Marble Counters: What Everyone Needs to Know {Part 4}

So when I left you last, I told you about my disastrous marble bar top and the muriatic acid disaster created by Fabricator #2.  If you are just joining this series, you can read the complete story of my marble counter top saga by clicking these links: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.  Today’s post won’t make much sense until you read the others! 

First, let me tell you that Fabricator #2 did not completely destroy the island by using the muriatic acid.

I can see very faint “wiping” marks on the counter where he spread the acid using a cloth but it can only be seen in just the right light and at just the right angle. If you came to my house, you would never notice it unless I pointed it out to you and you crouched to one side and caught the light from the window in just the right way. With all the other problems in the kitchen, I can live with this minor issue and someday I will probably have that surface refinished by my new hero (whom you will meet towards the end of this post).

The bar top, on the other hand, was much more obvious and more severe. The Calcutta Green marble is very soft compared to my Danby marble that is now on the island. It doesn’t take much to etch it. Therefore, a dose with a wet rag full of muriatic acid made it look terrible. Really terrible.   It was significantly matte compared to the matching polished marble on the perimeter of the kitchen.  In addition, the finish was uneven, with what I can only describe as cloth marks and pits — it was like a trail where the cloth or rag was wiped along the stone.

The only picture I managed to take of the bar top is below before the muriatic acid incident and before the island top was switched out:

In the picture above (in the bottom part of the image)  you can see that the bar top is a little shiny, but not like the island top.   At this point the bar top was shiny in some areas and dull in others because of sanding by the fabricator.  After the acid incident it was completely matte and uneven.

Welcome, Fabricator #3 to the story.

Our kitchen designer was beside herself about the bar top and, as you can imagine, had many words with #2 (who, by the way, blamed me for the bar top and said that I did it!). Thankfully, she knew I was not to blame and in stepped Fabricator #3.

When he arrived at our house he said he was confident that he could help bring back the polish to the bar top as well as fix the patch by the sink and the ones in the butler’s pantry.

At this point, we were not so easy to convince. We asked a million questions and, as a result of our skepticism, he asked us if we had a piece of the marble for him to experiment with in his shop. Because of the island switcheroo, we did! We broke off a piece of the slab and sent him on his way.

A few weeks later we got a call. Number 3 no longer felt he had the expertise to handle the situation and referred us to a local marble specialist who makes a business of repairing damaged counters and rejuvenating antique and old marble tops. (I have so much respect for No. #3 for knowing when to pass on a job!)

We made an appointment with Marble Guy and, by  this time, we were officially skeptics and ready to sell our house, move to the wilderness to live off the land and cook over a campfire!  (Not really, but almost! Haha!)

But Marble Guy showed up and saved the day. Not immediately and not without having to wait several weeks. But, in the end Marble Guy was the right guy for the job.

He tweaked the patch by the kitchen sink so it blends in a little better and he brought back the finish (that was marred by #2 in his attempt to repair it) in that same area to brand, spanking new!  I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know it’s there would realize there is a patch by the sink.  Can you see it?

If you know it’s there you can still see it but it is much, much better.  Of course, I know it’s there, but I really don’t think people coming to our home can see it.

 Remember, this is what it looked like when the first patch was there:

The old patch was even noticeable from a distance!

Here’s the distance shot of the new patch again:

(FYI…the patch is on the left edge of the sink near the front.)

 

As for the bar top…it looks AMAZING!  Here it is in all its polished glory and it looks the way it always should have looked all along.

Look at how the flowers are reflected in that shine!   It looks perfect and Marble Guy said he could have gotten it even shinier but held back so it would match the rest of the marble! 

The only place that still looks obvious and imperfect is the patch work by the wall in the butler’s pantry.

Before:

Fabricator #2 patched this part up but wasn’t able to match the color very well.  (I can’t find my pictures of the original patching before Marble Guy’s clean-up.)

Unfortunately, my hero,  Marble Guy, said he wasn’t going to be able to do much to help this area’s appearance.  He warned us ahead of time that the result would be a mild improvement.  He didn’t want to remove the old patch that Fabricator #2 did and run the risk of making it worse over time.  He explained that oils from fingers/hands and touching the area over and over can imbed in the marble causing it to continue to darken over time.  Since this is not a highly visible or high traffic area, he recommended that he only clean it up as best as possible. So, in the end, that’s what we did.  It does look better, but it’s still not great, but we are living with it. 

 

This area is a tough spot to get a slab in and out so we’ve decided not to doing anything further for now.  Someday we may try to replace this counter top but today is not the day.

Now that we are finished, we are pleased with the results.  We learned a lot of hard lessons about contractors and working with natural stone.  We are grateful that our kitchen designer was an honest individual who saw this through to a satisfactory end — even though her subs did not do the same!

I am currently working on a post that I will share soon about embarking on a kitchen (or any room) remodel and the lessons we learned that might help you.

Finally, I just want to say that if you are installing marble in your home and you have issues with the finish, I would not recommend having the installer try to fix anything that has to do with the finish (such as pits and chips) unless that installer also has expertise in marble restoration.  Call in a marble repair/refinishing/restoration specialist.  They really know how to work with the stone and they have the correct tools to do the job right the first time! 

Thank you for following our story and I hope it has helped someone along the way!