Hi all, looking for some advise. We recently had our kitchen redone and it looks beautiful. We went with what the stoneyard called calacatta ("quartzite")... but it seems a lot of this stone is marketed under super white. I know there is a lot of discussion on this forum about what this stone actually is. Aside from all of the issues, it is truly beautiful and i will add pictures later. Here is my issue- i had a marble slab with rubber feet on the counter, and from moving it, the rubber feet left drag marks on the countertop which do not come out WITH ANYTHING. So thats issue one, why rubber feet marked my super shiny top. I dont think my fabricator knows much about this stone, because he came back to seal after the backsplash work was done and then said sealing for this stone wasnt necessary. But he did use a tanez color enhancer sealer on one portion of the counter that was looking dullish (different areas of the stone have different "shine" levels, i think this is just inherent in this particular slab). Anyway, this sealer didnt do antything to affect color on this portion of the stone. However, when used on a small portion of the very highly polished island, it left an etch mark. It didnt change the color, but when directional light hits it, you see that "shadow" which we could not remove even right after! So issue number two, why the heck did sealer seemingly etch my top? Or is it because he rubbed it into that particular spot? Or is it because it was only in one apot, and aince it ia a color enhancer as well, it should have been applied to the entire piece to avoid that blotch. Issue three is that the surface althought incredibly shiny, with directional light looks like it has greasy smudges or fingerprints all over it. Again, these dont rub out. Issue four, i did the water drop test and it did darken in one spot after a few minutes but then evaporated dry. In another spot- a less shiny area which looks almost honed, it left a slight mark. Oh and then he said the craziest thing- dont clean this with anything except windex (BLASPHEMY!!) OR some soft scrub or barkeepers. And then, im not sure, to cover his ass, he said this is partly a mandmade stone made from fragments, compressed, and glued together under pressure, which ive never heard of. I think pictures will help and ill add tomm as it is 1 am and this is keeping me up. Im sitting there like... what the heck, and obviously looking for a way to clean this up that does not involve them, they dont seem like he brightest. Any of you super white / calacatta quartzite owners have these issues? How do you clean your counters? Should i get a professional restoring sealing company who specializes in that to come look at it and see what can be done? Im scared to use my kitchen now!!Any suggestions would be truly helpful!!! Or if there are any professionals that can steer me in the right direction i would highly appreciate it!!!

Hey, barncatz: Every word of consolation and support helps. I'm trying not to rush the BS decision, but I know I'll feel much better about the countertop experience once I'm not staring at these sliver add-ons. One of my very early inspirations was Majra's kitchen. She, just like pipdog, used the mosaics for a lovely effect. And this is why I spent so much time last year looking at mosaics. But the mosaics seem a bit too busy (for me) up close. The rest of my kitchen is a work in progress. Lotsa 9-1/2' walls that will need to be painted again (probably a cool white -- the next challenge!), and a ton of natural light coming in. Baseboards, pantry door and trim are all semi-gloss white, and ceiling is white. Kitchen is open to the family room: taupe walls with a white fireplace/mantel -- white trim throughout the entire house. pippiep: Matching grout it is, then! One decision down. :) I've marked out the areas that will require BS tile. As you can see, it's not very expansive, and each one not very large. So, I need to find the correct scale/dimension tile that will look right in these spaces. I think using larger (3x6) tiles in a herringbone pattern will leave me with a bunch of chopped up squares in the bartop and cutout window areas. At least with the newest elongated hex pattern, most of the hexes will be retained.

@tracsurf What I've heard just from my own general research is that you need a lot of water for cutting these delicate stones. I've been told that "everyone" will be using water with a saw to cut natural stone, but you need someone who uses a lot of water. I've seen one fabrication shop that even had drain valleys cut all throughout the floor of the shop to manage the water overflow. If you can find anyone who successfully fabricates and installs Neolith or porcelain slabs without cracks on a regular basis, they'll be equipped with better supplies and processes to also fabricate quartzite without cracks., though some quartzite is definitely more problematic than others. You can ask around at all the slab yards near you if any fabricator is known for being well-equipped for quartzite fabrication and experienced. I found two in my area this way, Escobar Marble and Active Granite, both in Dallas, Texas. If they aren't in your area, you might give Active Granite (the larger shop) a call and quiz them on what types of equipment they have to get leads for someone similar in your area. Both these places came highly recommended to me as shops that had the proper equipment to fabricate, transport and install delicate materials in comparison with other shops that simply didn't have the right equipment and tools for preventing cracking.

Thank you everyone for your insightful comments. Yes, there is so much confusion out there, and that's what is frustrating to me, why so confusing. I did do testing on 3 of the slabs and so far intact: lemon, ketchup, oil, wine, vinegar and raspberries (one post here had a problem with some raspberries!! ak!) and also scratching them with glass, so far zero effect. I will be getting a sample on the Calacatta/Macaubas Quartzite that is stunning but let's see how it holds up to all the testing. If it passes the tests, I will still probably not place it in the kitchen but maybe for the master bathroom, that should be safe?. Hope the fabricator will have to do a good job sealing the holes, and that's another topic and I won't get there so we don't get too heated :D