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I have seen this exact same damage on 2 other tops I fixed in NY. The
tops in NY were just 18 1/2″ circle scratches not to hard to fix. In this
top the Quartz was bruised so it had to be a heavy impact. The scratch
was so sharp you could sand you finger nail with it.
The radius matches the metal edge of this type of drum
Because of a door-wall and the natural light reflection, fixing this top would be very difficult. If any work marks were left in the surface or the surface finish was changed the customer would see them. I was told by the customer any thing less that perfect the was going to be replaced. The arrow is pointing to the area where the scratch ran of the edge of the deck. Hard to see, but it is there.
I sanded most of the scratch out with 20µ, but not all the way, then I finished with 10µ. That took about 1hr because I didn’t want to put a dip in the deck that could be seen. Than I polished the work area with my E-Stone Restorer to bring the work area back to the gloss of the rest of the top. That took 2hrs. At this point you could see a halo of a shinier area around my work area.
To nock down the halo I used my E-Stone Blending and Dulling past for 30 min. This improved the look, but you could still see a mark where the work area was in the natural light reflection. This mark had to be gone or the job was history. I then very lightly sanded the halo and work area with 10µ for 15 min. This remover the halo and work area from being seen in natural light, but the area was dull with over head light. I re-polished the area with the E-Stone Restorer taking care not to over lap where I didn’t work to create a halo. I polished for 20 min at a time then checked both light sources on how the top looked. After 1hr the top look great, but the customer wasn’t happy because there was a 1″ X 1/2″ mark about where the arrow is pointing. Because of being close to the edge of the deck I hadn’t worked long enough in that area. When I checked the area it was just a little dull. It took about 7 min with the E-Stone Restorer to fix it.
This is the photo completed job. The sheet of paper is my job invoice and has a place for the customer to sign that says (Work was completed 03/31/2011, I am 100% satisfied with the finish on my counter top, Signed) My customer was very happy and signed the form. The job with driving time took 6 1/2 hrs.
Posted By Andy Graves on 04 Apr 2011 01:15 PM
Great save. Probably saved the money not having to replace the entire top.
It is easy to do the math. The cost of 6 1/2 hrs of labor compared to refabing a 14 1/2′ X 6′ L top W/sink + 1 1/2 hr drive to the site. Tear out of damage top disconnect plumbing, install new top, hook up plumbing load truck, then 1 1/2 hr drive back to the shop and throw the damage top in the dumpster. The savings would be the cost of fabing and installing a complete job minus 6 1/2 hrs of labor. My low end estimate of savings @ cost would be about $2,700.00
Dani, Were the tops installed with that scratch or did the homeowner admit to causing the damage?
Nice work by the way.Posted By Steve Mehan on 06 Apr 2011 08:04 AM
Dani, Were the tops installed with that scratch or did the homeowner admit to causing the damage?
Nice work by the way.Steve
The sheet were shipped to the fabricator with the scratch and was not seen until the top was installed. The scratch was almost impossible to see with over head lighting unless you knew where to look, and wasn’t seen until it was installed from the natural reflected light at a low angle, and even then it only look like a mark. To get the photo of the scratch I used a 500watt Halogen to shine across the scratch, when I turned off the light the scratch blended with the top. If there was any water on the deck the scratch totally disappeared, so I can see how the fabricator missed it during fabrication. During the install the fabricator used some steel wool on the area making it worse and easier to see the scratch. My recommendation is if there is a scratch in your Quartz top don’t touch it you will only make it more obvious and more work to fix. I have fix several tops where the fabricator tried to fix themselves turning a 5″ scratch into a 2′ nightmare, all this does is change a 3 hr repair into all day event costing more.
Dani,
Nice to see you posting. That was a great save, money saved for the consumer, and money in the pocket of the astute fabricator.
For those who dont know, Dani has some great patented products for SS and ES etc. Clamps, and finishing systems etc. Check him out! Many learned from Dani but no student has excelled the Master!
Dani I havent seen you or Mirs. Dani for a long time. Any chance you will be winging it to Asia anytime soon? The fabbers here need your expertise badly!
Dani, a gig as a consultant with the snake wine man doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Heck I would use any excuse to get out of Detroit, that place is just depressing.
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