Did you see the slab before fabrication? Did you take any pictures that you can compare to?

I did not unfortunately. They called very soon after I ordered on Friday and said they'd had a cancellation and could do it Monday for me. I was anxious to get it in so we could pullout the sink on the back counters and start that part of our remodel, which we're doing ourselves, so I decided to do it, but it didn't give me time to visit the slab. :( Not sure if I'd have seen this anyway depending on the light. Even now as the sun is coming up and washing in from the side it fades them somewhat. Of course I truly wish I did have pictures to compare to now.

They must be able to remove the strap lines, but I worry that the dark areas might be part of the slab and are considered withing the range of normal variation. It will be interesting to hear what they say...hang in there.

The darker sections are a variation on resin pooling, but less distinct to the usual pure color blotching that can occur with resin pooling. Because they aren’t large pure color blotches, the manufacturer could consider that to be within a normal color mix variation. Or they could consider the whole to be a large resin pool that shouldn’t have passed QC. With LG, it’s a tossup. It will depend on the local distributor.

Thanks luckyblueeye and Livewire. They came out right away to take a look at it. He attempted to clean off the lines and could not, so determined it must have happened during the manufacturing process. He did think the blots were part of the stone. He is turning this over to the manufacturer to decide on next steps. Between the spots and the lines I'm hoping we can just get this redone. I love the color and pattern of the quartz, and it overall looks lovely but those two things are very distracting, At least the installer is being very helpful and responsive, hopefully the next step will go as smoothly as possible as well.

Well I'm feeling all kinds of stupid! Turns out the dark spots that look like shadows, ARE shadows! There is a fan with a light above the counter and the pull chains have large holds on them (from the previous owner), for the first time this morning it occurred to me to move them to see if they were the culprit and, wah-la, problem fixed! I'll give them a call once the hour is decent and let them know. I can't believe it didn't occur to me sooner, but we've been going non-stop and I'm a little sleep deprived, lol. I'm so glad about this. There is still the problem of the strange stripes, which I really hope they can fix, but those spots bothered me more than anything!

Ha! That's good that part of the problem is now "solved".

I just spoke with them. They are going to replace it. They said they'll put in a warranty claim but they are not going to wait on that and have already ordered a new slab. They weren't worried about the spots not being real, the stripes shouldn't be there. They are only visible in a side light, but I have large sliding glass doors to the side of the island so they are visible when you walk by in the daytime. I've been impressed with how quickly the have handled everything. Hopefully we won't be waiting too long for the replacement but this is fully functional in the meantime. I wonder if there is any reason to hold off installing the faucet if its going to be awhile? It wouldn't be a problem to take it back out and reinstall do you think?

You aren’t the first to have issues with shadows impacting how something looks. It’s funny, after the fact.

The liquid barkeepers’ friend “should” work for the strap marks. But they should be the ones trying.

If these guys replace that top before trying Quartz Renew to remove the strap lines, they deserve to go out of business.

I was wondering if those "spots" might be shadows - I had a similar experience with a table I refinished.

I'm glad to hear that the fabricator is willing to work with you on the strap marks.

Live_wire & Joseph, They tried soft scrub and some type of copper cleaner. I only have the powdered barkeepers friend on hand at the moment or I wouldn't mind giving it a try, it honestly doesn't seem like a residue though. There is no detectable difference in texture. If you look really close at just the right angle you can see similar but much fainter little lines go all the way across up to about half way through the slab then they completely stop on the back half. I don't have idea one what goes into making these so don't even have a guess as to what it is. I certainly wouldn't mind them trying something else before replacing.

AnnKH, glad I'm not the only one to have made the mistake!

Though I'd post an update for posterity. After the fabricator told me they were going to replace the top I got a call from Viatera asking about it and saying they were sending someone out. I gave them the fabricators number and told them they should talk to them and figure it out. The fabricator then called me back and said that while most of the manufacturers they work with just have them replace and deal with the claim after Viatera wants to try and fix it first. I told him I was fine with that. They sent someone a couple of days ago and he was able to polish/buff it out on site. He basically refinished the whole countertop, it took him quite a while and he had to do it twice to get it all, but it looks lovely! In fact I like the finish better than the factory finish, its not as glassy looking, it doesn't have that matte look (which I was originally attracted to but decided against because I heard it was hard to care for), its still very shiny just not "glassy" if that makes sense. He said he's gotten really good at doing them because Viatera always wants him to try even if he doesn't succeed they'll still pay him, he said most other manufactures don't want you to touch it unless you're sure it can be fixed. Either way, I'm happy with it, and finally was able to hook up the faucet and use the island in its entirety. Now I'm wondering if there is anyway to request this shiny, but not glassy, finish for the back counters when I'm ready to do them?

"Now I'm wondering if there is anyway to request this shiny, but not glassy, finish for the back counters when I'm ready to do them?"

They're not going to want to send him out again, that's for sure. If tops aren't directly connected, it's inconspicuous if the finishes don't match perfectly.

Forever now-

fyi. It’s viola. Not wah-la. (But pronounced vwah-la) Not being critical just trying to help you out. For next time.

Ummm... as long as we're being pedantic, it's "voila." Otherwise, it's a big, off-beat violin [ducks and runs].

ETA: Forever Now: Don't feel badly about mistaking the shadows for splotches!! My husband was in charge of the imaging system for a start-up satellite company. When they launched their very first satellite and got their very first pictures, he was devastated -- they looked super cloudy, and he was convinced he'd designed the system wrong. Turns out... it actually *was* cloudy. :D Once the satellite moved over clear skies, the pics were gorgeous. ;)

Jeff Cater, I'm sorry, I don't speak French.

Emily R, haha, yeah, sometimes you dismiss the obvious because its seems TOO obvious to be the answer!

Would you consider this acceptable for a quartz countertop? The installer fixed the by epoxy. The fix can be felt with eyes shut. Is there a smoothness acceptance criteria? I remember I have seen a chip and felt smooth many times. Is it possible the difference due to epoxy fix at customer site vs. factory? TIA