" in your kitchen no matter the color you see ---------unless you try to make it something it is not. That would be an unchanging surface, forever.

Black, green, gray....it matters not. No shop, no person, can say what YOURS will look like in your kitchen after a few years of use. Nor will you be able to discern that in a warehouse of slabs. Wet OR dry.

Does this still look just like this? No clue! I haven't been in his house in five years: )

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Okay…so @JAN MOYER is correct. Any photo of the slab in a warehouse environment, wet or otherwise, is not going to replicate how it will appear in your home. Lighting alone, can skew the appearance. Also, water doesn’t exactly mimic oiling or waxing. They told us that at the Teixeira showroom. Oiling/waxing accentuates any veining, much more...especially when the stone has been fully finished/sanded properly.

As for any white areas of the stone. Those, too are inclusions, i.e, veins of (I forget which) minerals the rock has picked up during millions of years of shifting pressure and movement, during formation. White veins don’t get darker, per se. Rather, they just really ”pop”, become more pronounced, after the counters have been treated. What happens is, the after effects of the oil oxidating on top of the soapstone. Even the buildup of oils from your hands, and of course, cooking oils, can have a similar effect. Again, remember, you can strip off any patina easily, whenever you want to bring the counters back close to it’s original color.

Yeah, honed Virginia Mist can somewhat mimic soapstone’s appearance. However, it will never duplicate the sensuous, silky smooth appearance and feel of soapstone.

M Teixeira sells a sample pack of all their current soapstones, I think it was around $30

Also. I don't know if you've looked at Garden State Soapstone at all, but they carry PA (Pinheiros Altos) which is a beautiful, more quiet, hard variety. They ship. They aren't going to sell you some crazy polished slab from God knows where and try to pass it off as legit, they want you to be happy with the final product. A granite yard couldn't care less as the fabricator will assume the responsibility if something is amiss.

That said, you could keep looking at black granites in person until you find one you like. Slabs are highly individual, just because you saw one that didn't grab you doesn't mean that there isn't another out there that will. :)

@Beatrix made a good suggestion. Order a sample pack from Teixeira. That way you can play around with the varieties they send you, to your heart’s content. Test for hardness, and what happens when a variety of condiments are left on the samples.

While Garden State Soapstone is a highly reputible soapstone supplier, they just don’t have the variety of slabs Teixeira does. Teixeira is huge, with lots slabs inside the warehouse, and a ton outdoors in the yard. We picked our slab from the outdoor yard.

At any one time, Teixeira will have between 10-14 varieties of soapstone on hand. Mr. Teixeira is from Brazil, and has access to a greater number of quarries, than any other soapstone supplier. He flies back and forth to Brazil, overseeing production and personally selecting varieties. They have everything from quiet stones, with some white veining (Stormy Black is one, and it’s also one of the harder varieties), to wild stones, like Fantasia.

Pay to fly. Go look IN person, which truly is how ANY slab, any material should be viewed . No sample box is the same as an entire slab. No domestic plane ticket is as costly as a counter top re do.

Pick a locale......

M. Teixeira Soapstone has four convenient showrooms located nationwide in New Jersey, Florida, and California. In addition to these showrooms, we have partner locations and distributors located in Huntington Station, New York, Anaheim, California, Denver, Colorado, Loudoun County, Virginia, and Ontario, Canada. Please feel free to stop by your nearest location, request a quote, or order soapstone samples online.

I did order and receive a sample pack of soapstone from M.Teixeira - (so I have actually touched some four inch squares of finished soapstone!). Unfortunately it did not contain this particular variety. They are sending me a sample of Belvedere and I hope to receive it next week.

As I said, my main concern is not that the soapstone will change over time or because of how it's used - I just want to know what it really looks like now if I purchase the slabs and the most likely scenario for change in use.

@JAN MOYER, paying for two slabs plus fabrication and shipping and then not using them is most definitely not an option - I have enough funds for exactly one kitchen's worth of soapstone.

I totally get that this slab is best viewed in person, but I won't be able to do that - flying is not an option for me at this point. However, if we (reluctantly with my DH), switch gears and go with a black soapstone, I would be able to drive to the Chicago area and see Humming Bird Soapstone slabs in person. I have been in contact with them about possibilities, but it appears that they only carry Green Mountain "Hubbardton" soapstone.

@Beatrix, thanks for the suggestion of Garden State. I wasn't aware that they would also ship, and I do like the appearance of the PA soapstone from what I've seen online. I'll also check into that.

@darbuka, I was most intrigued by the areas of your soapstone that have darkened, as that seems most likely what the stone in question would look like after oiling and/or over time. If you have a close-up photo of one of those areas, I'd love to see that.

Thanks all!

My son and his partner, just spent two hours at Teixeira picking out the slab for their soon-to-be kitchen reno. They almost went with a gorgeous slab of Belvedere…in the end, they chose Anastacia, another veiny, hard variety.

