Did you choose the actual slabs (if you needed multiple they ALL needed to be looked at and chosen)? Did you mark them? Are they the slabs you chose?

Yes I chose the slabs. They sent me a drawing of where they were making cuts. The one photo i posted is of the slab I chose and Leonardo claims they were both from the same lot. Here is the cut and layout that I approved. They do not give you the chance to actually mark what part of each slab you want but I saw both slabs.

to me it looks beautiful. Are you sure this is not an issue of disparate lighting? The layout drawings have this looking like all the same color. Can you confirm what they sent is what they cut? (by looking for specific indicators in the stone?)

The first and third pictures look like it's the same stone, but with varying intesity of lighting. And it looks way lighter in the warehouse - but that's likely a lighting temperature statement - some of the warehouses have an white as light as 5000K (and also usually don't pay for good color rendering index fixtures...)

I did not pick out dark grey. I have already had water spots. It looks completely different than my island. Everyone who walks in here asks me about the color difference. Thats one solid piece above the cooktop. The top part is beautiful and looks like the island. The bottom part is just dark and grey looking. Maybe the water do to gravity drained into the bottom? Here are a couple more from the countertop.

You may want to send this thread to your fabricator. There are several other threads concerning the same issues with this stone.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4950179/tahiti-quartzite

Thanks Wilson. He could care less. Was here Monday and all he could say was it looks fine. He actually said when I told him everyone asks about the color difference that the reason why is because we (everyone that has come here) aren't professionals-that they don't understand natural stone. When I showed him the pics he said he doesn't use pics because they could be taken by different cameras. He had an answer for everything. Complete gaslighting. It looks so bad above my cooktop which is the focal point of my kitchen. He put a poltice on an area that had water spots. Said it would take 2 weeks to dry. Its been 5 months and it still isn't dry. Each photo was taken a month apart. The first photo is how it currently looks.

I’m struggling to see what is upsetting you in the photos.

For example, you said the upper part of the stone shown in this photo looks very different from the lower part, even though they are the same piece? ”Thats one solid piece above the cooktop. The top part is beautiful and looks like the island. The bottom part is just dark and grey looking.”

In the photo, I see no difference between the upper and lower parts of the same piece of stone. Photos can be deceiving, of course, but since they are the same piece of stone, any ”difference” you see has to be the lighting, or that the upper part is visually framed and the lower part is not.

I also can’t tell if there is a difference between the island and the counters, because the lighting on them is different.

Do you have undercabinet lighting? If so, can you turn it on? Is it the same color and intensity as the lighting on your island? What I’m seeing is dim light on the counters, especially back in the corners and when shadowed by the uppers, and bright light on the island.

The light in the stone warehouse will have been totally different than the light in your kitchen. The slabs no doubt looked different there.

The water spots - that must have been upsetting! They didn’t look good in the “earlier” photos, but in the “latest” photo, they are hardly noticeable to me.

@home owner, I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I had noted on another thread a while ago that the Tahiti slabs that I had chosen had taken on water when sitting outside at the fabricator. The fabricator did his due diligence on this stone and determined that they were not fit for fabrication. The stone wholesaler took them back without a restocking fee and I was able to pick another stone. I dodged a bullet.

Go to the search bar here and do a query on Tahiti quartzite. I would print these threads, highlight them, and go back to the fabricator. Don't give up as I fear that you will continue to have problems.

Good article about why the lighter quartzite might experience staining.

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

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5485633/quartzite-advice-the-counter-is-staining#n=659

Looks to me more like a marble than a quartzite, which may help explain the staining. Did you test this yourself? Again, you used multiple slabs correct? Did you pick out all the slabs? Mark them and verify that the slabs you pciked were actually used? Not accusing just trying to get facts.

@millworkman, when I chose my Tahiti slabs I tested them with lemon juice and they did not etch. Tahiti is a very porous quartzite.

Look closely at the close up pic in my initial post. 5th one I think. Look at how beautifully outlined on the left the cascading browns are and as they go into the bottom part it gets dark. Here are also photos of the island when they first installed them and today. My island dried out, the rest has not.

. The installers said they knew they were super wet but would never dry out at the shop.

The lower part of the behind-range backspash piece is also exposed to heat and moisture from cooking, and you don't have any ventilation at all. Do you think that could affect the stone color?

It's a down draft and I have only used it about 10 times. I have a separate kitchen in my basement where I do most of my cooking. It actually looks way better than it did when it was first installed. It was almost completely solid grey

@millworkman I think I answered your questions above with a photo of the layout they sent me? If not let me know. The photo in the warehouse is the slab I am having trouble with. I do not have a photo of the island slab but I saw it. If you zoom in on the diagram you can see these "levels" on right side

and the line running through them in this photo I just took. And I just noticed this new water spot forming in the other photo

. Great....

@wilson853 Thanks for your comments and encouragement. I am just sick over this. Now everytime I walk in here I am reminded of how I trusted this fabricator. He was so arrogant and I had been dealing with the service girl all this time who said she had my back on this. The first time Leonardo came out he assured me that they would take care of this. I really did not want them to rip this out as they had already chipped a cabinet. It's the old story of everything is great until it's not. Service today is not what it used to be. I should have known since they make you pay in full before they install. Another hard life lesson.

@millworkman You seem pretty familiar with this process. The piece on the backsplash to the right of the cooktop - that is the only piece besides the top part of the cooktop that looks like my island. I pointed to the piece in question in this photo of the layout they sent me. Leonardo is trying to tell me this came from a different part of this slab and thats why it doesn't match. I told him what I approved DID NOT show another piece being patched with this. This was the only part that was seamed except for a small seam at the cooktop. You can see the red down and up arrows which I interrupted as a cut not taking a peice from somewhere else. Plus as the focal point of my kitchen why would you take a piece from somewhere else since this is a critical area? I don't think I believe him as he can't argue how different this piece looks or he would have to admit there is large water absorption on the rest of it. Here is a further away view so maybe it makes more sense. Equal lighting/shadows from this angle. Do you think I had the expectation from the approved drawing that this should not have been patched as they are now claiming? Thank you for all your input.

The picture versus installed looks to be the same pattern and stone to me. As far as the seam and the color I cannot tell you but the graining is clearly the same stone top to bottom.