Frustration -Granite benchtop ruined

H

handyandy

Hi all

Just a grumble.

Tenants signed up for a years lease then stopped paying 3 months in and wanted to break lease.

Just prior to occupancy we completed a complete makeover of this unit.

We went in on friday to check unit and this is what we found done to the granite bench top.

PA220485.jpg



with a close up of each mark



PA220483.jpg


PA220482.jpg


I am hoping that I can actually somehow dye these marks to at least make them less noticeable.

I will not remove the top as this will take to long and cost to much. I will get a quote and try to recover the cost from the tenant so that when finally we do replace it he has paid for the damage he caused.

According to the tenants he achieved this with a hot tea pot. We have a granite top at home and my wife tells me she regularly places pans straight from the stove on our granite top with no damage. So what caused the damage?

A frustrated LL:mad:
 
HandyAndy,

Is it real granite? I am suspecting from the discoloration that the counter is reconstituted stone (ground stones set in epoxy mix)

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
judging by the shape it was definitely something like a pot or frying pan

doubt that you'll be able to claim it from bond though, because as you said, a reasonable person would assume that there will be no damage from hot stuff placed on it
hence it's not tenants fault that the damage occured
 
I've got reconstituted granite at home and haven't had any probs putting hot pans straight on it. I've got a marble lazy-susan that has smaller, similar marks. I'm not sure what happened (kids or hubby) but I think it may be either wax, or glue. Yours look like some sort of chemical reaction to me.
 
The Y-man said:
HandyAndy,

Is it real granite? I am suspecting from the discoloration that the counter is reconstituted stone (ground stones set in epoxy mix)

Cheers,

The Y-man
Click to expand...

Its definitely stone of sorts. We cut it ourselves and there was no epoxy present - wore out my diamond blade:eek: I am thinking that it is some inferior granite that was somehow stained to be a more expensive type. We bought it for $66 per metre then installed ourselves.

Wish I had kept the offcut as I could run some test to see what could cause the reaction.

Cheers
 
I am thinking maybe a bleach, like domestos? Do a google on 'cleaning black granite' or similar, it is amazing what is out there.
 
It looks to me more like the colour has been taken out of the granite than something stained on it.

We have caesar stone and I am sure I read somewhere not to put really hot stuff on that so I am careful not to just in case.

But maybe granite (i.e. the real deal) is different.
 
Looks to me like the sealant has discoloured rather than the stone - either heat damage or water damage. Get in contact with the manuf but do some google searches on granite bench discolouration first.
 
Looks like sealer ?? is gone to me as well, is the finish in the pale areas now matt instead of gloss?


For everyones info here, epoxy resin softens at around 48degrees C, so not sure if hot stuff should go on the reconstituted epoxy/stone product.

Dave
 
The new bench tops we are putting in at our place are some kind of acrylic mix. You definately can't put pans straight on that. Thats why they cut grooves and set removable stainless rods into it to act as your hot pot guard.

Looking at those marks, is it steam/moisture thats got under the sealer?
 
looks like the resin polish has been eaten away, a stone mason/granit top installer will polish this out in a minute, no probs, thy will cut it with a diomond, 2000 and then resin polish you won't even know after their done, good luck!
 
Hm, when our kitchen was installed there was some damage - scratched etc so they needed to repolish it. Never really looked as good as the rest of the benches. Grrr. Domestos bleach will take colour out, as Petal mentions it looks like the colour has been bleached out. Normally granite can handle domestos, but it cannot handle citrus (fruit) acid based cleaners - that causes pitting. Maybe it really wasnt granite?
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I am talking to Akemi about what I can do which is the reason I shot the photos so they could have a look.

The strange thing is that the stain still has a shine and if you close your eyes and run your finger over the bench you can't feel a discernible difference in the surface texture.

When you look at the 'stain' its like its devoid of colour and appears that you can see the crystalline structure of the granite similar to toughened glass that has broken.

The other thing is that it becomes less noticable when you wet it, so it must be porous which makes my hopeful that some sort of stain will work.

Obviously if polishing is required we will get that done.

Cheers
 
We have granite at home. The El-Cheapo stuff that comes imported from China (or the like). It is very thin and we treat it badly. It gets stuff straight from the oven & stovetops as well as all sorts of stuff spilt onto it and we haven't had any problem whatsoever.
 
where did you get it?

hi skater? where did you get the el cheapo granite? i was looking to put granite or lookalike in a unit i'm doing for tenants but after reading all that, i'm wondering whether to just stick with plain old robust laminex? but if you have a cheapo one that doesn't have to be nurtured, i'll look at that.
 
INVSTOR said:
If you do find out what the cause was could you please inform. My benchtop was from this company, I was told by previous owner you could put hot items on but couldn't use chemicals on it. I rarely put hot items on just in case.
http://www.granitetransformations.com.au/
Click to expand...

I've just had this done on a property. I would be very careful with hot objects, as this is reconstituted stone (about 95% "real") which is formed in a thin sheet, then glued onto the existing countertop.

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
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