Another brave soul like me. Our granite went in while we were on vacation. I had my GC send me pics from his iPhone ;) Luckily mine went flawlessly and looks even nicer than I expected.

I think you withhold that check until you are satified. Think about whether you can live with it (for some $ back) or you want a do-over with new stone. You're still in small claims court sized land and can tell them you didn't have these extra seams in your contract....

You are smart to have gone with granite! I was so nervous about this Calacutta, and while I love it, I know it is simply not as durable.

Does everyone get a contract from these fabricators? We did not, as everything really went through our kitchen designer, so nothing was 'set in stone' so to speak, as far as how many seams, what would happen if they broke the stone, etc. Our bad!

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect them to furnish what was agreed to. Don't settle...squeaky wheels always gets the oil first.

Over the last 2 or 3 months there have been a lot (too many!) threads describing terrible stone counter installations. I suggest you do a search for problems and solutions.

My recent counter install was Cambria quartz, but I suppose the principles are the same. When I signed a contract for the job (costing about half of yours) I walked out with a drawing, also intended for the fabricator, showing the shape and rough dimensions of each piece. Do you have such a drawing? That way there could be no misunderstanding of exactly what it was I was buying, seams and all.

Did you arrange for the counters, or did your KD? From your description it seems like the KD may have let you down in several ways. You are paying her, I assume, and perhaps you and she need to talk about an adjustment to her fee for causing you this aggravation. I was my own KD, but I suppose one hires a KD just to avoid what you are going through.

Bottom line, IMO you should not pay anything further until the counter is EXACTLY what you ordered, seams (or no seams) and all! If you have paid anything in advance I hope it was by credit card and you can require the credit card company to charge it back. A clean financial slate is the best way to get their serious attention.

I think you and your dh need to decide if you want compensation or to have it redone. They may be able to take out less than half and re-install, but you will want to have approval of any new slab they are using and any new plan. If you want compensation, you need to work out in advance of the meeting how much is enough to make up for the errors between your dh & you, so that you go in with a game plan. You may want to bring in another fabricator to find out how much a repair of the situation would really cost.

Since this all went through your KD, then this is her problem. She is there for exactly this reason or you would not have hired her. If the fabricator wants future work from her, they will make it right. If not, then unfortunately, she will have to dip into her own pocket to make it right for you.
Just make clear that this is not your error and you will not accept a lesser outcome than what is due you. You hired professionals and agreed to pay accordingly. This is not a professional install nor did they handle the error professionally. The not telling you is water under the bridge now, but I would make it known that it was unacceptable to try to get it past you and that you require better from her in the future.

They either broke the stone at some point, or had to cut out a bad area.

Not explaining would push suspicion on the former rather than the latter.

DO NOT pay them another penny. Once they have your money your leverage disappears. I went through this and was never able to get the fabricator to fix the issues...they never got paid the balance either.

Thank you all for your advice - I think we would have been willing to live with the extra seams if they had been upfront about it and brought us into the process so we could have made a decision about what to do as the problems occurred...but once the stone broke for the second time, I'm sure they figured we would make them start anew, so they just decided to hide it - its maddening!

Yes, our bad for being away on vacation, but that is why we hired our KD and I really trusted her - lesson learned the hard way.

Luckily my DH is an attorney, so he knows the ins and outs of contracts (although we do not have one) and if it gets ugly, at least its good to have a lawyer in the house!

I'll let everyone know how it gets resolved - thanks again....

"I think we would have been willing to live with the extra seams if they had been upfront about it and brought us into the process so we could have made a decision about what to do as the problems occurred...but once the stone broke for the second time, I'm sure they figured we would make them start anew, so they just decided to hide it"...

kuhnnie, I would let them know your thoughts as expressed above, backed of course, by your husband the lawyer : ).

Becky

OTOH, I would not let them know you would have accepted shoddy work because if it does get to litigation, that will be proof that it is not so bad and that you just are being petty about not being told.
I'd stick to my guns about how you are paying too much to have less than a professional installation. Period.

contracts are a big deal, you need to have them for anything. we wont do any work without one. it protects us and the client. Things like seam placement, and how many are details that would be included on the contract. There would have been no question as to how many seams there should be. They wouldnt have been able to sidestep anything.

