If your paperwork says Britannica and you got Britannica, that’s not Cambria’s fault. If your paperwork says Britannica Warm and you got Britannica, then of course the fabricator, NOT Cambria, should replace it. This has nothing to do with Cambria at all.

It’s more than fine. Seriously. It isn’t ugly at all. Quartz of any kind has a non predictable pattern. So does the marble that it’s imitating. What you get is the luck of that particular manufacturing session. You happened to get some pretty nice looking veining in yours. Which looks a lot more like the real Calcatta marble than most. You should kiss those counters! It’s better than most.

Your buyers remorse is not valid here. If you want it replaced, and you received what your paperwork said was ordered, I’m afraid that it will be up to you.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5815288/perfection-and-tolerance#n=32

It’s the same countertop. Cambria deliberately directs people to their website to view whole slabs of their product because it’s impossible to judge a 2” sample when the veins are 1”-6” wide, and the product itself is so varied in appearance. Every one of their 1’x1’ samples shows a full slab picture on the back for that reason.

Any distributor is happy to send pictures of their existing stock slabs when requested by any kitchen designer. You’re supposed to be a ?Pro? who knows all of this. Why didn’t you as a professional do your due diligence? The information is quite easily found.

I’m sorry that you aren’t happy. It isn’t Cambria’s fault that you didn’t understand the specifications of the material that you bought. There are more than a dozen recent threads on here regarding the veins and vein matching of Cambria.

It's not ugly at all. Did you want a warm white with gray veining but got a cool white

with gray veining? Is the middle on the samples you posted your cabinet color?

Cambria offers Britannica, Britannica Warm and Britannica Gold. They are each available in Gloss or Matte. So I'm not sure what you mean by old version and new version?

Did you order matte or polished samples? Did you purchase matte or polished material? What is written on the paperwork you signed from the fabricator/dealer? What is written on the paperwork your fabricator/dealer submitted to Cambria? Btw, there’s no such thing as Brittanica White.

Does your signed paperwork indicate Britannica? Or Britannica Warm? There is Britannica. And there is Britannica Warm. And Britannica Gold. Gloss or matte. There is no “old” and “new”. Your samples match.

There are literally DOZENS of pictures of Britannica available. And they are all exactly like you received. As they have always been. No old and new. Britannica. Britannica Warm. And Britannica Gold. 3 versions.

I think you need to stay calm, first of all.
You saw the slab when it was delivered, yes?
You were there for templating, yes?

Is it true that Cambria uses the same name “Brittanica White” for 2 different styles of slab? That’s not logical.

Nothing about it looks weird to me. I have never really researched Cambria but just being on these forums, those large veins look pretty much like what I would’ve expected. If you don’t like where the veins are on that countertop, you should’ve been there for the cutting and templating.
There are many artistic choices that occur, as to where the seams are, whether veins run horizontally or more vertically, esp on a slab with as much movement as this one.....did you expect your installer to make all those choices without you, or am I missing something?

Lastly, the kitchen looks very nice to me. Perhaps evaluate your lighting, which can make a HUGE difference when it comes to wArm and cool whites. If you don’t like the veins in one area, put your toaster or a potted plant there. I’m not being facetious.

Colorquartz once changed the formula of one of their most popular colors. It went a lot creamier with the new version. We had no idea they made a change as they had not notified us nor sent us the new samples. After we installed it in a bathroom and realized the color wasn't correct (and paid to have it removed and installed with a different color), they sent us a new sample with the original name and "NEW" after it. They recently went out of business.

I would expect that if Cambria, given their stellar reputation, ever changed the formula of one of their colors, the reps would inform us and update our samples. I'm not saying the formula didn't change...just that I haven't heard about it if it did.

IF Cambria shipped the wrong material to the fabricator, why was it installed?

Your paperwork says Britannica? You got what you ordered. There are 3 versions of Britannica, but none are “Britannica White”. That doesn’t exist. There is standard Britannica, Britannica Warm, and Britannica Gold. Standard Britannica has always looked like that version that is in your kitchen. It varies in composition, as all veined products do. Some have bigger veins, some smaller. The matte finish mutes the contrast a bit over the glossy being a bit more contrasting. But there is no new and old version of standard Britannica. There is only Britannica.

And you won’t get anywhere with your fabricator if you present concerns to them the way you are coming across here. You’re not coming across as reasonable, thoughtful, and disappointed. You’re coming across as someone that they need to cease communicating with.

