Absolute Honed Granite

Oh no! I need your advice quick! I just had ABH granite installed today. I asked about sealers. They said they were going to put one on. I came back to countertops that looked messy and marked. I looked to see if it could be the grain of the granite, I am pretty sure it is not. First off I can still see pencil marks that the fabricators made! Crap I think they got sealed in but that is the least of my worries. I am seeing marks on the granite that are very apparent when light is reflecting off of them. The good news is that I still owe them the other portion of the payment. What should I have them do? I had no idea that this was a problem granite, until I saw my countertops and searched the internet. Shouldn't the fabricator or granite supplier inform the consumer about the potential issues? Please respond ASAP, as they will be asking for there final payment. Thanks so much!

 

Dear Kerry:

The marking that you're seeing are probably the marking of the factory. Factories are not equipped to hone-finish stones. They use their sophisticated $ million automatic polishing line and they just remove the last couple of “stations”, namely the polishing stones and the last grit of honing. The final result is, IMO, not fit for sale.

Second, the last thing that you wanted to do is to have your honed black “granite” sealed! Read this:

 

There are indeed different opinions on the issue of sealing black hone granite, but there is a unanimous consensus about the fact that it presents maintenance issues.

The problem with honed black granite is that it is not, well … black any more! Most black stones are but an optical illusion: they become black only when highly polished, or when wet. (See the back of your slab to see the real color of your stone!) As you take gloss off the stone surface (and honing does just that) you lose depth of color and the stone turns gray; but when you wet it ... here it is black again! As you spill oily liquids, or you simply touch the stone surface with your fingers (perspiration), you're going to have all sorts of dark surface stains that are a terrible eyesore. Please notice that I said, surface stains, not imbedded stains. In fact, you can clean those stains off (though with lots of labor), while if they were imbedded you would have to poultice them out. If you apply an impregnator/sealer to the stone you will not solve your problem one bit: in fact the sealer will only prevent liquids from being absorbed by the stone, which in the case of black “granite” (honed or polished doesn't matter) is an unlikely event to begin with, not the staining of its surface.

Any solution?

Well, yes: you have to give up the gray!

If you apply a good-quality stone color enhancer to your countertop instead of an impregnating sealer (a good-quality stone color-enhancer like MB-6 is also an impregnator/sealer, even if it doesn't matter) it will turn it permanently black, while preserving the hone finish. In that way, the surface-staining problem would be minimi z ed.

Let's just hope that your fabricator, in their “infinite wisdom,” did not apply an impregnator/sealer to your stone thinking that's granite: this would have to be stripped (not an easy feat!), or else the color/enhancer wouldn't stand a chance to work properly.

 

Considering the way the surface of the stone looks and what was done to it, the best way to go at this point is to have your countertop re-honed on location with the use of a good-quality honing powder (diamond pads will leave swirls like the factory). This will accomplish a few important things: 1. It will produce a very uniform finish all throughout.   2. It will automatically strip all the stupid sealer that had no business being there in the first place and prepare the surface for the treatment with the color enhancer.   3. It will also take care of the pencil marks and any other blemish that you have.

 

“ Shouldn't the fabricator or granite supplier inform the consumer about the potential issues? ”

 

Are you asking that to me?!... What do you think I came up with the idea of marblecleaning.org for?!! J

 

Will you now please read and sign our Statement of Purpose by logging on at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm? By spreading the word about this valuable site among your friend & family and the stone trades' people you've been dealing you will be rendering everybody a valuable service!   

Moreover, do take advantage of the plethora of FREE Helpful Hints available at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm. They're on the house!

Thank you.

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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