If they damaged something it is their responsibility to fix it. Don't put up with shabby work!

I don't know about the color irregularity (did the slab you viewed have that?), but the seam in unacceptable. They should fix it.

I am new to this forum - on the advice of members I was able to inspect my bathroom slab (which looks great), but didnt get the advice before my kitchen was cut. I was never led to expect "variation" in man-made stone by the seller - certainly no sample I saw had it. My husband doesn't think the discoloration is that noticeable... but I really need them to do something about the seam (see below). I just really needed something to go smoothly here. I am sick of fighting with everyone to just do a basic, fine job. So upset. I am also worried now that this stuff isn't going to be as stain-free as I was led to believe...

Yikes- more to learn. ie, see a sample seam of that particular colour! Since your countertop is a mix of colours, I don't know what colour they could have used that would be invisible, white would have shown up as a white line, and possibly discolour over time...

The seam itself looks pretty good. I have never used Ceaserstone,so I don't know how invisible the seams can be.

yeah, i think the seam looks pretty good too. maybe try that trick that someone posted about where you use a sharpie to 'blend' the seam (can't remember the thread--someone help me out here).

and i don't see the yellow splotches, can you post a pic of those?

as for staining, we have a light color caesarstone (jersusalem sand) that's been in for about three months and we've had zero issues with staining and cleanup has never required anything more than a wet cloth followed by a dry cloth.

Two of the yellow splotches are visible - they almost line up with the end of the sink on either side of the grey seam? A little beyond it? Maybe I am just too innocent about this stuff. I would never have expected this seaming to be acceptable. It is just SO noticeable to me. I am doing this reno with two small kids in tow too - I feel like I have missed the first 3 months of my son's life and now this has cost me so much time and it feels like it will look like crap in the end. I think I am getting depressed and everything is looking terrible to me.

Thank you for the vote of confidence for the stain resistance!

i don't see the splotches, fwiw. given that the material has some granite-esque specks to it, i'd say that a little color variation seems appropriate. not sure i'd expect it to be pure snow white, given the fact that it's got all those flecks in it.

personally, i think it looks pretty darn nice. sometimes in the midst of a kitchen remodel we can get way too close and micro-analytical about these things, especially given the amount of time/money/energy/stress involved.

ask yourself if it were in a friend's kitchen, what would you think of it? if it were in a house you were considering purchasing, what would you think of it? might help you to take a step back and gain a bit of perspective.

I finished my kitchen over a year ago (& STILL giving thanks to the Garden Web Gods & Goddesses!), but I find that I'm still hyper aware of everything in the kitchen when I visit homes (& my work takes me into a lot of different homes - mostly on the higher end of the spectrum).

And I continually see counter top seams that are ultra visible :( I was staying in an 8 million home last week - everything exquisitely finished - except for horrible looking (IMHO) seams in the granite countertops.

That said, I have seen well-disguised seams, so I know it CAN be done; it just seems to be the exception, rather than the rule :(

My opinion is that a lighter color on the seam would have blended in better with the base color of the countertops. I would not be happy with that seam either. But I guess I'm pickier about this issue than some folk.

Bottom line - it's your kitchen, & you should be happy with it! I would talk with the installers & see what they're willing/able to do.

Oh, & I'm not seeing the blotchy spots in the pics.

Unfortunately, I did see the splotches (sorry!)...but I assume you want honesty here, not "feel good" comments.

I also would not have expected any variation. I thought that usually the seam
was placed center, or off center, of the sink; I think the seam is less noticeable that way.

Sorry. You're right--that seam is wrong! It should be whitish!

Honestly, I think the seam looks pretty darned good considering you have a very light surface. The fact is that it's really difficult to hide stuff when it's light colored/ well lighted. Esp. with epoxy glues & non porous materials, the glue line is going to be more visible than, say, a good wood joint glued w/ PVA's that are forced somewhat into the fibers of the wood. And I really don't mind the grey color of the glue, either. Cuz, I'm not sure white would look better & would be afraid that it would look worse, as in a bad attempt to match. But you could maybe play with some acrylic paints or typewriter white out and see if you can improve on it.

I do see those grubby blotches you're talking about. Maybe it's residue from the gluing process? Have you tried scrubbing them? But, if it is in the material & you approved the slabs & the templating, IMO, you're stuck with them.

Anyway, I found this info--useful for anyone planning to use this material and minimize/ eliminate seams:

The standard slab dimensions of CaesarStone's quartz surfaces are 120" X 56 1/2" enabling greater flexibility and maximum utilization of the product. Two thicknesses are available: 3/4" and 1-1/4" which accomodate a multitude of applications.

