The Stain Library

How to remove blood stains from marble

  • DifficultyModerate
  • OutlookOften removable
  • MaterialMarble
  • Reviewed1 September 2026

The short answer

Wipe fresh blood off with cold water and a little washing up liquid. Anything that has soaked in needs a poultice: bicarbonate of soda mixed with 3 percent hydrogen peroxide into a paste, covered, and left on for a day. Never use vinegar, lemon juice or a limescale remover on marble.

If it has just happened

Blot it up with kitchen roll rather than wiping, then wipe with cold water. Marble is porous, so the clock starts immediately and how fast you get the liquid off decides how much soaks in.

Heat can set this stain permanently

Do not use hot water, a tumble dryer, an iron or a steam cleaner until the mark has gone. Heat fixes this type of stain into the fibres and makes it far harder to shift.

Test on a hidden area first

Try any cleaner on a hidden part of the material first, such as a seam, an offcut, inside a hem or under a piece of furniture. Wait for it to dry and check for colour change before treating the visible mark.

Treat blood that is not your own as a hazard

Blood can carry bloodborne viruses. If it is not your own, put disposable gloves on before you start, cover any cut or graze on your hands with a waterproof dressing first, and wash your hands when you have finished. That is the standard precaution, and it applies to a small mark on a sheet as much as to a large one.

Work out whether it is a stain or an etch

A stain sits in the stone and is darker than its surroundings. An etch is acid damage to the polished surface and looks dull or chalky. A poultice fixes the first and does nothing at all for the second, which needs honing and repolishing by a stone restorer.

What you will need

  • Disposable gloves For the blood, and because peroxide should stay off skin.
  • Kitchen roll and a soft cloth
  • Washing up liquid A little in warm water is the stone trade body's routine clean for marble.
  • Bicarbonate of soda The absorbent half of the poultice.
  • Hydrogen peroxide, 3 percent What this is The active half. Buy it fresh, because it weakens on the shelf.
  • Cling film and masking tape To stop the poultice drying out in the first few hours.

Helpful but not essential

  • A plastic spatula For lifting the dried poultice. Nothing metal.

Fresh blood on marble

Speed is the whole method while it is still wet, because the stone is absorbing it as you look at it.

Go carefully with cold water

Marble tolerates cold water only within limits. Keep contact time short, work from the edge of the mark inwards and stop if the material changes.

  1. Blot, do not wipe

    Press kitchen roll onto the spill and lift. Wiping spreads the liquid across more stone, and every extra square centimetre it touches is more surface for it to soak into.

  2. Wash with mild detergent

    Use a soft cloth with a little washing up liquid in warm water, which is the routine clean the stone trade body specifies for calcareous stone. Rinse with clean water and dry with a soft cloth.

  3. Look at it again once it is dry

    Marble looks darker while it is damp and can look clean when it is not. Give it a few hours, look in daylight, and if there is a shadow, treat it as a stain that has soaked in.

  • How longFive minutes, then check again the next day
  • RepeatingBlot as long as it transfers. Then wait and look at it dry.
  • Stop ifthe stone is clean and dry, or a shadow remains once it has dried, in which case move to the poultice

Dried blood on marble

A poultice draws the mark back out of the stone. It takes a day, and there is no faster version of it.

  1. Test somewhere hidden first

    Put a small amount of the peroxide on an offcut, a hidden edge or the underside and let it dry completely. On dark or coloured marble it can lighten the stone, and a pale patch is harder to live with than the mark.

  2. Mix the poultice

    Stir bicarbonate of soda into 3 percent hydrogen peroxide until it is about the consistency of a thick paste. It has to hold its shape on a vertical surface without running.

  3. Apply it thickly and cover it

    Spread it over the mark and slightly beyond, around half a centimetre thick, then tape cling film over the top. The cover stops it drying in an hour, which is what makes the difference between a poultice and a smear of paste.

  4. Leave it, then let it dry out

    Leave it covered for around a day, then take the film off and let the paste dry completely. The drying is the part that pulls the stain up out of the stone, so do not shortcut it.

  5. Lift it and rinse

    Scrape the dried paste off with a plastic spatula, never anything metal, then wash the area with clean water and a little washing up liquid, and dry it. Judge the result once the stone itself is dry.

  • How longTwenty minutes of work, then 24 hours of waiting
  • RepeatingTwo or three poultices on a mark of any age is normal. Let the stone dry fully in between.
  • Stop ifthree poultices leave the mark unchanged, or the treated area looks lighter than the stone around it

Old or set in blood on marble

An old mark in stone is the same method with more patience, and a clearer point at which to hand it over.

  1. Rule out etching first

    Look at the mark at a low angle. A stain is darker than the stone around it. Etching is duller and often lighter, with the polish gone. Etching is acid damage and a poultice does nothing for it, because there is nothing sitting in the stone to draw out.

  2. Poultice, wait, and judge it dry

    Apply the peroxide and bicarbonate poultice as for a dried mark, covered for a day and then left uncovered to dry out. Assess it only once the marble itself is dry.

  3. Repeat up to twice more

    Each round takes a little more out. If the second and third are clearly doing less than the first, that is the curve flattening rather than a reason to mix it stronger.

  4. Call a stone restorer

    A restorer can use stronger poultices matched to the stain, and can hone and repolish the surface afterwards so a treated area still matches. That is the honest end of what a household can do here.

