-
Posts
-
Granite rules not only because it evidently has more toxins than my smokes, but because it is as hard as a rock……
Q: Did you see the wicking stains on the base of backsplash?
Q: How about the crack in the face of the back of the sink cut out? 30″.
Six to Seven year old top. Sink has dropped away, cracked at cooktop rail and one dishelved seam.
AL……..AL…………..Are you there?……………Call me.
Is that repairable? That looks awful. I wouldn’t know where to start with something like that.
The staining actually surprises me more than the cracks. Is that from lack of sealer or did the water wick up at the bottom of the splash behind the sealer?
I can fix it. I’m mechanical. Plus, I saw it done on TV once.
Seriously though, Andy, yes the water is wicking up from the deck into the open cut bottom face of the splash. Almost no installers I see actually seal that side or wet set the splash into caulking. Most just caulk out when they’re done. Water often puddles in those situations which leads to compounding of that problem. It is likely that repeated wicking up of water past the the sink rim caulking into the bottom of the deck at the cut out is what lead up to or at least aided the edging failure in that area.
I cannot stress enough how important the sealant and caulking are to the lifespan of granite and marble installations.
Dave, like a lot of installers, they used the subtop as a mounting structure. Using wood in any fashion to mount a sink bowl is asking for trouble. Invariably, the wood relaxes over time, the seal cracks, the wood soaks, the seal cracks farther and pretty soon you have a sink bowl and possibly and deck or edge failure. The caulking is NOT an adequate adhesive and should not used as such. Ever, in my mind.
Looks like job security and dollar bills to me. I will follow with an update if they decide to let me fix it.
That has got to be one of the most piss poor fab jobs that started with the stone selection. You guys just getting into granite need to take heed to this lesson.
Poor stone choice, poor design, poor installation, poor example of granite!
Wow, someones dream kitchen has turned into a nightmare.
“Poor stone choice, poor design, poor installation, poor example of granite!”
well, after all that “black list” was just to warn fabricators on how to handle fragile stones????!!!!!
I am assuming that the strips of stone are what is left of a laminated edge (pretty common on the west coast), and many of the stoners use wood supports for the sink. Looks like an aveage example of stone six to seven years down the road.
“You guys just getting into granite need to take heed to this lesson.”
The lesson is that multi material shops had damned well better use waiver sheets when selling granite. The lesson is that despite the beauty of granite, it is without doubt the most trouble ridden material that could have possibly been chosen to be used for a countertop. The lesson is that even with customer signed waivers, selling granite will eventually sully the hard won reputations of shops.
Warn your customers, repeatably, get it in writing that this is NOT your prefered material due to the massive amount of problems and risks. Do this and you might, might get the job of replacing it someday.
Gordon, I’ll look up your number and give you a call tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for posting these pics. You da man!
I have seen this type of failure with all materials and would be interested in know how to avoid these issues.
Solid surface implemented seam reinforcement, cooktop reinforcement, seam placement and hot cutout rules. Before this, we had problems that occurred years after the initial installation.
Laminate faces the same fate around sink openings when the water wicks in and causes the particle board to swell.
Tile invariably fails around a sink. Just a matter of time.
I think we will see more and more problems with both quartz and granite because of the high demand and the speed at which many were installed. Not to mention improved fabrication and installation methods will make the product better over time.
Kevin,
What are some solutions to the problems you see with this granite job?
Gordon,
I called your office, only number I have, and left my phone number. Call anytime on Sunday up to 8:00 your time, or you can try me on Monday but Tuesday would be better.
Thanks,
AL
Edit: Gordon, got an email with your cell phone. WIll call late Monday or Tuesday night when I get back from western OK.
Pitting for Team Honda? Cool…..
Gordon there must be some point where it is better to replace than repair, (cost wise). From looking at the pics. I know for myself it would take a he** of a lot of convincing to get me to repair that mess. I would rather save my money and replace the whole thing.
I know it could be costly but at least I could sleep at nite knowing my Kit. counter tops won’t be on the Kit. floor when I get up in the morning.
william wrote
Gordon there must be some point where it is better to replace than repair, (cost wise). From looking at the pics. I know for myself it would take a he** of a lot of convincing to get me to repair that mess. I would rather save my money and replace the whole thing.
I know it could be costly but at least I could sleep at nite knowing my Kit. counter tops won’t be on the Kit. floor when I get up in the morning.
A big part of this is wether or not you can fix not just the problem but also the casue of the problems. You also have to look the rest of the tops over real well to see if there are more problems just waiting to show themselfs.
We are usually at the mercy of the customer when they want something changed. You can tell them all day long it needs to be replaced, but if they can’t afford to, they you have to fix it to make it workable.
That is basically what I was talking about. To me its like having a car that falls apart on you and you wonder if you fix what you know is broken how much is broken you don’t know about so is it worth fixing at all? I know if that much goes wrong all at once I would be real Leary to put to much back into it. The problem with what I just sad is a cheap fix is still nothing but a cheap fix, if you are going to fix it fix it the way it should be done by people like you and Gorden with the experience and expertise to do it right.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.