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The seam has a fundamental flaw; it should't have been made on the diagonal. It's too long. The miter is off, but if they pulled the miter shut, the top wouldn't overhang the cabinets consistently. The seam quality is bad obviously. You're stuck with a cosmetic repair that may or may not last until you change the top.

It looks like they "repaired" it with silicone. If it is a polyester or methacrylate seam, they screeded before the catalyst kicked and the adhesive shrunk below flush. You overfill and scrape to flush to avoid this. You learn this on your first day on the job; beyond a rookie mistake.

My husband is a type-A perfectionist who has completed all of the work in our house with the exception of the kitchen & countertops (obviously). I am of the belief we won’t be able to find anyone locally to repair this better than he can.

Do you have any suggestions on how you would repair it?
This is 2 years old and we’ve had it fixed once already by the fabricator. We poured our entire savings into the kitchen to get it “done right the first time.” So it’s frustrating that we are stuck with this.

The seam looks much worse now. The epoxy will slice finger open. I just don’t know what product is best and where we should start.

If you’re ever in Indiana, please let me know.

That's a redo by the original fabricator. It should never have been accepted with a diagonal seam. Viewing that at the template should have been enough of a red flag to have gotten your money back and gone elsewhere.

I don’t think a Re-do is an option. We have so much countertop plus long runs that the options were limited without multiple seams in unsightly places. It took 3 slabs to do our kitchen.

We had one company come out and ruin an entire slab during install. So they removed our original selection. We scoured the state to find something similar, and hired a new fabricator with 60+ years experience in marble… and so this is what we got.

$17k later (2 years ago) this is what we have. I don’t have the money to replace it and the fabricator hasn’t responded despite my outreach multiple times in the past 18 months. We have another seam in the sink and one in the corner as pictured and those are the only 2. If only we had hindsight 2 years ago, but we were trusting the professionals.

Long story short, I need to get more time out of this countertop before considering replacing it. It was a huge investment for us. Now I’m hoping to find someone.. an ARTIST maybe.. who can clean up someone else’s mess and has experience in this type of repair.

The seam isn’t going away- but I’m willing to lose the use of the cabinet below it to help make it better and less unsightly.

Fly Joe out, feed him and lodge him. Because you're already seen what the local talent can't do. And that is much cheaper than replacement.

Haha. I would be willing to consider that.
We fly out to Florida all the time to visit my parents. It’s and easy flight.

Joseph Corlett LLC- do you have pictures of your repair work you’ve done in the past?

Joseph Corlett - also my parents are looking for someone to remodel their condo in Marco Island. Do you do kitchen/bath/flooring remodel? If so, I’ll send them your contact info.

That is contaminated. There is no good fix for that that can fix that issue.

What do you mean by contaminated?

Seams can be decontaminated and made over.

Laura, this is not usually a DIY project; your husband really needs to accurately assess his skills, experience, and tool selection before undertaking this project.

To answer your question, I would pull one side, grind the back of the miter so it would close, and pull the seam back together with Gorilla Grips after decontamination. You may lose a backsplash tile or two on the way out or in. This is a two-man operation. Were I hired for this job, there would be no guarantees against breakage or damage of any kind. Who knows how they set the tops?

Does you husband suffer color blindness? You need a developed eye to get a good adhesive color match. I'm pretty good at this and I still got the above a poo too white.

I replace kitchen sinks in Marco Island and although I'm licensed to do bath remodeling, I don't. Norm Walters is a licensed friend and does excellent bath remodel work. I don't know if he'd take a job 3 hours away or not. I'm betting it would depend upon the job and the clients.

Laura:

Contact Ted McFadden of the Sureshine Repair Network please. He runs a national referral service and he's quite particular as to who he lets into the club.

Joseph- I am seriously considering flying you out here, if you’d consider it. It’s nice to hear from someone who cares and who takes pride in their work. Let me know if you’d be open to considering that.

We seem to have a bit of movement between the seasons as well, so we need to consider that as part of the repair. There is a lazy Susan under that bad seam, and I think it’s best if we add support and disable the use of that cabinet entirely. I don’t use it anyway.

If you think it’s best to reach out to Sureshine then I will. But I’ve also gained some trust in you through this conversation. Could we call you?

All his contact information is on his Houzz page, just click on his name