posting pics in situations like this always helps to diagnose the signs & symptoms - if it's normal or otherwise..... Most 3CM tops are set the way your Fabricator did the "stick", but your question about unpolished ends would be easier to provide an opinion on if you had s pic or two to illustrate what you think is a problem... It may or may not be.. Remember that there's ton's of people that get granite counters every day - that have absolutely no clue how the whole process gets done from start to finish, and when they see something in the middle of the process that "doesn't sound or look right" to them - they get all bent out of shape - because they don't know any better.... It's human nature to question what we don't understand, and that's ok, but sometimes, we need to wait until the job is complete - before we start calling a guy out for making a "costly error on their part" - unless one IS a Fabricator too. Remember that You are paying for (either) quality, service or lowest price - depending on which of the three was most important to you at the time you contracted your Fabricator, you are getting the level of workmanship commensurate with your final sale price. This may not be what you want to hear, but it's the reality of the times.... My best advice to you is to post some pics that shows what you have a concern over, and let's see if it's just part of the process, or a bonafide "issue"..... I'm not taking anyone's side here - just hoping that you understand where I'm coming from (without trying to be self promoting) and all I'm doing here is that I'm trying to help you understand if what your concerned over really is a concern or not........ HTH kevin

"So as a fabricator you don't see whether cabinets are level when you see the old counters?" You may, you may not. The old tops may be plastic laminate with a lip-over edge hiding shims. As a professional, it is my job to balance satisfying customers and making money. The end of another guy's job (cabinet installation) and the beginning of mine (top installation) can get tricky. If the cabinets are found to be out of level at template, I can tell the homeowner or GC to have them fixed by the time I install or there will be a trip charge and payment in full due immediately. I have enough problems of my own. The homeowner's/GC's/cabinet installer's inability to do his job properly is not one of them. You don't get countertops and a free lawn mowing, you don't get countertops and a free cabinet fix. You get free shims.

Hey Everyone! I just want to start off by thanking all of you for of your insight thus far. So here is my update: I was able to have an inspector come and look at the floor. He saw what we all saw, and agreed that it was a poor install. He took measurements of many of the gaps in which several were up to 1/16 of an inch wide. He took photos of many of the gaps with a mm based ruler and a X10 magnifying lens and attached them in his report. Over the hour and a half he was at my house, he noted there were hundreds of gaps and even found more problems with the flooring. More often than not they left no space between the wall and the floor for seasonal expansion and actually damaged my wall in the process in a few areas. This, he stated, was more or less a no brained and they would probably have to completely redo the floors. Now my insurance company agrees it is a poor install and actually paid for the Certified Wood Flooring Inspector. Though when we sent this to the Installer they said that based on their "terms of service" that I had signed, we needed to go through "their" Inspector. So my insurance company urged me to agree and go through their Inspection process and see what comes out. And wouldn't you believe it, he was there for about 30 minutes, inspected very few areas that I marked with the biggest gaps, and in the end deemed it an acceptable job via his report. He stated, "The largest expansion between the installed planks on the length was 1/64” (.015”)." And went on to say, "According to the NWFA installation guidelines, there can be up to 1/32” gap between the planks. A humidifier will help in closing the gapping throughout the year." This is kind of insane to me considering we sent them several photos as evidence that the gaps were 1/16" wide... so according to their logic not only did their inspector do a terrible inspection job... but the floor needs to be redone because the photo verified gaps we sent to them were over 1/32" wide... right? I have to get on a call with them next week and was looking for a bit of guidance on how I should handle this moving forward, especially before I discuss this with them. Also, there is a NWFA installation guideline for gap size (1/32 inch), but is there a guideline for amount (count) of gaps? Or do you know where I might find it? Thanks for all of the help everyone, I know I am writing novels here... but this has basically kept my house under construction for months now. I really appreciate your time.

I am a fabricator. It is common to have to use shims when installing stone or engineered stone countertops. Even if the cabinets were perfectly level (they almost never are) the back side of the stone is not perfectly flat and sometimes, over a long run, the thickness of the material can vary by 1/8" or more. I agree with Joe that composite shims are preferable to wood for the reason he stated. After shimming the gap should be filled with silicone caulk. Properly done no caulk is smeared on the cabinet or the underside of the countertop. Many installers make a mess and smear caulk on both sides of the gap because it takes considerably more time to apply the caulk neatly. If you feel the underside of the overhang and feel caulk IMHO your installers did a sloppy job. If the cabinets are out of level more than 1/4" the fabricators measure guy should point this out to the homeowner and let the homeowner decide if they want to require the cabinet supplier to reset the cabinets. It is not the responsibility of the countertop installer to fix a mediocre or bad cabinet install.