Unfortunately, we would not have needed a seam but for the fact that they refused to carry it up the stairs - they claimed there was a risk of cracking. I would have taken my chances if I had known it would look like this... the grubby splotches are definately not removable. But it does make me feel better that some of you dont think the seam is disasterous, as this is not my forever kitchen but a condo we will leave at some point - it is a high end neighbourhood and I wanted a high end look but maybe that is not to be. THanks so much for the comments, they really help me. At the very least help me feel not crazy!

I think that seam is above average in terms of tightness. It probably could have been a little bit lighter, but that would have been an exceptional installation, IMO. I can't see the splotches in your photo. Do they look unnatural or just uneven?

After looking at granite installations in some high end tract homes before deciding to remodel the home we had, I'd say your counters still look above average. Maybe try to think of this as training for the kind of obsessive control you will need in your forever kitchen? 99.9% of buyers will never notice your seam, I'd bet.

Hi guys, the company is coming back to look at it on Monday. Do you think there is any chance they can lighten up the glue without messing up the tightness of the seam? That is almost what upsets me most, you can hardly FEEL the seam when you touch it, but you can see it so readily due to the colouring. The guy who installed it just wasnt smart with colour - matched to the grey flecks in the counter instead of the counter itself.

To me the yellow looks like pale yellow stains, every so often in the surface, some just a pinprick, to as large as half the size of my baby fingernail. I have taken to calling them "pee stains", but I guess I should find a more positive description - "sun spots" maybe? LOL. There is some variation in the surface, so it disguises it somewhat so I dont know that I would have even picked it up in the yard had I inspected it. I do notice on the counter though. Almost like very light burn marks? When I put my nose right to the vanilla java, I see it is in there too but it is extremely disguised and not bothersome at all. I would never get the blizzard white in this material. I posted all this to get help, but also to share the info with others on the forum so you dont' have this happen to you... I had to point it out for my husband to see it. My eye goes right to it but that might be my obsessive nature. I am sure when we sell it, people if they notice at all with think the yellow marks are from our use of the counters - just little stains. That bugs, but it sounds like that part of it isn't worht the fight, based on your comments?

On the bright side... now that the counter is installed, I think that grey glass tile will be great for my little bit of splash. Now just to decide on the tiny mosaic or the 3 by 6 subways - worried about whether the mosiac will look too busy in a few years with all the grout lines...

Cracking? By carrying it up some stairs? What were they going to do, bounce it up the stairs? Absurd!

Unfortunately, we would not have needed a seam but for the fact that they refused to carry it up the stairs - they claimed there was a risk of cracking.

Oh my. I'm afraid that when they said, that is when I would have moved on to another fabricator. So long as it would go up the stairs or in thru a window, then I would not have accepted an unnecessary seam. Sounds to me like this bunch was just too lazy and too cheap to go to a little extra effort to deliver maximum value (seamless install) to their customer. I'm sorry, but IMO, the fabricators should be prepared to deal with and minimize the risks of handling this material, they should make every effort to deliver maximum value to the customer or they should get out of the business. All the more so because this stuff is not cheap!

I'm just glad this isn't your 'forever kitchen'!

But, now that you have the seam, seriously, as seams go, this one looks pretty good. (I was in a really high end house not long ago and the granite countertop seams were dreadful...one section wasn't even level with the next section, the edges were jagged and the seam width was huge. It was just awful.)

I'm sorry about your countertop. They should have used a lighter color adhesive, but I don't think it can be changed without removing the slab and re-doing the installation.

I know you didn't ask, but I vote for gray glass subways. I was in a kitchen a couple of days ago that had a green speckled quartz countertop w/ a perfectly matched green glass subway and it was soooo beautiful. I wish I had done subways instead of a glass mosaic for my white quartz countertop.

Good luck on Monday!

Thanks Elizgonz! In fact, I asked for a vote a few days ago on another thread, so I am glad that you gave the opinion.

I should have moved onto another fabricator. I just didn't get it at the time. She told me nobody else would do it either... (it is a bit of a narrow staircase, up 4 floors & it was the extra thick slab so pretty heavy - the thick slab meant I would not see a seem running along the entire edge of the countertop) and I have just been away from my house with my babies for SO LONG (and our house sit is up in a week) that I was just frantic to get it done - if I had called soemoen else at that point, I would have lost my deposit, plus had to wait the time for the material to be ordered in, plus templating... stil, lesson learned - when you are paying $3000 for something like this, I should just take the delay. I am sick about this. It was my own fault.

