Marble and Cracks/Fissures

Q.Our newly constructed home was recently finished and during the walk-through we noticed that there was a crack that went through the middle of the marble countertop in our bathroom (front to back). I believe when the intstalled the sink and or faucet this is when the crack was created. I cannot verify this though, but I feel that the crack would have made the countertop into two pieces when they installed it if it came from the factory like that. It was all the way through. So if we were to pick it up, I believe it would be in two pieces. The builder and quality assurance specialist say that all marble has cracks in it naturally. I did not say anything to that comment except that I pointed to a "natrual crack" which to me is a vein in the marble and did not "break" the marlbe in two pieces and then I pointed to the un-natural crack which did not follow a vein pattern and needed some sort of epoxy and filler to make it look like one single piece of marble. One more interesting thing to add, the builder no longer offers this specific piece of marble because it does crack quite often and requires alot of warranty work. All of this leads me to ask the builder to replace the marble with something else. I did not pay for cracked marble. They are moving up the chain of command to discuss the issue. It looks Like i may not win my dispute. But I am not sure what I can say with comments and facts to help my case. Would you have any information for me that would be useful in this situation.

A. Without you giving me too many facts it appears your crack is a fracture thru the stone. Natural or not it needs to be repaired so it virtually disappears or replaced. After all you are the customer and your complaint seems valid. A Vein is not a crack in the stone just an intrusion by another mineral when the stone was forming. Natural cracks are fissures and they arent defects in the stone. Yours doesnt sound like either one of these.

Please call me at 888-400-4302 I may be able to better help you if you can give a bit more info.

Stu Rosen