I’ll go take a few closeups of the heavily patinaed areas now.

I have two different kitchens with soapstone--one is 10 years old and one is a year old. I can tell you right now that I am not a person who oils or babies soapstone. I wanted something low, low maintenance.

I can also tell you that neither slab looks the same color as it was when originally installed. It's the irregular patina from daily use that changes the stone to a darker tone. The older kitchen I think is PA because I bought it from a Minneapolis distributor who knew something about the origins, and for the other more recent kitchen I bought locally from a standard place that could only tell me it is Brazilian soapstone (and it was the only piece of soapstone they carried). With both kitchens if I use a liquid degreaser or degreaser spray cleaner in the kitchen it will strip some of the patina off temporarily. Just the other day I was trying to clean the microwave turntable and was using a degreaser type spray. I can tell on the counter where I overshot. But, each day it is slowly returning to normal. Or, if I want to completely eliminate the patina and get lighter in color, I could strip the slab down. But, that's too much upkeep for me.

Unless you regularly use a product to eliminate the patina, your slab will darken over time!

What will not change in your slab is the veining. I wanted some significant veining, and that is not going to change. To me that was the most important factor and what I based my decision on.

IMO people on this forum are way too concerned about purchasing from a soapstone-only distributor or a distributor who knows every detail about the heritage of a slab.

@Beatrix, thanks for the suggestion of Garden State. I wasn't aware that they would also ship, and I do like the appearance of the PA soapstone from what I've seen online. I'll also check into that.

While I didn't end up actually using soapstone (my husband wasn't really on board with the idea and during a visit to a stone yard I accidentally fell in love with 2 slabs of granite, oops) Jay at Garden State was a pleasure to deal with as far as ironing out details for shipping/logistics, pricing, etc. Great customer service and I didn't even buy anything from him. Good luck on your search, Cereus. Post pics when it's done so I can drool please.

I definitely obsessed over my soapstone purchase (I am a maximizer which can be a bit exhausting) but in the end I love it. I loved some of the coloring and movement of slabs I would see on M Tex website and if I was closer I would certainly have checked them out. But I’m not, and no one in Maine would give me a quote based on my plans, so I ended up in Vermont and am thrilled with my purchase. I have gotten tons of compliments from the subs that have come in after - they hardly ever see it- and my husband can’t stop touching it! It was the second most expensive thing after my contractor but I’m glad I got it. I am also glad I was able to pick a slab, I wanted veins and some slabs were much more quiet, and my favorite vein is on the main slab, and we call her the Headless Mermaid. I was also hoping for some green tones, and it didn’t show in the slab barn, but once waxed, I had them! I love it.

Those are some awesome veins, @snappity!! Along with the runnels…just gorgeous!

So glad I recommended Vermont Soapstone to you! 😊

Yes, @darbuka when everyone up here wouldnt return my calls, I wasn’t sure VTS would either! I’m glad I gave it a shot. They were heading to some island communities up here for some big jobs after mine.

@snappity, I love your headless mermaid vein! Your soapstone is beautiful. Do you treat it on occasion with mineral oil or beeswax combo?

@julieste, thanks for the information about and experiences with your soapstone kitchens. Do you happen to remember the name of the place that you purchased from in the Minneapolis area?

I’ve had it for less than two weeks, but we did wax it. I tested oil and wax and two small sections and we liked the feel of the wax more.

If you could potentially drive to Chicago, I assume you may live somewhere you could potentially drive to Minneapolis. Midwest Specialty Products is in Shakopee which is a southern suburb of Minneapolis.

Here is the link to their soapstone inventory.

https://mspsurfaces.com/inventory/?wpf_filter_cat_0=26

I understand that stone prices can vary significant depending on a range of important factors, but approxaboutimately how much does soapstone cost per slab? Or once fabricated, how does that work out per square foot? What is the least amount I would expect to pay? Thank you!

@cupofkindnessgw, you can’t really figure price by slab, as slabs vary in size. At Teixeira, if you use them for the entire process, fabrication is included in the price per sq. ft. There is also a charge for weight delivery, if the location is far away, and/or if like in my case, they had to travel with the heavy load over two bridges.

Your cost will be considerably less, if you’re able to use remnant slabs…of which Teixeira has a good supply.

@Teixeira

So if I needed only a 26" by 56" piece, they could fabricate and ship that to me? I live in Texas... far away too.

@cupofkindnessgw, just spoke to my son who purchased 3 slabs at Teixeira, just yesterday. The calculations were done differently, than when I purchased my soapstone 7+ years ago.

He said: ”It was sold by slab. If I had to guess, the slabs were 5’x8’. They were $1600ea. Which would be $40sq.ft. Fabrication and instillation will be billed separately.”

