I don't have any information, but I thought I would bump it up for you.

We had beautiful Calacatta Gold quartzite counters & island top installed weeks ago; DH didn't like the polished look, so we paid to have the surface honed. After installation, a coat of GranQuartz sealer (413S Impregnator, I believe) was applied and left to dry overnight. The next day, I ran my hands across the surface, hoping for as smooth a feel as we experienced with the honed sample. Instead, grit. The installer (not due back for a couple of days to put another coat down, since one coat still led to water absorption) told me it might just be surface dirt/dust, and to go ahead and wipe/rinse everything down with plain water and a lint free cloth. We did as instructed, and the grittiness got worse: just like throwing water onto unsealed wood/lumber and having the grain rise up! The installer is scratching his head. I contacted one of the technical experts at GranQuartz, and he said a different GQ product (353P specifically for porous surfaces) should have been used. He couldn't explain the grittiness, but said to definitely begin by using the correct product. The initial coat of sealer was stripped with some solvent (recommended by GQ) and left to dry 48 hours. After 24 hours, I could still feel the grit. Guys came back Wednesday with a stiff brush to loosen up whatever the grit was (not sure if it's old solvent, old sealer residue, or the quartzite itself); then wiped down with acetone. Even before they left, however, I had them feel the counters and they, too, could feel the bits. Oddly, most of the time our fingers picked up no particulate matter . But when we ran a razor over the surface, something was definitely 'powdering' up and onto the razor blade. Upper left photo is a clean razor -- white fragments on the other three, after scraping various areas of the counter: Just really floored what this might be. GQ said this might be one of the unintended consequences of honing a surface: opening up the pores and possibly loosening up natural particles or even resin that may have been applied in Brazil. I don't mind at all (in fact, love!) the natural fissures and grooves we can feel from the honed surface. We knew not to expect the glassy-smooth finish that a polished surface offers. However, this grit is throwing everyone for a loop. Installer will be by Tuesday to 'lay hands' on the counter and see what we're up against.

Ossiemom - I feel your pain and know exactly how frustrated you must be. We've been living in our basement (thank goodness for that since it would be an even bigger issue if we were in a hotel!) for 2 weeks now while the floor company tries to get our hardwood floors to look decent. And I say decent since I'll accept even that at this point! So what should have been a 4-5 day job is now going into week 3 and we still may have to start over - it's infuriating! Anyway, I'm sure they must have done this, but just thought I'd ask to make sure - did they seal all the granite when they put it in? The reason I ask is that we used 2 slabs of Cambrian black that weren't from the same lot and they looked completely different before sealing. One was much lighter than the other, however after sealing they look exactly the same to me. We knew this though PRIOR to buying them, so it wasn't a surprise. For some reason one slab already had sealer on it and the other didn't when they were brought to the stone supplier. We had them put sealer on a test piece from the lighter one just to see how it looked and we couldn't tell the difference. I would think that they would have sealed your granite if it requires sealing though, so then it definitely isn't acceptable if they look different! Good luck - I hope you get everything worked out to your satisfaction!

Every choice has pluses and minuses, in the end you have to choose which plus and which minus matters the most to you and/or which have an easy fix (like using a cutting board under the crockpot; at work we have an extra piece under the big coffeemaker). budget mattered a lot to me (and I hated formica) so, I ended up with a lesser expensive granite and am very happy, no sealing or extra work for the stone I chose. I had formica previously which looked like h#*! from the day I moved in and didn't get better (except that I could use bleach to remove stains) so those of you whose formica looks like new after 30 years must be taking appropriate care -- using cutting boards (mine had little cuts all over) and so forth -- where my previous owners did not. But, I read that formica now is much better quality than what was installed 30 or 40 years ago. I looked at Burled Beach and liked it. It looked a warm sand-ish color on my samples in my house, but I saw a demo kitchen of it at a big box store and it was a warm greenish tone (I still liked it) under their fluorescent lights. You always have to ability to STOP and make changes unless the cabinets are all already made. If he is just now starting it might not be too late -- call him now! PS do you have an IKEA near to you? Most counter materials are less expensive there.