  • How longTwo to three days, mostly waiting
  • RepeatingThree poultices maximum. After that a restorer has tools you do not.
  • Stop ifthree poultices change nothing, or the stone around the mark starts to look different from the rest

What not to use on marble

  • Vinegar, lemon juice and any acidic cleaner

    Marble is calcium carbonate and acid dissolves it. The result is etching, a dull mark in the surface that no cleaner removes because the polished layer has gone. Dilution and speed do not change this.

  • Limescale remover and acidic bathroom sprays

    Same chemistry, usually stronger. Some rust removers also contain traces of hydrofluoric acid, which attacks stone badly.

  • Scouring powder, cream cleaners and wire wool

    The stone trade body warns that abrasives scratch calcareous stone. On polished marble the scratching shows as a permanent dull area.

  • Mixing bleach and ammonia

    Together they produce a toxic gas. This matters on stone specifically because both appear in stone cleaning advice for different jobs, and it is easy to use one after the other without realising.

  • A metal blade or scraper

    It will scratch the polish while you are trying to lift the poultice off, which turns a stain you were fixing into damage you cannot.

White compared with coloured marble

Hydrogen peroxide is the correct chemical for an organic stain in stone, and it lightens as well as cleans. On white and pale marble that is invisible. On dark, green or heavily veined marble it can leave a lighter patch, so test on an offcut or a hidden edge and let the test dry completely before treating anything visible.

Products that genuinely help here

Try the household route above first. These are worth buying only when it is not enough.

  • Household first

    Pure Safe hydrogen peroxide 3 percent solution, 500 ml

    The active half of the poultice

    The stone trade body names hydrogen peroxide as the chemical for organic stains on stone, and there is no household substitute for it in a poultice. The absorbent half is bicarbonate of soda, which most kitchens already have, so this is the one thing likely to need buying.

    Worth knowing. Test it on a hidden edge of dark or coloured marble first. Never combine it with vinegar or any other acid, and keep it off skin and out of eyes.

    Check current price Checked 7 September 2026

    View at Amazon UK Paid link

If the mark is still there

A poultice normally needs repeating. The stone trade body describes leaving it on for a day or two, and stone specialists are clear that two or three applications on an older mark is normal rather than a sign something is wrong.

Between applications, let the stone dry fully. Damp marble looks darker and it is impossible to judge progress on it. Look at it dry, in daylight, and only then mix another batch.

If three full poultices have not moved it, stop. A stone restorer can go further, including honing and repolishing the area, and that is genuinely a different set of tools rather than a stronger bottle. Also check what you actually have: if the area is dull rather than dark, that is etching from an acid at some point, not a stain, and no poultice will touch it.

When to stop and call someone

Call a stone restorer rather than continuing if three poultices have not shifted the mark, if the surface is dull or rough as well as marked, if the marble is dark, coloured or heavily veined and you are not willing to risk lightening it, or if the piece is a fireplace, a floor or a worktop where a patch that does not match would be worse than the stain.

Why blood behaves this way on marble

Marble is calcium carbonate, and it is porous. Both facts drive everything here.

Porous means a blood mark does not sit on the surface, it soaks into the stone. Wiping the top clean leaves the mark below, which is why a spill that looked dealt with reappears as a shadow the next day. A poultice reverses that by putting a wet absorbent paste on top: as it dries it draws the liquid in the stone up into itself, bringing the stain with it. That is slow by nature and cannot be rushed.

Calcium carbonate means acid is out entirely. Vinegar, lemon juice, limescale removers and acidic bathroom sprays react with the surface, dissolving a microscopic layer and leaving a dull mark called etching. That is not a stain and it does not clean off, because there is nothing on the stone to remove.

Hydrogen peroxide is not an acid in any practical sense and it is what the stone trade specifies for organic stains, which is what blood is.

Why a poultice takes a day

A poultice is a wet absorbent paste laid over a stain in porous stone.

While it is covered, the liquid in the paste soaks down into the stone and dissolves or oxidises what is in there. Then the cover comes off and the paste starts to dry. As it dries it pulls moisture up out of the stone into itself, and the dissolved stain travels with it into the paste, which is then scraped off and thrown away.

That second stage is the one doing the work, and it cannot be hurried. A paste that dries in an hour has not had time to draw anything up, which is why the cling film matters and why the method is measured in days rather than minutes.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. Remove stains from stone applications, Natural Stone Institute trade body

    Trade body method for organic stains on stone using hydrogen peroxide, and the poultice technique of a cleaner mixed with a white absorbent powder to the consistency of a paste, spread a quarter of an inch thick and left for 24 to 48 hours. Also states that bleach and ammonia must never be mixed.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  2. Cleaning products for natural stone, Natural Stone Institute trade body

    Trade body statement that lemon, vinegar and other acids dull or etch calcareous stone, that scouring powders and creams scratch it, and that the correct routine clean is a neutral cleaner, stone soap or mild washing up liquid in warm water.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  3. Poultices for a stained marble surface, Olson Cleaning specialist

    Stone restoration specialist describing a bicarbonate of soda paste with a few drops of hydrogen peroxide left on overnight and lifted with a firm plastic spatula, and calling in a stone professional for what it does not shift.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  4. Marble sealers prevent stains, not etching, Nova Stone Care specialist

    Stone care specialist explaining that a sealer buys time against staining but cannot stop etching, because acid reacts with the calcium carbonate at the surface rather than inside the pores.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  5. How to get blood out of carpet and upholstery, COIT specialist

    Restoration company method of one teaspoon of washing up liquid in two cups of cold water dabbed until the blood transfers to the cloth, with the warning that hydrogen peroxide discolours fabric and belongs only on white or very light material after a hidden test.

    Checked 1 September 2026