Our mitered edge quartzite countertop butchered. What are our options?

5 years ago

We have Mont Blanc quartzite countertops sent in for fabrication with mitered edges. The seams are awful and completely different colors when joined. No color matching they tried is working and the fabricator is blaming the stone and the resin coat. During the cutting there were lots of chips and wavering of the blade so the seams are super white while the rest of the quartzite is an off white. We can’t accept this quality and they’re saying if you want us to try again, you pay for the extra stone and sign a waiver saying that’s all they can do.

How is this acceptable? We paid the initial deposit of several hundred but they’re asking for payment for the rest. I can’t pay for a poor quality end product. While they’re saying they did the work and it’s the stones fault. They’re pointing to the contract saying they’re not responsible for the stone faults.

The stone costs thousands of dollars itself and obviously we can reuse them. What are our options?

Featured Answer

PRO

Granite City Services

5 years ago

I am a fabricator. Blaming the stone is lame; it's the fabricators responsibility to know what he can do with his material. Quartzite is a real challenge to fabricate but it can be mitered very successfully if you know what you are doing and have the right equipment. In fact, my shop only offers a flat edge with radiused top or a mitered edge with radiused top; all of the typical shaped edges like bevel or Ogee are avoided because it's almost impossible to get those profiles to turn out well (and the expensive diamond tooling is consumed several times faster than on normal stone). I would tell the fabricator to remove the tops and refund your money if he can't do any better.

Comments (9)

live_wire_oak
5 years ago
Have the miter cut off. It wasn't needed functionally anyway.
babiblujay
Original Author
5 years ago
But then the edge would be really thin and wouldn’t match the island.
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townlakecakes
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Is the island the same material? Is it finished well?

I’d take the loss, pay for the island if it’s acceptable, and have them take the stone back and do what they want with it. Then hire a good fabricator that has the right equipment.
muskokascp
5 years ago
Oh I am so sorry ! Quartzite is SOOOO expensive. A contract that says they aren't to blame because it's the stones fault seems pretty wide open. You could blame almost anything on the stone. I'm not a fabricator so I don't know the industry standard for this, but as the consumer I sure wouldn't pay for work they obviously accepted but can't deliver.
babiblujay
Original Author
5 years ago
Oldryder, what do you mean by remove the tops?

The island is the same. There is a waterfall edge but it won’t be sealed together until installation and I’m afraid it’s going to have the same problem.
townlakecakes
5 years ago
Oldryder means have them take back all the countertops, get a refund, and start over.
babiblujay
Original Author
5 years ago
We bought the quartzite separately and gave it to them to cut. It hasn’t been installed yet. They called us in to approve of the cuts before installation and this is what we saw. Are we out of luck and need to eat the stone cost? We’ve only paid them the initial deposit of around $700 to start work.
PRO
Nick Skenteridis-master craftsman-project manager
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Blaming the stone for this unacceptable.

It is obvious that they couldnt handle this simple mitering project and they should had never accept to do it.

My suggestion is to:

-Show them some of properly done mitered projects to prove that it is their fault.

Unfortunately I got no photos of this material in my website but I do have many pictures of other quartzite complicated projects with Cristallo quartzite or Taz Mahal .

Cristallo quartzite full mitered vanity

Taz Mahal quartzite polygon full mitered island

Since it is not installed the right thing is to get a refound .

If you cannot be refound you might be able to accept the loss of your deposit and get your stone as is.

Find an appropriate fabricator that may can modify and work with whatever you got left of the quartzite plus little more of the same material to get the job done.

Be sure to check some of the mitered work of the profesional you ll find before you make any deal.

You can still save this job.