Concerns over newly installed Quartzite counterfops

This site is the BEST!! I came across your informative site today. Now that I know for sure that I'm an idiot I'd like your advice on becoming less of a one. We had REAL quartzite natural stone called "La Douche Vita" kitchen countertops installed. We asked three different salespeople about it. They all had the same sales pitch.. that it was extremely hard, scratch resistent, denser then granite, stain resistent etc. I asked if it was marble...OH NO! It does have that marble look, light in color with gray, copper and tan veins weaving through it. The day after having it installed we noticed etch marks from our grand kids orange juice glasses. I am so distressed about our costly mistake. Our fabricator came out today and honed the surface. It is still beautiful but I'm concerned if it will still be a maintence nightmare. The manager of the slab yard is nice and is sorry about his employees guideing us astray. However, I don't know if he will consider replaceing it with a granite. These are my questions for you. A. Should that be our recourse? B. Are their any products you would recommend to make this a more "retirement" friendly surface? I love the look, but don't want to make a second career out of caring for it. It has an enhancer and sealer on it now. I will keep up with the sealing. Thank you, so very much for any advice and information you can give me.

 

Dear Donna:

Sorry, but I never even heard of such a stone. Therefore I don't have any idea as to whether is quartzite, marble, manmade composite or whatnot.

Welcome to the stone industry, where every quack has his saying and nobody seems to care.

Whatever the heck it is, it is clearly a stone or whatnot that's sensitive to acidic spills, and there's nothing that you can apply to it to protect it from that.

What's my recourse? You want to know.

It depends what kind of a fighter you are.

You can take it the chin, get rid of that stuff and buy another more appropriate stone; or you can go back to the stone yard and tell the owner in no uncertain terms that his apologies for the clear and admitted incompetence of his salespeople are mighty appreciated, but they won't cut it and therefore are not accepted. You've been cheated out of your money by his establishment and you demand a replacement with a more suitable stone, or else.

Of course, if the latter is what you will decide to do, you have to be ready to go all the way, because some of those merchants have really thick skin!

That would imply an expert report with the expert available to physically testify in a court of law if it will come to that, and then you filing with the BBB and the Attorney General of your state  - Consumer Division – on consumer fraud charges. Besides the expert's report, it won't cost you anything and you wouldn't even need an attorney.

I already gave you an answer to your B question. That thing  - whatever that is – is a maintenance nightmare, it does not belong in a kitchen – end of the debate.

Of course things like that would not happen if marblecleaning.org could have its ways…

 

May I ask you now to please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm?

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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