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Or you’ll get this:

And I’ll have to charge you to make it look like this:

I couldn’t find my waterclear acrylic, but with a break this big, I didn’t have any trouble saturating with CA and catalyzing. I clamped from the right inside of the break to pull the left outside edge flush and jammed a plastic laminate shim under the arm to flush the top. I started on the top with a Viper three step #2, had to use #1 on the front edge, and finished it all with #3. #3 wouldn’t pop until I ran it from wet to dry, but the shine matched perfectly. I highly recommed these pads. The top repair can’t be felt.

Jamming the 21″ wide U-flange into a 20 7/8″ rough cut-out wasn’t the only cause of this failure:

That 1/4″ gap between the top and the splash was caused by this:

This shot was taken after I removed the stove. I’ve already placed a non-compressive shim in the left corner, but I couldn’t shim at the sink because there was no cabinet or cleat underneath to shim from. I installed a 2×4 and screwed the rear cabinet rail to a stud then shimmed the rear broken sink arm to flush. The other end was broken too, but it was too tight to fool with and these breaks would be nearly covered by the sink flange when I enlarged the back of the cut-out anyway.

You can see the 2×4 in the left rear of the sink cut-out. My level has a plastic laminate shim under each end and the bubble is sitting on the break/fulcrum. Note to installers: Granite doesn’t bend and has little flexural strength. From the right of the dishwasher to the wall, about seven feet, this top drops about 5/8″ and cannot be raised without removing and ripping splash and/or wall tile on the left side which is clearly beyond the scope of this job.

In case you think I make up this stuff, here’s a picture of the 4 foot pantry top:

Yeah, that’s my 3/4″ thick scraper under the right side, making the level just a poo high on that end. Would it have killed these guys to return the top ends to the wall? Note the wood mouldings between the top and the wall behind the level.

The best for last:

Norm, are you sure you didn’t work as a plumber in Michigan? No shutoffs in the cabinet, gotta go downstairs into the suspended ceiling, the washer on the flexible drain line was installed backwards, the washers at the brass “T” were nonexistant, hence the putty. This guy hates to pay professionals when he can do it himself, according to his wife.

Joe

[Norm Walters]

Joe, I can’t believe they sell those flexible lines, geez take a course in geometry. Also, a little teflon paste on all the threads works wonders.

[Andy Graves]

Where do you find this stuff? It is crap from start to finish. Cabinet guys do it wrong, countertop installed wrong. It goes from bad to worse.

Then they guy has to pay you to fix it all. Looks a lot like job security.

[John Christensen]

Kowboy is back in the saddle.  Nice repair Joe!

Johnny c

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Posted By Andy Graves on 17 Jun 2011 05:57 PM
Where do you find this stuff? It is crap from start to finish. Cabinet guys do it wrong, countertop installed wrong. It goes from bad to worse.

Then they guy has to pay you to fix it all. Looks a lot like job security.

Andy:

You bring up the larger and more interesting question. The pictures here are the manifestation of the greed of builders and their beating of their subcontractors on price. I’ll bet this home was built in the boom times when it was “get it done just as fast and as cheaply as possible.” I usually ask clients why they called me instead of their original installer. I didn’t in this case, but they usually say the guy is out of business.
 
You’re right about there being lots of this crap work out there that needs fixing and it’s all starting to go to hell right about now. That’s why I started playing with stone a while ago and it’s paying off now.

Joe 

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