Quartz Countertop Mitered Waterfall Edge - Acceptable or Poor Job?
Just had my quartz countertops installed - had the edges done in a mitered edge so they appear 2" thick (slab is 3cm). I am not happy at all with the seam between the horizontal and vertical pieces - the gap in the miter is 1/16" (larger in some areas), and the fabricator clearly just used a bright white epoxy right out of the tube to fill the space...no attempt to mix to get even reasonably close to the actual color of the stone. On top of that, there are areas where the epoxy has already discolored and turned orange, seems to be debris in the epoxy seam, and is missing chunks/not smooth. Installer tried to tell me that the gap is normal because "stone flexes as it is cut" and that the discoloration is from the stone itself leeching into the epoxy. They have scraped out parts of the epoxy and rebuffed it twice already and, in my opinion, it still looks terrible. GC is now offering to either waive the cost of the counters or replace them completely. In my experience, the point of mitered edges is to have the appearence of one large piece of stone with a barely-visible hairline seam. Is this a bad job or am I being too much of a perfectionist? Thanks!
Comments (14)
krissie55
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Is a mitered edge countertop an upgrade?
Comments (8)In my mind, a mitered edge is just that -- a miter rather than a butt joint. What you have now is just a rectangular piece of marble stuck to the bottom of your contertop. With the miter, they will cut back the edge of your counter at about 45 degrees. Then the piece that creates the built-up edge will also be cut to match that 45 degrees, and be attached. The seam will be the edge of the countertop itself -- not a visible seam along the middle of the edge piece. Now, color match is still an issue, but a mismatch won't be as obvious. If they used a piece from the same lot as the previous piece, you would see the darker top of your counter, and the white on the side -- still a mismatch, but not as obvious that it is two different pieces. I think it would probably look as though, when "sliced" the marble was dark on the outside and white on the inside. They still need to look for a better match....See MoreOur mitered edge quartzite countertop butchered. What are our options?
Comments (9)Blaming the stone for this unacceptable. It is obvious that they couldnt handle this simple mitering project and they should had never accept to do it. My suggestion is to: -Show them some of properly done mitered projects to prove that it is their fault. Unfortunately I got no photos of this material in my website but I do have many pictures of other quartzite complicated projects with Cristallo quartzite or Taz Mahal . Cristallo quartzite full mitered vanity Taz Mahal quartzite polygon full mitered island Since it is not installed the right thing is to get a refound . If you cannot be refound you might be able to accept the loss of your deposit and get your stone as is. Find an appropriate fabricator that may can modify and work with whatever you got left of the quartzite plus little more of the same material to get the job done. Be sure to check some of the mitered work of the profesional you ll find before you make any deal. You can still save this job....See MorePoor seams on waterfall countertop
Comments (3)Those are fine seams. Yeah, the second miter is off a poo as well as the color match. Were this my callback, I'd have factory color match adhesive to replace the stuff I dug out with a razor blade. No "sanding" whatsoever; much too difficult to get factory finish match. Hey, it's engineered stone. If you want more inconspicuous seams, use solid surface please. I'd be much more concerned as to what's holding up that cantilever. If it remains unsupported, when the cantilevered edge sags, it will pull the corners of the miter at the waterfall apart. There is no returned finished end at the range opening. And why are the tops going in before the finished floor? Unless the cabinets have been shimmed to finished floor height, you run the risk of "tiling in" your dishwasher. The pencil edge detail is a chip factory. Who's running this job anyway? Love the cute little bably feet....See MoreWaterfall counter cut, is it ok?
Comments (9)I think the "better" way to do it is with the mitered edge, but I have seen it done the way your fabricators did it. I did a quick search of "waterfall edge" and found these four images pretty quickly, all of which are butt edges (one of which is a decorative butt edge which does not seem like a waterfall edge to me). Now, none of these are heavily veined pattern and one is completely solid in color but you can still tell none of these are mitered. For what it's worth, they got a very nice vein match between the top and side pieces. So my opinion is, yes, you probably should have specified rather than assumed a mitered edge, however, they should have given you the option between the two since they apparently will do it one of two ways themselves....See Morechicagoans
3 years agoM P
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoM P
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
PROHALLETT & Co.
3 years ago
Fori
3 years agoM P
3 years ago
Leandro Nunes
2 years agoJess
10 months agoAt least your white epoxy is nice and clean!! I asked for a mitred quartz mantle for my fireplace, and while some parts of the mitred edge have an invisible connection, others are as in my pictures. It is too much of a headache for me to get the entire piece redone as the rest of the fit is excellent to my custom fireplace aurround.
I’m just going to tape the areas off and paint them with white paint.
For future projects, I will definitely specify with the fabricator to clean the edges etc to ensure the white epoxy is applied nicely and would confirm the seam gap measurement as well.
Fori