@cupofkindnessgw, since you’re in Texas, look at these locations from the Teixeira site, and perhaps call their partner locations, in Denver, or Anaheim, and see what soapstone supply they have, ask about remnants, fabricating, shipping, etc. Otherwise, the closest Teixeira warehouse to you, is in San Francisco…not exactly a stone’s throw away.😉

I just measured, I had 40 sf, plus a 2” backsplash on most of that, plus a backsplash and sill at the window and it was around 150sf fabricated - a crew of 4 here for almost 10 hours. Vermont sells and ships slabs too, I am pretty sure, and the bulk of their slabs are smaller - 84” lengths. They do have large slabs for large projects but I think that is mostly juca, which they prefer to fabricate in house vs on site, so I ended up with vista, which is great.

I imagine it’s softer than darbuka’s belvedere, but that’s ok. I did warn my husband that I EXPECT it to get a lived in look and to not panic if it gets dinged!

@darbuka What an exciting day for your son, I'm sure his counters will be show stoppers. Thank you for sharing that pricing information with me... honestly, now that I know that, soapstone seems more affordable than I imagined-though these prices don't include fabrication and installation. I will look locally here in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

@snappity I got to say, I love everything about your kitchen. Your soapstone installation day must have been a very long one indeed... but what a turning point in a renovation!

@cupofkindnessgw, I found these links for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area: Soapstone Dallas/Ft. Worth

I know Dorado Soapstone to be a reputable soapstone company. I’ve also heard good things about Latera.

Please let us know how it turns out…

@cupofkindnessgw Thank you! The fridge comes tomorrow and then we are DONE!

My builder was shocked at the price, and said that I would’ve spent close to that on granite or quartz, which are far more common around here.

@julieste Thank you for the name and link! I could definitely take a road trip to Minneapolis. It may not be a soapstone specialty place, but they do have an inventory and named varieties on their website, which I find encouraging. I will also investigate closer to home, as some shops do have a few slabs in stock - but so far they are only described as "black soapstone" with no other details. Midwest Specialty Products does carry PA soapstone, which checks my "harder variety" box and I do like the look of the lots with more veining as well.

@snappity One of the soapstones in the MSP inventory is called "Juca", which is not one I've heard of before - is this a harder variety?

(Editing here because I misread your post - it's the Vista that they prefer to fabricate on site? So that must have been what took a whole ten hours then! Under what circumstances would it be preferable to do one or the other?)

@darbuka Thank you so much for taking the time to post the links. I'm actually rather close to Latera, which is great. I am looking for a soapstone that leans gray/blue (not green) so a close dealer is a good starting point for me. I did not find much at the Daltile slab warehouse and nothing at Arizona Tile either. But I'm just beginning the hunt!

@snappity Congratulations! Please post more pictures of your kitchen once the fridge is in, it's just lovely.

@Desert Cereus Vista is softer than Juca, and was what they prefer to use for on site fabrication.

@Desert Cereus if you are planning to drive to the Chicago area, you could also visit MSI in Elk Grove Village. I saw a few slabs of soapstone there and it looks like them have some in stock. Inventory.

@chicagoans - thank you for the lead and the link!

I applaud your due diligence! That’s a lot of phone calls, and much time talking with staff at each location.

Here’s hoping you hear from Hummingbird Soapstone, and they can satisfy you with product and price.

Please keep us posted on the outcome!

I'd like to add, you may have fabricators in your area that buy from MSI and MSP so I wouldn't rule them out. I chose my stone from a distributor that my fabricator buys from. I've never chosen a slab from the showroom or yard of the fabricator.

@Desert Cereus Thank you for these resources! Show us your slabs and please please please come back and post your finished kitchen!

@snappity I got a quote for soapstone that was virtually the same amount I was quoted for one of the cheaper Cambria patterns (weybourne).

@skitt I never even priced other stone, I knew it would be soapstone if I could swing it, and laminate if I couldn't (and plan to save for soapstone later.) I almost wish I got a quote just to know what the prices were, because everything says that it's SO much more expensive than granite/quartz so I've been calling it my splurge, when in reality it may have just been what stone/solid surface/ countertops cost regardless of the material!

@cheri127 - It never would have occurred to me to look for soapstone at a distributor, so I extend thanks to all who suggested that as an option. Definitely looking into it.

@cupofkindnessgw - good luck with your search - I'd love to see what you decided on when you get the chance!

@snappity, we looked at both quartz and soapstone. Quartz was a bit cheaper per sq ft. However, we were able to use a single oversized slab of soapstone for the whole kitchen and we would have needed two slabs of quartz (even if we went with the super-oversized quartz options) because of the dimensions. So soapstone was actually cheaper for our kitchen. We were going to do it no matter what (I just couldn’t get jazzed about quartz), but I did feel good about the “savings.”

It's been a long road, but we finally have our soapstone!