My caesarstone seam is visible, although straight and tight; the material is shiny, the seam material is not, so for me, it was expected that it shows a slight variance in color; it would have been awful on a center island though.
The slick look of caesarstone makes it unforgiving on seams, imo.... except for more heavily speckled colors I guess; mine is ginger, which is similar to lagos blue, a pretty uniform looking tone, with blotches here and there.
I just went to look at my seam, they could have made it lighter, darn.

I think you have to stand back and look at the overall look of your countertops, My prediction is that you'll eventually stop seeing those "dustings of gold powder".

I've often kicked myself for not researching things thoroughly and then being surprised or disappointed, but such is life, don't feel too bad.

So sorry about the counters--
You mentioned grey glass tile--there is a display at the Columbia, MD IKEA that uses smoky grey glass 3x6 tiles set vertically that is simply gorgeous. I'm in the process of trying to convince DH :) I'd go with the 3x6!

Oh, Chrissy, don't beat yourself up over this. You have your priorities in the right order! Least ways, about the babies!! The only thing you're guilty of is being too nice and worrying about the countertop being too heavy for the people who are in the business of dealing with it. (That would be their problem to deal with.)

Check out Cat_Mom's kitchen for vertically mounted gray tiles.
Backsplash is from Artistic Tile: http://artistictile.com/Collections/?place=3191&category=33 (Stilato pattern in Wolfgang White; installed vertically).

She says they're "Wolfgang White," but they look gray to me! (It probably has something to do with either my monitor or the paint underneath the tiles.)

Here is a link that might be useful: cat_mom's finished kitchen

Well, I am (selfishly) interested in what is happening in your countertop issue because we have selected Caesarstone eggshell, too! We haven't made any final plans, but that is our tentative choice. I agree about being able to see your seam, and will hope to avoid that situation. so here is what we have learned from your experience: 1) be part of the template planning (so that we might avoid a seam next to the sink, and hope to have it within the sink area, for instance) and 2) insist on seeing the material we are actually purchasing before we commit. I, as someone else mentioned, did not realize that a material like quartz could have "goofs" in it and that we would need to look at our actual material.

But that is the beauty of this forum; everyone can learn from others' experiences and the wealth of expertise that many members here offer so unselfishly.

As to the gold or yellow spots, I cannot see them for the life of me but I imagine different monitors have different personalities!!

Are you feeling better about all this by today? I sure hope so!

Matching the seam color is most difficult for white stones. When they put in our white granite counters, they did a pretty good job of matching the seam resin until they ran out and had to mix up more for the front 4" of the last seam. That color match was horrendus! I could see it from the other side of the house. I complained and they came back and worked on it again and got a much better match.

So yes, it is possible for them to be able to fix it for you. However, keep in mind that a lot will depend on the skill of the person that shows up to do it. I think it does bode well for you that you have such a tight seam- that tells me they're skilled even if they're color blind.

Hi everyone - not feeling that much better, still pretty focussed on what I "should" have done. I didnt do any research on seaming (eg where it should be, look at photos of what it would look like) and relied on the expertise of my fabricators. I could have made them put it in the middle of the sink area, just didn't know I was supposed to do that :( I was there during the templating. I would have thought that seams in the middle of the sink were a problem for water or something... she didn't suggest this to me as the least noticible area for a seam, so I just accepted where she thought the best place was as the "expert". Again, I had no idea this seam would be this obvious though. I am worried they will screw up the tightness of the seam in fixing the colour, but I think I have to take the risk. The yellow spots, I think I have adjusted my expectations for those and can recognize them as something that might not be noticible to most... the caeserstone website says they dont consider anything smaller than a dime to be a flaw! So keep this in mind when inspecting your slab. Apparantly, according to my best friend's research, seams should be a razor thin line (which it admittedly is) filled with a clear epoxy (which it clearly is not!) I will report back and post after photos, be they good or bad (for those considering the material). It just shocks me that someone would walk out of someones house leaving it like this, if it could be better.

PS - as for the colour itself, really happy with the way it looks with our dark cabinets (other than seam)! Definately reads as a "cold" white with expresso cabs, which is what we wanted!

Beautiful splash link above!

