Granite mistake - Cash insentive and extra seam - or new Granite?

12 years ago

Our granite was installed yesterday, well partally...

The islands were intalled and look wonderful! I love our delicatus!

Unfortunately, they cut the sink 1 5/8" off center for the perimeter. We are considering the option to have a discount rate (significant) for the inconvenience of an extra seam. I have seen their work and they do great seam work. Our perimeter granite is primarily a solid so pattern matching won't be an issue.

Additional problem is that I LOVE the perimeter granite. It is a suede finish and and very brwon in tone. So many of the antique brown or kodiak brown that we looked at turned grey in color when they were sueded and we really want brown.

What would you do - take the large cash insentive with extra seam, or get all new slabs and no extra seam?

Here are some pictures (I hope they don't show up too big again!)

On Islands

close up of our delicatus on islands

Perimeter Granite

Where new seam would be placed (centered above drawer or to far side of drawer away from oven)

anoter closeup of Kodiak Brown suede - flash

What would you do? Have an extra granite seam with extra cash in hand or start all over on selecting the perimeter granite.

Thanks for the input.

Comments (7)

cangelmd
12 years ago
I would have them seam it, take the money and buy something pretty - vase, rooster, fancy espresso machine - to sit on top of the seam.

If the grain/pattern is truly directionless you won't even see the seam in a week. You can either inspect the slabs before they seal the seam, or you can actually take scraps and hold them next to each other, if you can turn the scraps any which way, and they still seem to match at a distance, it should look fine.

Maybe someone here will comment on seam placement. My kitchen counters are seamed at the faucet, which is supposed to be an inconspicuous place, because the faucet base splits up the seam - at first it drove me crazy because I saw it every time I looked at the faucet, now I have to look to notice it.
ellendi
12 years ago
If they do amazing seam work, I would go for the discount and the seam. The other alternative is for a different slab and the removal of what you have on there. You say it is hard to get the brown you like and you love what you have. There is a posibility of damage to your counters when the graite is removed. HTH
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I tossed and turned the night before my granite install with such visions going through my head. Of course you should expect them to do it right! I wouldn't want that two inch mistake and an extra seam, either! And the crooked sink??? No way! I'm so sorry this happened to you. Please assert yourself and ask for them to do the job right. Use the term 'unacceptable'. If you already paid I hope it was by credit card. Contact your credit card company immediately and let them know there is a problem. If you paid by check, cancel it! You did not get what you paid for. Good luck and I hope you post again to let everyone know about a successful re-install!
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If the difference in color is due to the slabs having been in the sun, then won't the rest of the counter later lighten to match? It is all exposed to light now. I would worry that repolishing the tops in the shop won't produce as good a surface as they have now because the shop doesn't have the tools that are used for polishing large surfaces that they slab producer had. splais, it looks to me like your foot is still in your mouth - now you are saying that Inerseian was careless in selecting the stone? When placing templates on stone, there are a lot of things to consider - sometimes one accepts less match in one place to get a better match elsewhere or to display the part of the stone one wants in a prominent place. Ineresian's counter looks great and I can understand the choice that was made there. One leg of our L is almost as long as the length of our slabs and the other leg was about as long as the length plus width of them so the only way to do the L with only one seam was to have the seam at the sink with the lengths of the slabs at right angles - no book match possible there. Also, we wanted to position the slabs on the stone to have a match between the counters of the L's and the backsplash pieces and we needed a couple of other long pieces placed for our window sill and outside counter. We were able to position the two sides of the seam where the granite movement was swirly so the lack of a grain match doesn't stand out but there is a bit of a color shift at the seam. A few inches of not perfect match on the seam was worth it to us to not have an extra seam and to have matches the other places we wanted. We spent a few hours with the fabricator placing the template on the slabs and getting all the pieces to fit.
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So very sorry it's been so traumatic all around. Here's to hoping for a less crazy, "seamless" October! We have an L near our sink (much smaller kitchen), and were supposed to have the one seam behind the sink. We have that, plus one other where the two corners of the L meet. I wasn't crazy about a second seam, but the soapstone guy insisted it was the only way unless the contractor ripped down the temporary wall between the dining room and kitchen for the day, and then put it back up. He was right - there was no room in our small house to bring a giant piece in, unless the temporary wall came down. We were not willing to have that stall, and decided to go for the seam (nervously). In the end, with the soapstone I never notice the seams (phew!) Good luck and I hope you get what you want because that's what you deserve and that's what you were promised!
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I know it seems hard to believe the top two layers are from the same slab as the bottom, but they actually are. The problem is, there are large chunks of crystal here and there throughout the slabs. These crystal chunks are a more consistent color with little variation, whereas the rest of the slab has a lot of light/dark variation. Wherever an edge slice happened to cut through those solid, darker-colored chunks, the contrast becomes extreme when they end-up laminated to the lighter cream colors. Here's a solid section of a backsplash area, about 4 feet wide, that better shows the slab variation, and the patches of crystal. Before agreeing to the laminated built-up edge, we discussed how it would look with the fabricator. His opinion was "...it wouldn't be a perfect match, but it wouldn't be noticable because of the busyness of the granite". It's true the granite is busy and actually, when the layers happen to line-up with stone taken from where both layers are the busy light and dark pattern, you don't see the seams and the join looks pretty good there. Unfortunately, in giving his advice I think he failed to consider the large patches of solid dark-colored crystal. When those solid areas line-up with light-cream colored, or high-light/dark variation patches, it really draws the eye right to the sharp horizontal line of the high-contrasting edges. Because there's a lot of those, the overall effect is the edge is 3 stripes.
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Fori
12 years ago
I vote for espresso machine over the seam. :) A flaw doesn't hurt if it's one you choose and are properly compensated for.

Do you normally have your counters absolutely clean of things? Do you ever have THINGS on your counter? If you are one of those few people who actually do exist that never has anything on the counters, you might have to think about this, but if you keep things out, I don't think it would be a problem.

Also, that brown. I don't generally approve of brown in a kitchen except for wood, but you have such a NICE brown granite! If you can't find more, then you really should keep this.

Don't you want to be done already?
suzanne_sl
12 years ago
I vote for the seam. I've seen some amazing seam work, and you're right, in your color you'll need a flashing florescent arrow to find it. Go with the expresso machine or whatever does it for you.
bulin
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks so much for the feedback everyone. We have decided to proceed with the seam. The area they are going to put the seam is where we plan for our KitchenAid Mixer to sit - so that should conceal a large part of it. (Expresso machine and Tea Brewer go in the little section between the refrigerator and the stove with the cabinet below holding all the teas and coffees. :) )

The brown is beautiful - we were so afraid it might pull a little gray in the kitchen but it actually pulled even more brown and the delicatus is a beautiful cream with lots of various browns and gray in it.

I'm thinking the compensation is going to get us new range that is flat in the back to show of the backsplash detail we have planned!! :)

Thanks again!
Fori
12 years ago
Oh well if you'd mentioned you were going to park a KA there nobody would have even considered anything but a seam and some cash! :)
enduring
12 years ago
Beautiful stones, you must be so happy about the colors. I agree with everyone - take the seam and the compensation. It is not only extra cash but also good will between you and the stone people. I think it's good karma.

Granite mistake - Cash insentive and extra seam - or new Granite?

Comments (7)

cangelmd

ellendi

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Granite mistake - Cash insentive and extra seam - or new Granite?

Comments (7)

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ellendi

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