We had settled on, received a quote from, and anticipated using Hummingbird Soapstone out of the Chicago area, but for various reasons that ended up not being possible. We delayed the start of our kitchen remodel in order to get through the fall/winter holidays, and demo started on January 8th. When I contacted Hummingbird again to set up an appointment to visit them and see their stone options, the shop had only one lot that was large enough for our project (that stone was not what I had envisioned), and Hummingbird only uses Green Mountain), and they did not believe they would be placing another order any time soon due to decreased demand. We ended up using a stone shop (generic, not soapstone-only ... but really our only choice) between our home and Minneapolis, and they happened to have a soapstone slab that I really liked when I talked to them and went to see it. (I could not travel to Minneapolis to see stones at distributors at the time due to some caregiving responsibilities.)

It's an Original PA soapstone, and it was installed yesterday. Sadly, after install it became evident that there were rows of sanding rings visible on the counters. The company has been informed, and I'm assuming they will send someone to do a light sanding to remove these marks. I will edit this post with photos once this issue is resolved.

@Desert Cereus - Your summary here just 100% completely made my day. Thank you so much for sharing your research!!!!

Can you post a photo of your soapstone now?

@agbhw - Here are a few photos of the soapstone in our kitchen. The stone company did come out to address the sanding circles, but I wish I'd known that I might have been able to get those out with steel wool (or so I read). They did not bring proper equipment to contain all the dust! (They used a circular sander but only had a shop vac hose for the dust - not connected to the sander.)

I like the way it looks in its natural state, but it's a major struggle with the oil spots. I also like it oiled since it's easier to keep it looking uniform in appearance - but after more than a year mineral oil still hasn't darkened the stone and it fades very quickly and unevenly. I think it is because of the many and varied minerals within the stone. Work in progress as I move from product to product trying to find something that will keep the stone dark longer. The beeswax/oil products tend towards spotting and rings.

(@darbuka, @cheri127, @snappity, @cevamal, @julieste, @JAN MOYER, @cupofkindnessgw, @Melissa H, @agbhw, @Beatrix - sorry for the delay in posting photos!)

@Desert Cereus Your soapstone is beautiful. Steel wool alone would not have fixed sanding or finish issues, it likely would have made the problem worse. I have sanded my current soapstone counters because they were installed with too shiny of a finish and the key to keeping the dust down is to wet sand with a diamond sanding pad. Once I sanded the counters I tried to keep them lighter but dealing with oil spots was very difficult and it took a lot of effort to keep the counters looking clean so I applied sealant, which I had also used on pervious soapstone in our last house. Unfortunately I initially used the wrong type, impregnating instead of enhancing, and I had to resand the section that I had applied it to and try again. The sealant only adheres to the top layer so it was easy to fix. When I had soapstone installed in my last house the fabricator told me that it could be sealed but I was leery due to what I had read on the old Gardenweb forum so I asked for a sample of the stone and had him seal half of it. After testing out various waxes and oils and comparing them to the selaed section I decided that I preferred the stone to be sealed. The oils and waxes took more work than I wanted and left the stone with a bit of a tacky feel and a it more shine than the enhancing sealant did. It takes a couple of coats to get a lasting darkend finish, usually a week or so apart, but then the counters stay dark and water beads up as with any sealed surface. It may not be an approach that you are interested in but if you are I would suggest trying it on a sample first if you can or at least in a small section. I used Miracle 511 seal and enhance, it does not change the stone other than darkening it and making water bead, oil does not bead on it and will leave slightly darker spots but it washes off easily. The correct sealants do not make the stone shiny or flake off or do any of the weird things that I have read some people believe. Soapstone is not porous but it does have nooks and crannies on the surface that allow the sealant to stick to, just as oil does. I understand that some people want to avoid using chemicals such as sealants but if anyone is finding themselves frustrated with the care that their counters need to stay looking as wanted, it is an approach that can help diminish the frustration.

Beautiful slab!

Your kitchen overall is terrific! Your cabinets are beautiful, and I love the color of the backsplash. Props to you for tiling all the way up and around the window -- I often recommend that, to my eye it just looks more "finished" and better than what is usually done.

That is gorgeous! Your whole kitchen is just so beautiful and warm. All your research definitely paid off. Congrats - you must be thrilled!

@s m - Thanks for your post! I had read a little about Miracle 511 Seal & Enhance, but I don't think I'd read about anyone's first hand experience with soapstone. I will seriously consider this, though I do like the choice of having the stone naturally gray or oiled/waxed (if I can find something that will work longer than mineral oil/wax on my particular stone and not too much of a pain to remove.

Currently thinking about trying a product with a curing walnut oil like the Dorado dry wax or the Milk Paint Soapstone Sealer (though that curing time could be an issue). I'm assuming that these two could be removed if they don't work out (or wear off)? But not sure how labor-intensive that would be.