Lien laws vary by state, but my general rule is that you should not give final payment to the GC until he provides you with signed lien release forms from all subs, precisely because the subs can file liens against your house even if you pay the GC in full but he fails to pay the subs. You contracted with the kitchen company, and they hired the sub that did the faulty work, so the kitchen company is ultimately responsible for the quality of the work. Assuming you have not already paid the kitchen company in full for whatever you owe them, I would inform them that you are withholding payment in an amount equal to the full cost of the counters until they provide you with a signed lien release from their sub (it is between them and the fabricator what financial arrangement they come to to get the release signed) as well as properly installed counters. In other words, don't pay until you get exactly what you are paying for plus a lien release from everyone.

I am a fabricator. The various quartz slab manufacturers have spent a lot of effort trying to make white colors that mimic stone like Carerra marble and some of the quartzites. In the case of the marbles there is a substantial advantage in the material properties (scratch resistance, stain resistance, resistance to etching) for the quartz products vs. the marble which compensates somewhat for the fact that the beauty of the marble is still unmatched. The quartzites, however, are extremely durable and IMHO still have a substantial advantage in appearance particularly if you take the time to select your particular slab(s). There is a tool in the stone industry called a gloss meter. It measures the "depth of the shine" for polished materials. The quartz products will measure in the low 40's while most polished natural stones will be mid 50's or higher. To the consumer this difference is best described by the comment that the natural stone looks "wetter". If you want a polished look the natural stone will be better, This difference is obvious when you put a sample of like colors of quartz and natural stone side by side. my 2 cents.

We were sold in Torquey until I brought home the 12x12 sample. In our house it pulled off our lighting and floors and appeared more “peach” in the undertones. The Cambria rep said that is common. We have red oak floors in Jacobean stain and white dove cabinets. While Swanbridge is a cooler white, it stayed more white and did pull colors from around the kitchen if that makes sense. We are also co side ring Hanstone Montauk which is very similar to Swanbridge.

I’m sorry to add onto a thread with more complaints, but we are in a horrible bind with our Cambria slab order and as a result have been displaced from our home and our entire kitchen remodel delayed over a month. We’ve had to incur all costs of housing and a rental car (we are out of town), and there is still no resolution in sight. We ordered two of the Britannica Warm slabs which were due to be installed prior to Thanksgiving. They arrived and were so far apart in color that our fabricator rejected them because they’ll both be used in our kitchen. No slabs were available so new ones had to be produced with a new arrival date of 12/11 (install 12/18)...now a full month delay and we have no sinks in our house since all countertops are being replaced so we couldn’t return home. Second set of slabs arrived and SAME problem AGAIN. fabricator returned slabs and told us that Cambria’s response was “you shouldn’t order this if you require two slabs in a kitchen.” Which our developer says is crazy because our kitchen isn’t even that big! Keep in mind we are now out thousands of dollars without any compensation. Cambria is supposedly sending some new slabs now from Minnesota...but no promises and the install date is now post Christmas (12/28). We now are potentially having to pay $700 to get plywood counters and temp sinks installed just so we can get back home and kids can be home for Christmas. But then we will have to leave AGAIN for them to do the install if and only if these next slabs work. And we can’t be in the house with the workers over multiple days because my husband is a high risk patient. And since all work has been delayed due to countertops (ie plumbing, tile backsplash, etc), we are looking at an additional time we have to find (and pay for) another home. I know these are first world problems but it’s unacceptable for Cambria to not take accountability and just say “you shouldn’t order two slabs.” Even our installers are over it and asking us to consider changing countertops away from Cambria, but we spent so much time finding what we wanted and now we've gone through so much trouble we really want the vision we had and not settle. We didn’t pay for this remodel to settle. Please help. What are our options? Our fabricator is saying Cambria is just throwing up their hands. And now 20 more days before new slabs! appreciate any thoughts on how we can truly get a resolution with the product we want as well as be fairly treated regarding the costs we have incurred. Thanks so much.