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Granite Countertop Seam - Too Picky

11 years ago

I was so excited to get my new granite countertops. Now all I can see is the seam. Husband says I'm being way too picky and should stop focusing on the negative. Please see picture - is this within acceptable realm of seam visibility? Granite is the very common Uba Tuba so thinking others out there can tell me if I'm overreacting. Thank you.

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Comments (5)

Bexter123
Original Author
11 years ago
One other thing. The seam catches my fingernail. My understanding is that a seam should be fairly smooth.
annkathryn
11 years ago
Well, it's not great. Your fabricator can probably mix up a bit of a darker epoxy to patch it up.

Here's a picture of a terrible seam I had in my ubatuba. It was at my sink and very crumbly. My fabricator was able to smooth it out with new epoxy.
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I am a fabricator. There are often at least a few options for seam locations. Seam locations in homogeneous material (little or no movement) aren't important if the fabricator is skilled since such seams will be hard to spot unless looked for. There are various opinions on seaming at a sink. We don't do it for the following reasons: 1. The sink would normally be the busiest place in the whole kitchen so why put a seam there. (note if the sink is a drop in then most of the seam would be covered by the flange on the sink and the rails remaining after a drop in cutout might be too thin to allow moving the part without seaming.) 2. The vacuum cup/ratcheting device used to make excellent seams cannot be used to seam the sink rails. This doesn't make it impossible to do a great seam at a sink but it definitely makes it more difficult. 3. Fabricators like seams at the sink because it mostly eliminates the risk of a cracked sink rail which can easily cost the fabricator a couple of thousand dollars. Good for the fabricator but not necessarily the best option for quality.
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" I don't know why they don't do it differently but it probably saves on product and is easier. I was upset that they did it that way at my mom's." They did it that way because they had to. Where else are you going to get pattern matching material? You must make the miter out of the immediately adjacent material to get a match. Look at driftdown's drawing again. Even if you could somehow stop the miter cut before you get to the "should not have been cut" area, from what material are you going to make the small mitered edge for the "SNHBC" return? The matching material to make that small edge has been used to make the "L" miter. It can't be used twice or be in two places at once. Mitering the top from corner to corner doesn't solve anything either, for the same reason. The only thing that could have been done differently and may have looked better is to have run the seam with, instead of against, the grain of the stone, but you're still gonna lose the 2". It is impossible to avoid.
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The seam looks a little rough to me. Is it polished smooth to the touch? If it's not, I'd ask the fabricator to come back out and smooth it out. It also does not look bullnosed to me. If you specified that, I'd ask them what they can do to fix it. Uba tuba is pretty common, so even if they need to replace the counters, it shouldn't be hard to get a new slab. Or, if you decide you can live with the beveled edge, perhaps you can get a discount due to their mistake. (Any discount they give you would be far cheaper for them than having to buy new stone and remake the counters, so if you decide to live with it, I'd definitely ask for some compensation.) If you live with it as is, then I would use a Sharpie as Jodi above did to blend that seam in a bit, with just little stippled dots.
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My fabricator discouraged me from placing it around the sink, said it would be weak because it was such a narrow strip. So we opted to have it over in the corner of the "L". Can you see it? Yeah, if you know where you are looking. Does it bother me? Not really. The granite that we selected is bold patterned and variable, so I think they did a pretty decent job of making it as inobtrusive as possible. I think you can help a bit with that in the templating process when you are selecting where each part of the larger slab will go. And if your granite has a more "uniform" pattern, I think it will be even less noticeable.
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whisperingwillow
11 years ago
I am picky too and understand your concern. I am not an expert on granite and had it installed for the first time in March. The seam was a big concern for me as well. My granite is bianco romano. I do not know if seams look better with certain types of stone. I am pleased with my seam as its not very noticeable. I also don't catch my nail on it all. I placed a penny to the left of the seam.

From your photo, it appears your seam is kind of eye catching. Sorry. =( But then it might be the lighting. Here is a photo of my seam.
poohpup
11 years ago
The seams in my granite are perfectly smooth. Yours doesn't sound right if you can catch your fingernail in it. I don't think you're being picky. If they had used a darker color in the seam, you'd barely notice it. I'd call the fabricator. Tell your dh that your focus is on your beautiful granite and you want the seam to do it justice.
muskokascp
11 years ago
I think the color of the epoxy is an issue. The granite is dark and the epoxy is quite light which is one reason it stands out so much. It should also be a smooth seam, not catching your fingernail.

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