Your DH will know that you DO have a contract. What you may not have is a writing. Frankly I'm quite surprised that for a job worth over $6M you seem not to have anything on paper. I agree with dianalo; this all should be placed at the feet of the KD.

In most states, a contract for services or goods over $500 in value is worth the paper it is written on. Under $500, it's still pretty taught to prove what the contract is if it wasn't written down. That is effectively no contract.

BTW, my sink cutout was done out on my driveway even though they had the sink in advance. The installer told me that driving across town with a section like that with a large cutout was much more likely to break, especially with marble since it is softer than granite. He wasn't willing to risk it, so the slab was rough cut into counter lengths and the cutouts done here. Sounds like he knew what he was talking about.

We had our meeting on Friday and they are going to replace the piece where the break is - the manager who came out agreed it was not at all acceptable and he took full ownership of it. So we have to hope we can find a piece to match and our project is now on hold (we were about to do the backsplash) but I'll feel so much better having this look the way it was supposed to, without that extra seam at the sink corner.

Oh, and we DID have a contract - seems I never saw it for some reason.

I will post pictures of our new kitchen once completed - thanks everyone for your stories and support!

As of 4/11/15, our problem is much worse than a seam problem. We have at least 20 cracks; some big and some smaller cracks in more than one place and about 7 large scratches in our Bianco Venetino marble. Many cracks are around the Ogee Bullnose edge and some are on top of the marble slabs. I noticed it 4 days after installation when I went to clean off 4 countertops and 1 large island after the backsplashes were installed. I cried for about 45 minutes and then I got mad and called the fabricators. This was on a Friday and of ocurse the person I needed to complain to was not in the office. The owner is supposed to come out this Monday to look at the unacceptable work. We're going to request a tear out and repacement. The electrician and plumber have already installed junction boxes, faucets, garbage disposals, etc. If there is a redo, who pays for what they'll have to redo? We've already paid $3,000 for stone and over $4,000 for install. If we don't get the replacement, we're going to sue fabricator. Please opine on this pathetic ordeal!

I think you might get more responses if you start a new posting...many will see the original date of 2010 and skip clicking to read.

I am so sorry...are you sure fabricators left the stone as you describe it? Could the damage have been caused by other workmen that worked in your home after the counters were installed?

I watched a craftsman who knew my new vanity was marble plop a hammer on it...yup....scratch. My DH thinks I am crazy...I now use cardboard or plastic to cover anything I think MIGHtT get damaged until we are finished with our four room one-at-a-time remodel project.

Best of luck for an optimal outcome!

@jeandeyoung I realize that this is an older thread but I recently had an issue with poor fabrication of our marble countertops in kitchen. I was shocked that they would place a seam over the dishwasher and continue with another one without 3 feet left of there. Furthermore, the seams were about 1/4" thick which were repaired with white epoxy and then the repairer cracked the edge and tried to hide it. Furthermore, both the radius at sink and cooktop were bad. I brought it to my GC's attention and he blew me off immediately. It took me three weeks to get up the nerve to finally say that the job was unacceptable for $10K; I was going to replace a portion, then finally had another fabricator after inspection take them out because the entire job could not be "pieced" nor "matched" color-wise. As it turns out my contractor's sub of 16 yrs actually subbed out the job to someone else because he was too busy. No contracts were ever signed and the fabricator only came out once to measure and was not here at install nor did he come back and inspect after I complained. My contractor left for five weeks because he was furious - mainly due to the fact that I busted "them" for poor work. I don't want perfect - I just want a decent and fair job in the first place. This has delayed our project for almost three months because now it's back to the drawing board to select a countertop surface. Not easy doing it at the end of a project vs. selecting first where everything revolves around that top! Fortunately, my plumbing has never been installed. I hope you eventually got your issue resolved amicably but what a stressful situation for all involved.

Our fabricator won't even take the deposit without a signed contract.