I am a fabricator of granite and man made stone countertops and have been for 9 years. I recently received a customer complaint, one I have never received before. She claims for the past three years a 2' X 2' area above her dishwasher was slowly pitting out and has progressively gotten worse. Concerned, I sent an employee to her house, which I trust, and he was unable to see what the problem was. After she positioned him to get the correct glare from the sun he did notice very small "pits" (probably not the correct term), about 5 - 8 of them. We do have knowledge in repairing nicks, cracks and scratches but we don't have anything that would adhere to this surface, they were just too small, also we did not want to have new issues with having a film on the surface of the stone.
He explained that he thought that these small nicks and micro fissures are more common in Verde Peacock and that he is unable to do anything to fix it.
About a month later she called again saying she was not satisfied with these "pits" and she either wanted them filled or replace the whole kitchen with a different rock, and the "pitting" was worse than ever before, even than a month before. Upon hearing this I decided to check out the situation myself along with another professional whom has been in the granite business for over 40 years and has been with one of the states leading countertop fabricators for over 15 years. We both walked in the kitchen and looked around, we were expecting to see an area that was an eye sore, instead, we could not see any problem with any part of the kitchen whatsoever, if it has gotten worse then I don't know what the original call was for. The homeowner then began to show us the "pits", using her fingernail she would scratch over the problem area and feel for any "catching", when one was found she would show us and ask us what could be done. The "pitting" was very minimal (5-8) and extremely small, I have seen this before in certain types granite, but they were originally in small areas of the slab, not chipping out, just the way that area took on a polish. (Santa Cecilia commonly has the same "pits or micro fractures" that can be felt with a fingernail, to give you a size reference)
I called a professional surface repair company and they sent someone out to the house, that person said he could not do anything to fix it.
Since then, (3-4 weeks) I have periodically been in contact with the customer and she said it's still getting worse and it looks absolutely horrible.
I was wondering if you know of any very thin filling solution that could fill those small "pits" (smaller than the tip of a toothpick). Or if that is opening up a larger can of worms. Trying to polish it would take off stone and would be noticeable.
Again, this area is above the dishwasher so there is a lot of "traffic" on this particular area of counter. Its part of an 8' X 3' island with an under mount sink cutout next to the dishwasher.
I do wish to do whatever I can to come up with a solution to help this customer. I have talked to many fabricators on the subject and all say that after 3 years, with this type of issue, none would replace it free of charge.
What would you do, if there is nothing that can be done to the surface of this counter?
Thank you for all the advice and knowledge gained from it.
Ryan
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