To me the issue is not so much which version of Britannica was installed, but more, was @Coastal Atelier onsite when the slabs were delivered. If I expected something different from what was delivered, then as soon as I saw the guys bringing the counters into the kitchen I would have said “wait, don’t install that!”

I too want to know what the paperwork said, which has been asked 3 times but not answered.

I am sorry you are so disappointed, but I too do not see that your counters look different from what Britannica is supposed to look like based on photos on the website. I believe that over time, when everything else is installed and in place, so the counters don’t look so “naked”, you will be fine with the counters.

If they did change their formula and they did admit this to you, then how did you get an old slab? Typically, it would be the reverse. A sample is old and the slab is new. Regardless, they are a good company, so if they did change it, they should assist you in getting it replaced.

Edited to add: Your photos of the samples prove nothing. As you can see, this slab has different types of veining throughout. Some is harder, some is softer. It could be that the two samples just represent two different portions of the slab.

This is all confusing as someone who has dealt with Cambria for around 15 years. On a fairly regular basis. My rep has not informed me of any change in formula, nor swapped out any samples. They did do a Torquay reformulation about 10 years ago, and they destroyed all of the old slabs. They didn’t sell them off to get mixed up.

Where are you getting this information that there are old and new versions? Im not sure that they aren’t the culprit in your dissatisfaction here.

And why if you really hate the current slab did you go ahead and have it fabricated after it was received? Once you have it cut, all remedy goes out the window. If it’s still in slab form, you generally can have it swapped out for a different one from the distributor. You may have to wait on the transport to happen, but it’s usually not a big deal. They can show you the pictures of their inventory so that you can make sure to pick one with a pattern more to your liking. I don’t understand why that wasn’t done in the first place, before ordering.

So it’s not Cambria’s error, do you agree?

Everyone has a camera phone. The fabricator could have sent you a picture. And a Slabsmith diagram of how it was going to be cut.

I think someone is winding you up with this “new and old” misinformation. There is only one version of standard Britannica.

There all the same material. It has a lot of variability. If you cut a 2” sample From one area, you’d get all white. From another area, you’d get all gray. One area would have a wide vein. Another a narrow vein. It’s all the same material. It’s just that variable.

In the tile world, Britannica would be a V-5. That means that no two tiles are exactly alike.

Britannica has a huge variance in appearance from slab to slab. They aren’t printed to all be the same. They are poured out from different batches of colored stone.

It’s like a marble cake. No two will ever be the same. Some will have more chocolate. Some will have more vanilla. Some will mix the two muddier. Some will be very clearly chocolate and vanilla, with no mixing. There is no old cake and new cake. There is just cake.

The Britannica that I’m familiar with looks exactly like what you ordered and had installed. I’m sorry that you aren’t happy, but this is not on Cambria. It’s on whomever told you that the different veining looks was due to an old and new version, and not due to the 100% normal variation in the slabs. The slabs could look like any of those samples. You have to look at the whole slabs when you are dealing with stone that is this variable. A 2” piece just can’t represent all of its looks.

Your Kitchen is beautiful. Hopefully you will be able to enjoy it.

So you've talked to the Cambria rep about it and the Cambria rep says that there is an old version and a new version? Do they also say that you rec'd the old version?

You sound upset and it is difficult to figure out exactly what has happened from the description you've given. Not assigning blame to either you or Cambria - just trying to figure out the sequence of events.

I understand you’re upset, but you must calm down and relay the facts in an orderly fashion. I’ve had to read and re-read and re-re-read what you’ve written to make any sense of it. And just when I think I’ve figured out what’s what, another frantic, poorly written comment appears! If English is not your first language, or there is some other impediment (besides anger) that affects your ability to communicate clearly, then please make that known so that I/we may have a more productive conversation.

Funny how “someone” told you there is a new and old, but Cambria has told exactly zero anyone else who deals with this regularly. And instead of believing the people that do this for a living everyday, you believe some random salesperson. Who do you think might have told you a fibbie here? Everyone on this thread? Or one person who was mistaken, or thought they could cinch a sale to you by getting you to believe that you had some way of controlling the look of the slab you’d get?

Please go back and read my questions and then answer them. Here they are again:

1. Have you spoken to a Cambria rep? Yes or no

2. If the answer to the first question is yes, did the rep say that there is an old version and a new version? Yes or no

3. If the answer to the second question is yes, did the rep confirm that you rec'd the old version?

If the answer to question #1 is no, then you need to talk to the rep as soon as possible. When you talk to them, you need to be more coherent than you are here, so write down the key points. Before you start writing, you should probably go for a walk or meditate to help you focus your thoughts.

