Marble Counters: What Everyone Needs to Know {Part 3}

If you’re just reading this series for the first time you can get caught up by clicking the links below:

Part One
Part Two

 

This next leg of the journey – in many ways – proved to be every bit as frustrating as the first part.

 

The kitchen designer brought in an experienced stone fabricator she had worked with for years to help us repair the existing counters instead of replacing them.  She absolutely trusted his experience and expertise with all sorts of stone.  Let’s call him Fabricator #2.

When Fabricator #2 came to take a look at the trouble spots, he was very confident he could replace the patches with new ones that would look virtually seamless. He told us about his background and experience and the type of products he used that were different from what was used the first time.

He looked at the swirly sanding marks on our bar top and explained how he could refinish the top so that it looked better — not perfectly new but much better than what it looked like currently.

The large rust stains on the island and counter near the stove could be fixed by installing a new slab on the island and then using the island top to cut out a piece for the stove area. (The marble we originally installed is called, Calcutta Green — as it turns out, it is not a common marble and we could not find another slab like it nearby. Therefore, installing a new, coordinating piece on the island and using the Calcutta Green island piece to cut a clean piece for near the stove seemed like the perfect solution.)

We asked lots of questions and in the end we believed that having him make the repairs and replace the island top seemed like a good solution. It would cause less kitchen upheaval and wouldn’t be nearly as costly as replacing everything (we were trying to be mindful of the fact that our designer was footing the bill).

So, Fabricator #2 came to make the repairs. He and his crew replaced the island and stove area counters and replaced the old patches as well as patched the jagged edges that were left on the butler’s pantry. He also, re-sanded the bar top area.

When they left, I was thrilled with the new island and stove top areas. The marble we chose for the island is a honed marble called Eureka Calcutta Danby and it looks fantastic! I am very, very happy with the results!

Here is the new island counter top:

 

The picture doesn’t really do it justice.  It’s just beautiful in person!

Here is what it looked like before:

 

The rusty stain that was on the island is not pictured in this shot, but if you look at the rounded corner on the lower right of the picture you can see one of the small white patches where some marble chipped.   (This was the smallest of all the patches. There were several bright white ones like this that I believe were repaired at the shop.  All the ones done on-site were dark and shrunken looking.)

Here is what the piece that used to be near the stove looks like sitting in our garage:

 

The best part of the old island top was used near the stove and now it looks perfect!

 

The freshly sanded bar top looked less swirly but now all the polish was removed and it took on the appearance of honed marble (honed marble has a matte finish without the shine of polished marble — the Danby marble above is honed). However, the finish was far from a factory-perfect finish. When the light caught it, you could see that it was sanded but it was much more uniform and wasn’t as blatantly obvious as the uneven finish before.  (Sorry, no pictures — unfortunately, it was too difficult to capture in pictures.)

So, with some things fixed and some still in unacceptable shape, my husband and I had to decide what to do next.  We decided to ask #2 to come back to refine the patches and bring back the shine near the sink. We decided we could live with the sanded, honed look of the bar top because we were afraid more work on the bar would just mess it up further based on what #2 was telling us was possible and what was not.

We talked to our designer and she let us know that #2 would come back to improve the patches, but that we would have to understand that although the patches could be improved they would always still be noticeable to us — but most likely not to others who saw the kitchen.

After waiting several weeks, #2 finally came back to finish the job. The new patches looked a little better but the bar top was a total disaster. Because I didn’t watch him as he worked the entire time I didn’t know that he had worked on the bar top while he was there so I didn’t inspect it before he left. I looked at each patch as he showed me what he did, and he never mentioned the bar. So, it wasn’t until after #2 left that I discovered that he had worked on the bar top. When I saw it I just about cried.

He denies it, but I know what he did. I know it, because he told me that you can hone marble yourself using muriatic acid. In fact, he showed me how to do it by doing it on my island top right in front of me before I could even object!

Let me first warn you — NEVER, EVER try to hone marble using muriatic acid! No matter how careful you try to be you will etch your counters in a very uneven and unprofessional looking way. And, that’s exactly what happened to my bar top. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures to show you because it’s very, very difficult to capture what it looks like in pictures. The camera doesn’t know what to focus on and the lighting has to be just so. Trust me, the finish was totally ruined.

In my next post, I will finish up my story and tell you all about our final resolution to our issues. Don’t worry, there is hope!