If you want perfection get busy sourcing a porcelain. If you enjoy imperfection and future grief stick with marble. If you are nit picky today imagine a few years from now as it wears and rusts and if not installed properly cracks.?

Top quality polished carrara from Italy ive installed has hand crafted microbeveled edges. The human element being just a drop compared the natural imperfections in stone.

Never buy soft stones from A sample. If you cant find a stock to go dig thru find a porcelain.

Secondly anytime you purchase a material that requires a lead time. dont pay for itin full until you inspect it. Check lot#'s batch #s and dig thru the crates or boxes, if the vendor says NO find another vendor.

Thirdly when you allow your Tile professional to source and purchase and pic up and inspect A soft stone order, you also benefit from that person taking the liability off your plate and yes it will cost more but theres a chance the tile professional has been thru this before if their worth a crap.

" Would grout cover this up?"

No. If fact, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Its not that I am picky, I think my expectations were more along the line of the sample. But if this is typical for marble to have the edges rounded so especially at the corners then that is just how it is. But if it is not typical I want to know so I can talk to the vendor about it.

Also being that the bevel is not polished can I polish it now before I install?

If you cant answer your own concerns its likely you dont have the right gear and skill to polish these tiles.( Not a DIY beginner job.)

You purchased the wrong marble from the wrong vendor and are learning an avoidable hard lesson.. chase your money back into your pocket or live with imperfections today and forever.

It's natural stone, it happens. When the product has been installed use an enhancing sealer to seal it. The sealer will also help hide the blemishes.

Really cinar that would be OK in one of YOUR clients homes?? Its up to snuff for your QC?

So just to be clear, before I go back to the vendor, this type of beveling is not typlical for 3x6 marble tiles? I also purchased 4 x 12 and the beveling on those is perfect. Seems like the smaller one was done by hand and the larger was done by a machine.

Since I'm working on a tile project now as a DIY'er, I think I notice much more than I used to. I went into a Nordstrom bathroom that I've been in many times, I just noticed their grout lines were like this with a marble wall installation.

@OP

Id go ahead and share the vendors name here and point them to this thread when you go attempt to recoup your cash. Perhaps move fwd with more knowledge and have A professional tile company help you source a quality marble in your locale. I fear you are gonna have a hard time in the return process. Leverage with this thread.

Theres multiple ways to bevel and if done by hand it will not be perfect, tile not rectified it will not be perfect. Stone is not perfect cant be made perfect and will never last as perfect, its the imperfections you must embrace or dont use stone period.

When sourcing stone. Dye lot #s and bathch numbers must all match. If machine beveled the machine set up can very from batch to batch alone. When hand beveled its never exact. You just cant get that picky with stone other than dye lots and batches. This is why you inspect orders before paying in full and why a tile professional is helpful in more ways than anyone knows here on houzz..

Leveraging is a poor way to go but you may need that boost. I have a few horrible shotty tile Vendors here that will send out a mix match pallet of junk and since i know that I dont give them any buisness or referalls. These vendors i speak to with 5 star reviews right right here on Houzz. Its a game reviews and houzz. see thru it.

Sure it’s natural stone and will not be “perfect”, but I would ever accept such discrepancies in my tile. The bevels should be fairly uniform in appearance. It’s sloppily cut....I would return and have them send you out another batch. If it looks the same, I would get a refund and get tile from a different manufacturer (maybe one without the bevel).

Agree with NIDNAY....yes it's natural but the material you received is no the same as the sample. they may have changed vendors you never know....but I would not accept it for our clients and neither should you. The material should match the sample in finish. There will be variation in veining etc, but these should not be in the cut.

@thatsmuchbetter, Yes that method is used by many professionals as it is a very simple fix. I understand you would prefer the customer spend much more money to have the product refinished or to have the customer search for a much more expensive product. I don't play that game. Stone will etch. An enhancing sealer can be used to hide said etches/scratches.

I have Italian marble that is brought in by many of my suppliers that have micro beveled edges exactly like the photos shown above. Yes the micro bevel edge varies in size on 1 piece, usually found on the smaller 3x6 and 6x6 tiles. I do not have any issues with micro beveled edges differing on the larger 4x12, 6x12, 12x12, 12x24 or 18x18 sized tiles. What you're seeing is common. If someone here thinks this isn't common, please get on your showroom floor and sell more stone products.

