One thing to keep in mind. The cracking tiles are NOT the problem. They are a SYMPTOM of the problem. You need to locate the source of the movement, or you'll never get the tiles to stay in one piece. One thing you can check yourself right off, if this is over woodframe construction (and not concrete slab) and I hope I'm wrong-- something many sales people over look (so they can make the sale) is the fact that when using natural stone, the floor has to be literally TWICE as strong as it does for any other kind of flooring, including ceramic tile. What you want to do is go downstairs into the basement and take a look at the joists. Take measurements of how thick and tall the joists are (2x?), as well as their on center spacing, and their unsupported length. Take those measurements and go to the following web page and plug in the valures in the appropriate places. It'll tell you whether or not your joisting is strong enough for travertine, or any other kind of natural stone: Here is a link that might be useful: John Bridge's Deflectolator

Hi Scott, yes - pavers on most, but this was actually straight in the dirt as we don't have decking on the back of the pool. The anchor was set in a pipe which was about 18 - 24 inches long. What should I look for tomorrow when they are hopefully back to fix it?? Thanks, Marta

Well, to put another opinion in to the mix---I don't know of any granite fabricators in my neck of the woods who will do a cutout on an already existing installed countertop that another fabricator has installed. Yes, you can get them to come out and drill holes, or modify cutouts in place, but there will be NO WARRANTY about the top cracking and you would have to sign a waiver acknowledging that fact. In an existing situation, the house can have settled, the cabinets settled, and there can be invisible stresses on the granite top if that's happened, and then you apply cutting tools to the situation and you have a stress crack manifest itself. Not to mention, your "pinch hitters" didn't help select the slab or layout, and the original fabricator may have installed a piece with a fissure there that just naturally broke when the larger cutout stresses were applied with the bigger and heavier cooktop. There are a lot of reasons granite cracks, but in an existing situation that is being modified, you really can't hold the fabricators responsible. Now, they should have made you aware of this on the front end, had you sign a waiver, and shown you the issue and let you sign off on the repair efforts before they left. I'm not defending that behavior at all.

That is not natural, it’s a break. Is there a gap between the stone and cabinet? Meaning there is no support for the stone. The front area of stone counters when there is a sink is a weak area so if there is a gap it needs to be supported. The fabricator might be able to fix it enough so you can not feel the crack but that’s about it. What type of Quartzite is it? White Princess?