Chrissyjammed, you might feel a little better to know a seam at the sink was probably not really a realistic possiblity. I have Zodiac countertops but researched a number of different brands. Unlike granite or other natural stones, quartz must be installed by manufacturer trained installers that use the manufacturer's installation specifications because of warantee issues. One of the biggest reasons I almost went with the stone over quartz was because some stone installers will do seams at the sink and NO quartz installer would, from even some the largest installers on the East Coast. Don't read about what can be done with natural stone by private installers and think you should have known to insist on that with your countertops. Not only will you drive yourself crazy, you may be castigating yourself for something that was not really an option.

Sue

Quartz will never give you the near invisible seams that solid suface counters can. However, I do agree that the epoxy could have been lighter. I think that pure white, while still visible, would have been a better choice. And blending the epoxy would have been best. I can understand that a 10 foot long section might not have made it up the stairs, however, templating is the time to have options considered and discussed with you. I don't carry Caesarstone in my showroom here, so I can't double check an eggshell sample for the yellow you describe. However, when I took a look on Caesarstone's web site, on their Eggshell page, they have an intricate three way seam (very hard to get right!). Those seams are hard to spot, and certainly are not gray! Give Caesarstone a call and ask what color should have been used. If they have a set policy of what epoxy to use where, and gray is not good here, you might be able to get them to redo everything for you. It's worth a call, at least.

I continue to be delighted by the wealth of information from this group. Many thanks! I will release the guilt about the location of the seam, and will redouble my efforts to fix the grey. I am going to use that website as evidence if I get anypushback from the installer about fixing this. Getting SO anxious about tomorrow!

Ps - is this the website you are talking about? I don't see any seams...

Here is a link that might be useful: Eggshell Page

It's a three way mitre, very hard to do well, and often airbrushed in magazines. I believe the tiny discoloration I see is the seams, rather than the edging. But there are seams there.

So - here it is post repair (see above for before). Do you think this looks ok?

Almost impossible to see it in the first pic. Dramatic improvement I hope your pleased.

That looks much better! I bet you're glad you went through the trouble.

Much better! And, I think the fact that your eyes are no longer drawn to the seam means that the yellow spots you're worried about on either side of the seam will not be as noticeable either.

That looks sooooo much better! Good for you for sticking to your guns and making them fix it! Very pretty countertops!

Are you kidding me?

Look OK? I can't even see the seam!

Wow,what a difference!

Sleep better tonight!

Good for you and good for them! They did a good job and you won't be upset every time you see your beautiful counters! Glad it's fixed.

Arlene

Glad I checked back in on this thread. The seam looks a LOT better, Chrissy! I hope you're feeling better about it.

Just cuz I'm curious, how did they go about fixing it?

Those stains...they look like some rust stains I have on my 25 year old pink Corian. I know mine are rust stains because I did it myself. =D Now, they come off Corian with a lot of work. And bleach helps. I know they are totally different materials so removal practices will vary, but if it IS rust, there IS hope!

In the meantime, do call it something other than pee stains.

Your seam looks great now! Anyone looking at your kitchen, will not focus on the seam anymore.

The seam looks great. I do notice the yellow spots with the new pictures though......

It looks great! I'm curious to know how they did it.

Ohmigosh, what a huge improvement! Congrats!

What seam?

Seriously, that's great! It DOES pay to speak up & ask for what you want! Congratulations :)

Thanks, it is a lot better. I thought I was just accepting it but then I look at the before pictures and am shocked all over again! The picture is a little better than it is in real life, in my opinion - but it definately is better. They etched out the glue and then I saw he had a mix of three different colours that he put togehter. I made him do it again after he fixed it once, too - it was half grey. Part of the problem was that when he used his razor, the material etches grey for some reason - he ended up etching it with the side of a piece of laminate which combined with the new epoxy did the trick. SO - still a seam, which I probably accepted too readily in the first place, but sounds like it is pretty inoffensive as far as they go and I think I am going to go and buy a nice big butcher's block board to put over that area of the kitchen which will cover the seam or disguize it a little anyway.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragment and help! Fingers crossed for substantial completion of the project by mid next week... wish me luck and no more disasters!

I fabricate quite a few quartz coutnertops every week and here is the issue with the white quartz. On our first white quartz countertop, we had the same issue. Standard practice is to use a razor blade to feel the seam for level. Problem with that is that because quartz is harder than stainless steel, as they run the razor blade over the seam, the razor's residue gets mixed in with the adhesive turning the seam grey.

Now there are tricks to making the seams look invisible. I can only suggest you ask your fabricator about their experience with white quartz seams.

One of our more recent white quartz jobs. Look for the seam in the second photo. I know its there and I cant even spot it.