We have Calacatta Lux. We are seeing a great deal of staining after a year. Wondering if anyone is having luck with poultices. Are suppliers taking any responsibility? I wish I would have known that it stained so easily before we invested in it.

On several FB pages, i and others are reporting on this issue - we have learned we were sold quartzite but its actually cheap marble or dolomite at quartzite prices. look up lemon test and scratch testnand then try it. some yards no longer carry it i will say if you havent resealed for a year, that could be the issue get bulletproof sealer it helped us some

"Are suppliers taking any responsibility?"

No. And worse yet is the Natural Stone Institute's lack of a comprehensive response to this scrounge on the industry. I'm betting their silence is paid for by their Brazilian stone importing masters.

I will be delighted when enough ripped-off consumers get together and file a class action lawsuit. It is not unprecedented in the countertop industry; ask Ralph Wilson Plastics, the purveyors of the infamous Solid Surface Veneer.

The 2022 NSI's IRS Form 990 says it recieved $596,120.00 from Sponsorships, however, the individual sponsors aren't listed. I'm betting the stone importers are on that list. That's a nice chunk, 22%, of their $2,693,406.00 annual income. CEO James Hieb's salary of $238,077.00 is almost 10% of that. Nice gig.

Wow. I'm just appalled to hear people are having these problems. I wouldn't dream of dolomite for a countertop. Isn't it about half as hard as quartzite? You would think it would be illegal to sell dolomite and label it as quartzite.

" You would think it would be illegal to sell dolomite and label it as quartzite. "

It is classified as a natural product, so they claim they cannot QC it.

" It is classified as a natural product, so they claim they cannot QC it. "

No, I don't buy that. QC is a matter of ensuring a level of quality of product A; a failure in QC does not equal to fraud. Cyanide and salt are both natural products, but one clearly knows the difference and it would be illegal to sell one, claiming it was the other.

I am having the same issue with Calacutta Luxe Quartzite. Has anyone had any luck getting the supplier or fabricator to replace the stone? I am appalled that they don’t warn customers. It’s wrong.

No luck at alll, Vicky

I’m having the same problem with my quartzite. Like what do I do here? Who can I hold accountable…the fabricator or the supplier??

Kunal, the issue is at the quarry. Its not the fabricator’s fault. Its from the way the quarry is treating the stone with an acid bath to whiten the stone, and then an alkaline bath to netrualize the acid. The bath treatments contain surfactants which attract and trap oil and moisture. 50/50 mix if poultice plus and Zep purple degreaser improves it, but it's not curable.

Its also the fault of the stone supplier - the problems can no longer be news to them.

A professional fabricator/installer isn't afraid to tell a customer or designer "No."

momdia absolutely and they DO know. Its terrible and wrong. One of the issues is also the fact that the ownership of quarries can change and the stone can change hands a few times before it lands in a local warehouse, and therefore it is harder to trace. I think it's an industry-wide issue that we all have to spread the word about and good dealers and installers need to do the same also.

My supplier’s owner came to see twice and couldn't see the etching and staining as problematic - he smiled a lot and was ever so pleasant, on his way to the bank. The fabricator felt no need to come as he didnt ’make’ the stone. If the National Stone Institute takes no position, consumers cant win. 90% of us dont have the necessary knowledge to navigate this when you can’t trust what you’re buying and nobody owns the situation . Im not keen on seeking legal remedy unless theres a class action, but im close to naming the supplier in seattle.

"im close to naming the supplier in seattle."

Please do. The only cure for this festering wound in the stone industry is sunlight.

It's only when the pressure becomes untenable that the Natural Stone Institute will have to do something.

My stone distributor is just claiming negligence. Saying they’ve never had this problem with this stone. I doubt they are telling me the truth

Kunal Bhatt - which stone do you have? was your negligence a cleaning product? I ask because i was told tomuse glass cleaner or a cleaner from target.

We had the issue with Tahitian Cream quartzite slabs purchased form Aria Stone Gallery in Dallas. Each slab was over $6000, and when I borught the issue to them, with all the research supporting the cause of the problem, including a recorded talk from the NSI discussing the issue, they said "oh well, that's not our problem"

https://www.stoneworld.com/articles/91843-stone-summit-theres-something-about-quartzite

Apparently NSI does know, this is from a virtual meeting in 2021. Note at the end of the article: over 50% of the attendees had experience with the edge striking issue.

Oops, staining, not striking.

Thank you Anne! really great info

Momdia- this all started after sealing the quartzite. We use the recommended cleaners to clean the quartzite as well

Kunal - the link posted above by Anne to the stoneworld article is informative - 57% of fabricators report staining issues on quartzite, thats astounding. I also found it helpful to read the information on resins and acid baths and the effect on the stone. The dealers and fabricators are well past the time of pretending they don’t know

This sounds like a really big problem, industry-wide. I guess my design is going back to granite from quartzite.

Does anyone have a link (or links) to the Facebook discussions about this issue? I am waiting to hear back from the company who installed our quartzite counters (the company I used is both the supplier and the fabricator), and I am trying to collect as much information as possible.

The company I worked with was willing to help when it was only the island that had issues. They offered to cover the expense of the labor, so we were saving to cover the expense of the stone. Now that time has passed, it is the entire kitchen that is staining. Our counters were installed 3-4 years ago.

As a recent poster stated, this is not on the fabricator, nor is it on the supplier - although the latter has to know the issues by now. This all starts in the country of origen, which is Brazil. Have they changed how they are treating the stone to expedite the process? For those of us with stone installed, there is little we can do to remedy the problem. And as long as the suppliers accept these slabs, the issue will persist. When I redo my kitchen in 15-20 years, I will use something other than quartzite, and I will research it thoroughly.