I just saw your new thread, which shows your entire kitchen. And now I am astonished. I guess I missed it early in this thread so I am re-posting it here. It looks really nice. THIS is what you’ve been so frantic over? As I said above, after you move everything in, and get rid of all the construction debris, you will like it.

^^Nope, not true. Granite and Quartz have different looks. People like one or the other depending on what the rest of their kitchen looks like. Both granite and Quartz have hundreds of variations in appearance, so you can’t make a statement like that.

It sounds like this is for a client and the client is NOT happy with what she got as it doesn't look like the sample. I'm assuming that Coastal Atelier is doing this kitchen and now may have to "eat" the cost of the countertop and is hysterical at the thought of doing so.

I'm sorry you were so ill and were hospitalized but under the circumstances, if one does not have a truly trustworthy assistant, all work should be stopped.

You have an unhappy customer. You didn't tell her about the variation in this product as you, yourself, didn't know it. You're going to have to eat a big ticket item. It's all part of being a "pro".

“It sounds like this is for a client and the client is NOT happy with what she got as it doesn't look like the sample. I'm assuming that Coastal Atelier is doing this kitchen and now may have to "eat" the cost of the countertop and is hysterical at the thought of doing so.”

ANGLOPHILIA - read the OP. Ok, I’ll cut and paste it for you: “Our first nightmare was losing our home/house to storm sandy in October 2012, because of the difficulty to rebuild in a flood zone it took years and tons of meetings, changes, permits more changes etc...the exciting part was after 25 years I was finally designing my own kitchen on a budget all the same.”

Quartz is not a exterior grade material. The UV degrades the resins into powder. So you can forget keeping or fabricating anything for outside. This is also written in the manufacturer’s information about the material. Natural stone only. And not even all of them.

What kind of research did you do here? Did you at least get to the “don’t scrub it with brillo pads”? Start over at the beginning and read the manufacturers instructions about everything. Read every bit of this. You assumed a lot without having direct knowledge and doing your research. .

https://www.cambriausa.com/technical-resources/

$70 a square isn’t going to be for the Luxury series either. Add $50 to that. $70 is for the boring little blob stone look.

your kitchen doesn’t look bad. your cabinets are lovely. I’d remove the 4“ backsplash and get a warmer light gray tile to tie things together. Or explore backsplash options. I think it would help. Id do that rather than spend all that money personally.

" Sad part they would of got free advertising and lines credits
For the home will be part of a Sandy documentary, brochures and hgtv show "

Ummm.... HGTV show.... that usually means compensation, either direct or indirect (free or significantly discounted services and/or materials).

There's more here than what we're being told.

Gosh, this has been fun, hasn't it?

It looks very fresh and new. You can absolutely tie them together well and it will look fabulous.

I know how hard it is to have a vision in your head, and then how sad it is when what you end up with doesn't match the picture in your head. But I'd recommend trying to regain some perspective. No one has died, it's done well, and it's going to be beautiful.

There is no way in heck I'd pay money to rip that out and start over. However everyone is different with money and I'm sort-of cheap. I save forever for major projects like this and I've learned one has to be willing to roll with the punches on a major reno. Stuff always takes longer, costs more, and looks a little different than what I saw in my head....

I don't think you can delete because that's a short-term option. I have read where people reported their own posts in order to have them deleted but Idk how that works.

Why do you want to delete the post?

Because she was wrong and everyone else was right.

You can delete post by going through browser Howse website sign in edit or delete post . The iPhone app want let u delete

Maria Killam wrote an article on coordinating white and cream without having it look like a mistake. Perhaps it will be helpful.

Speaking of mistakes, you've made a few here that you can't delete. I wonder whether this experience will inform the way you work with clients in the future. I hope it has an upside for you.

Coastal:

What's freaking me out is how your installers notched around the cabinet. I would have put a scrap of Cambria on the top of the cabinets and laid a Japanese pull saw on it to notch the side cabinet to let the top in. Now the gap would be microscopic and horizontal instead of wide and vertical. Maybe it will look fine when it's caulked.

I want to thank you for this post! Your photo just saved me from spending my money on this countertop; in my opinion, that last photo is just as you described- ugly! I would have to find the right object to cover it which is not something you expect after investing in a quartz countertop. This is a large expense and I am currently going through this search now. Thank you!!