Installer stained granite

jdenardo · 10-13-2007, 04:39 AM

I'm looking for advice. We just built a new home and our granite installer stained the granite in the kitchen (Giallo Ornamental) and one of our bathrooms (Bahia Gold). Whatever they used to caulk the backsplash to the counterop and also the countertop to wall cabinets left a dark line/stain. They tried leaving a poultice on for 48 hours and that didn't help.

I'm assuming the next step is to replace the granite countertops. I'm concerned they will damage the surrounding cabinets, cooktop, sinks, etc. One of the countertops is sitting between a refrigerator cabinet base and a double oven cabinet base so the "caulk" is basically attached to the cabinet sides. Is it possible to replace granite countertops without damaging anything? I just wonder if I'm going from a bad situation to a worse situation. Since this is a brand new house, however, I feel that we should not have stained granite. Thoughts? Comments? Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before?

Huligar · 10-13-2007, 12:37 PM

Is this your stone? Gallery - Category: Giallo Ornamental - Picture: Giallo Ornamental*-*Stone Advice

Quote:

I'm concerned they will damage the surrounding cabinets, cooktop, sinks, etc. One of the countertops is sitting between a refrigerator cabinet base and a double oven cabinet base so the "caulk" is basically attached to the cabinet sides.

You should be concerned about damage to the surrounding areas. Plus you have no idea what they will bring you next. Would you say the stain got better or worst when they used the poultice? Do you know what they used as a caulk? If it is possible, I would like to see a picture of this damage to your natural stone.

By the way, congratulations on choose natural stone on this project.
I am very sorry that the people that you picked to do the install did not do the job correctly.

Once I see the pictures I would be able to tell you how to go about correcting the mistakes of the installers.

Topshop · 10-15-2007, 11:44 AM

How long have the tops been installed? Most caulk will dry out on its own with time. Part of the problem is that the tops are probably sealed and this will slow down the drying of the caulk severly.

jdenardo · 10-16-2007, 05:04 AM

The tops have been on for at least 3 months now. They are telling me the caulk is silicone based. One of the guys who has been out here to try the poultice from the installing company said the stone seems to not have been sealed properly and it sucked up the caulk. When they took off a side splash to show their bosses you could see that it soaked into the stone by almost 1/4 of an inch.

Yes - the kitchen is the same as the Giallo Ornamental link you provided. The bathroom with the same problem is Bahia Gold.
Here are pictures of bathroom.. Take note of the obvious line where the splash hits the countertop.

Topshop · 10-16-2007, 11:34 AM

The stone is NEVER sealed from the back side or the cut edges against the wall - I think it will dry out over time. Yes they should not have used 100% silicone caulk and should have used a paintable window type of caulk but I think it will dry.

Steve Patrick · 10-16-2007, 09:00 PM

Topshop,
Re:caulk lines- bathroom photos. Is the silicone actually soaked in the stone or is that just a messy beadline? check out the 2nd photo, it looks like you can see the edge of the bead.

cheesedog · 10-16-2007, 10:46 PM

steve patrick may be right, look how straight the lines are, ive never seen anything soak into stone perfectly straight before, it looks like a lazy caulking job.

Steve Patrick · 10-16-2007, 10:55 PM

Hiya CD!Hope life\work is good.
It would have been interesting to see pics of the kitchen in contrast to the bath caulk lines. If it was truly silicone soaked in the stone, I expect many trips to poultice that out. My guess is you would have to use MEK to pull it out. That's a hazmat no-no out West- correct ?

jdenardo · 10-17-2007, 01:52 AM

I posted photos of the kitchen out there too now so you can compare to the bathroom. You can see in one of the photos where we removed the sidesplash how the line is just running straight up the countertop. I'm not sure I understand if this was just lazy caulking what that means exactly?

Steve Patrick · 10-17-2007, 12:23 PM

Thanks for posting the other pics jdenardo.
The kitchen does look like the typical pattern of silicon soaked in the stone. The stain is uneven. The bath looks like the caulk line is very wide. Like someone took their finger down the line to smooth it out.