Sharing a vendors name on here will not scare them into crediting your products. If anything, they more than likely will reject your return. Most companies have strict return policies which they follow. If they allow returns, it's usually within a certain amount of days (usually 30). All you can do is ask if your product can be returned because you're not happy with..*your explanation here* -Don't over explain. Keep it short and simple.

Samples are samples. Characteristics and shade variation is inherent in all fired products and natural stone products. Actual material will vary from the sample.

If you're not happy with your stone product, I agree with thatsmuchbetter, you're better off using a porcelain product. If you can live with natures imperfections, install your marble and use an enhancing sealer to hide your blemishes. Considering it's on a backsplash, you'll never have to seal it again.

The way that reads to me Cinar,

Your happy to sell a subpar product, happy to take the money and you know going into it its hard for the client to get their money back because you wont return it. Probobly written somewhere in smalll wording on the bottom of a reciept they didnt get.

Sorry Adam thats how it sounds. Sell quality and stand behind it or not. your call.

The OP may find its a tough battle now after the fact was my point along with educating one self prior to marrying A marble sample

You're**

Well you're obviously reading it incorrectly because I never mentioned myself. Stop being a dingleberry and listen to what is being stated. Feel free to visit your suppliers and dig through their inventory. Also, ask about their return policy.

If the salesman on the floor that sold the product didn't warn the OP of the products and how they come, that's their issue and their failure to notify their customers.

The more you type here Cinar makes me wonder how you are still in business if you are even in business.

You guys crack me up, but I can respect the passion on both sides. Thank you all for all of your input.

I visited several other tile stores and looked at their install demos and a decent amount of them have similar bevels...not as much as these but similar in nature.

I am thinking that since what I would be gaining by changing the tile is only going to be marginally different(especially considering the added costs) I will probably go the route of keeping them and getting an enhancing sealer. As many have stated here, this is the nature of natural stone. I will do a test board and see how I like it, I have 20 more days before I have to return.

Does anyone recommend a particular enhancing sealer? I originally bought Aquamix Sealer.

Thanks again for all your help, you have all been very informative on your different views and recommendations.

You are welcome. ! You can always pay A professional to polish the installation once its installed properly. Honed to hi gloss. Id suggest if you intend to polish you go with a micro sanded grout such as Permacolor or similar. sealer not really the answer

You mean a fine aggregate grout? ;-) Deja vu...

Aqua Mix is alright, I favor Stone Tech by Laticrete. Make sure the enhancer is solvent based. Solvent based sealers protect 100x better than a water based sealer.

You crack me up Lets guess where you LEARNED about micro fine sanded grout .....right here on these forums as you claimed no such thing existed Just a few months back

which lends to my point that your tile knowledge is week at best keep proving yourself cinar. Foot in your own mouth

sealer is on par as A COVER up for a poor polish job and it doesnt suprise me youd sell that to. Novice

Isaac, there are a number of good seal and enhance products. We like Miracle Sealants 511. Good luck with your project.

We use the same as Dragonfly

There is no such thing as a micro sanded grout. It's called a fine aggregate as I stated those months back. Use the correct terminology. Your attacks on me make you look like a fool.
I think it's funny that I called you out on having the customer pay extra to refinish a product prior to you even stating it. I knew what you were thinking, typical installer knowledge, I wouldn't expect more.

Have a good evening twinkle toes.

PS I look forward to many more bickers on other post from you.

Touche @ Cinar interiors so you are saying fine sand cant be micro fine sand? really ?Like i said months ago What your doing is repeating stiuff you learned from me right here .Honesty factor into your sales at all?

best be honing in and reading up on your outdated scant knowledge of the tile business and industry standards. Like i said you put your foot in your mouth daily

I hope dragon also knows better. Sealer may cover up mediocrity but if were being honest here on the upscale hooz

instead of selling junk theres a real polishing issue that only gets rectified PROPERLY one way. You all have gone soft. focused on sales when you should be looking at your ethics and bettering the industry. really how many sales or clients have you gotten here??

google microfine aggregates

this can be fine sand silica etc. micro-fine champ

you can call tech engineers at the particular BRAND grout mfg were speaking to and verify yourself just like i said last time you debated facts. . But we are on the web everyone is entitled to being correct factually right? MSDS sheets are a good start

So the process is basically the same but instead of a standard sealer use combo enhancer + sealer.

Seal first, then grout, then make sure the surface is completely clean and dry, and seal again......bout right?

If you add a sealer prior to grouting it will act as a grout release. Only seal the surface, not the sides.