@Anne Nichols curious if the staining is edge staining or just general staining from spilled products.

Anne Nichols - there are multiple discussions on houzz and Facebook. The information on houzz is superior - it’s here i read posts by installers and the article from Stoneworld. the FB page where i see it most often is Interior Design: Ask Everything. You’ll see many singing its praises too, including a few designers. in my case, it likely isnt quartzite and my staining is from normal daily use - we’ve already had to remove the backsplash from black staining. im sorry youre in this situation too

"This all starts in the country of origin, which is Brazil. Have they changed how they are treating the stone to expedite the process?"

elneda:

While some stone processing may have some affect, the problem seems to be in the stone itself. I'm betting some of these stones are loaded with natural dissicants, like the little drying packets you get with a shipment of merchandise sometimes. That makes these stones unuseable as countertops, but the Brazillians don't want to hear that. They want to keep digging trash from the ground and peddling it. The Natural Stone Institute wants to keep their Brazillain donors happy, so they say nothing. You can't pay non-profit executive salaries upwards of 200K per year and benefits on membership dues alone. Combine that with fabricators unable to say "No" to customers and designers and customers "falling in love" with particular slabs and you've got the disaster we see here repeatedly.

A class action lawsuit by those having fallen out of love is apparently the only solution.

id like to join that class action! this is my ’mount crystal’ from brazil installed this friday. there is no way installers can keep up with garbage products reacting this way. We are going to press our installernabout this - although he says it will evaporate in time.

@vinmarks - the staining on our counters is only on the edges. It began on the kitchen island, and is now on the perimeter counters, most prominent by the stove. It’s even starting where two edges were seamed together.

Our situation is somewhat unique because our fabricator/installer is the same person we purchased our slabs from. They travel overseas to the quarries to select the slabs. They are the only vendor involved (other than the quarry), so there can be no blame shifting.

They came to see our counters when it was only the island. They offered to cover the labor cost for replacement, but I would have to pay for stone. We were saving for this, but now it looks as if the entire kitchen will have to be replaced. I have contacted the fabricator about this, and am waiting to hear back.

I am thinking of taking the supplier and the fabricator to small claims court over our Calacatta Lux counter tops. Have any of you looked into this? I feel that they should have at least given a warning that this staining/etching happens in some of the slabs.

I am thinking of taking the supplier and the fabricator to small claims court over our Calacatta Lux counter tops. Have any of you looked into this? I feel that they should have at least given a warning that this staining/etching happens in some of the slabs.

It’s really not about the fabricator, it’s the process at the quarry and the dealer knowing about the issues and not disclosing it to the public.

A reputable fabricator takes ownership of every job with his name on it. When enough fabricators take enough beatings, they’ll find the balls to tell importers, wholesalers, designers, and homeowners “No.”

We had expensive Tahiti slab installed in our newly remodelled home about 6 mos ago and we had water ring issues around the disposal button that were fixed when resealed, but have horrible oil spots on backsplash and counter around our stove top even though we’ve cooked on it only 6 times> Fabricator applied a poltice on the spots (and I repeated based on internet advice ) 3 additonal times for 24-48 hours each with absoltuely NO results. I want to cry and wish I had used a less expensive light granite.

Also chips very easily around the sink. Honestly, this should not be sold for kitchens.

" Honestly, this should not be sold for kitchens."

You are correct; it is unsuitable as countertop material. Eventually someone is going to screw a lawyer who will bring the much-needed class action lawsuit and put a stop to this blot on the industry.

For Joseph Corlett - now that i have confirmation that mine isnt even quartzite, do you think the supplier or fabricator is where i want to raise a ruckus?

I‘ll join in whenever there’s a suit! We did a whole kitchen renovation, huge project, and started having staining issues within a month on our quartzite counters. First it was just one slab that appeared to not be sealed properly (I still think the sealant used was a major issue), but then it started creeping in around all cut edges. As have all of you, we spent a lot of money to get what we thought was higher quality real stone that would last. Now we have a kitchen that is ruined by stains. I’m willing to try anything, even if that means sanding down and staining the whole counter with something to match the dark stains (force it to take up oil) and resealing rather than trying to lighten what’s stained now, which isnt doing squat. I’m so disappointed :(

The quality and durability of quartzite and granite come from Brazil.

" The quality and durability of quartzite and granite come from Brazil. "

Huh?

I'm Brazilian, I lived in the city of granite. Now I'm living in Canada and so far I haven't seen any Brazilian products, not even granite, much less quartzite. I was able to see a lot of quartzite from India and China, which are of very poor quality.

"...do you think the supplier or fabricator is where i want to raise a ruckus?"

You raise ruckus with the entity from whom you purchased.

Well i wrote him a nice email asking if we could resolve this and i got bupkus. No response.

I had granite installed in my kitchen maybe ten years ago….no issues ever. We had had some white manmade white product earlier with no issues. Just not pretty.

We had the same issues as the pictures from the first post. After months of attempting stain removal with our fabricator, they are removing it entirely and giving us something else. This stone is beautiful, and sold with promises of granite-like performance, but it’s a lie and a disgrace. I suspect our honest, family-run fabricator will not be selling too much of this in the future.

I refuse to sell quartzite to my clients. If they want it, they can hire another company. This is one of the reasons I love engineered quartz so much (yes, the fake stuff! lol)....we rarely have issues with it. Whenever we have issues with a material or its inherent characteristics, it's almost always natural stone.

How can a class action suit start when there are thousands of fabricators / installers involved? I'd like to take action but have no idea how.