Small claims court

4 years ago

Hello,

We purchased 3 quartzite slabs for countertop installation in our kitchen. We then hired a company that was recommended by the slab yard. The installers chipped the counters in many places and some of the seams were very ugly and the installation was sub par. After much back and forth they finally agreed to replace the island portion which was 2 slabs. A few days later we noticed that the countertops were showing water splash spots within a few minutes. We contacted the installer and they stated that the countertops were sealed. A day or two after that there was an oil ring that appeared on the counter and I called the installer and asked if it'd be safe to use a baking soda paste to remove the stain they said yes. It removed the oil stain but now left a new stain which was the border of the baking soda paste. We then paid a stone and marble specialist to come and try to remove the stain after 3 applications of aqua mix poultice it has lightened but not been removed. SO I have 2 questions, first, Has anyone had any experience with being able to remove a stain such as this and if so how did you? Second question is if the installer says they sealed it and the stone specialist says that the sealer did not provide protection should we seek small claims court and does anyone have a similar or useful small claims court experience they could share to let me know if it would be worth my time? Thank you.

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Comments (5)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
Is this a leathered finish or polished?
phishswimmer thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
User
4 years ago
A lot of marbles are sold as quartzite. Even if it is quartzite, there is zero guarantee that it won’t be porous. Because that’s natural stone’s nature. You need to reseal it frequently if it’s one of those porous stones.

You’re not getting a dime out any court action. Courts are closed. All frivolous lawsuits aren’t even being allowed to be filed online. Ones with merit aren’t even on the calendar until next winter.
phishswimmer thanked User
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M Miller
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I agree that you’ll get nowhere at this time trying to go to court over these counter problems. Setting that aside, the chips and the seam are on the fabricator. That is shoddy careless workmanship. But the oil stains and water marks (which sound like etching) are on you for choosing this stone without researching it.

There are stones sold as quartzites that are really marble, and they behave like marble. Sealing will protect only slightly as your stone specialist said. This stone sounds very porous. You will be getting more oil stains and etches. Real quartzite would not have these problems, but I wouldn’t blame the stoneyard for doing a switcheroo or something like that - often the stoneyards themselves don’t know they don’t have real quartzite and have marble. There is a lot of information written about this online including how to test your stone to see if it’s real quartzite.

You might want to copy Europeans who have marble in their kitchens that have etches, wine stains, chips, and they shrug and just think the kitchen is well-used and well-loved.

Read this: http://usenaturalstone.org/definitive-guide-quartzite/
phishswimmer thanked M Miller
User
4 years ago
I'm really sorry you had such a bad experience. if it's really as bad as you say, then go public with your complaints. leave one star reviews on google, yelp, angie's list, etc, and also complain to them on twitter. before you do that, be sure to talk to them one final time and make it clear to them you're about to leave a bunch of bad reviews. give them a chance to fix it. but if they don't, going online may prompt them to act. be sure to have detailed photos to back up your claims.
phishswimmer thanked User
phishswimmer
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you everyone for your comments. It is a polished finish. The first countertop they installed for the island was the same stone and did not absorb water and did not have any stains after we had lived with it for about 4 months so it was very surprising that this one reacted so differently. According to the specialist it was not sealed properly in that he did the water test and it left a mark. It's just really disappointing considering that if they'd have told us it wasn't sealed or that the sealer wasn't very good we could have done that so we did not end up with this problem. Again, thank you for all your input.