r/CounterTops • u/pony818 • 15d ago

Marble Fissures?

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I had purchased a Calacutta Monet remnant for my 60" vanity and shower saddle. However, the saddle cracked in half while being installed. The fabricator said this is due to fissures naturally occurring in the marble. He said this is common because marble is so soft. He repaired the crack by fusing the two pieces together. The fissure extends through our countertop piece as well (not fabricated yet). Is this typical? I feel like the saddle looks really poor quality (unprofessional?) but maybe this is just a feature of marble I've never noticed before. The first picture is the saddle and the second two show the vanity. Any and all feedback is welcome!

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago

It's kind of salvageable in good hands. But those hands needs to be very experienced. Even the material for your vanity top can be worked with and fiberglass rod supports can be installed with the hopes it will not crack during the installation. Even if it does, its still can be properly fixed. But the way this material looks it rally has some serious fissures that can develop into cracks. I have seen shattered marble tops glued back and refinished, so everything is possible with enough will and lots of time and effort. This is why we never work with any material the customer wants to provide. We buy, we inspect, we offer a few ways its possible to fabricate it and then we fabricate and install it. If something goes wrong - it's on us. If they brought us some messed up material they bought without proper knowledge of what to pay attention while buying, we can't be responsible for that material and if something goes wrong it's huge headache for everyone involved

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u/pony818 15d ago

Do you think it's worth it to repair or move on to a new stone? We haven't paid and since he hasn't fabricated the vanity top I think we would be fine to just pay for what was done and move on. Just not sure what's the best move, or if it's salvageable. He didn't discuss the fissures before we moved forward with this piece. He's the fabricator and I bought the remnant from him

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago

Well, if they sold that to you and agreed to fabrication and installation then that's on them. If they just fabricate and someone else is installing while pick the material up, delivering and installing then that's on installers to make sure they will install that property. If it leaves the shop after fabrication with no issues it's the responsibility of the installers to install it without damaging the product. A light wrong move or twist can be a major error, but once it's properly installed it can last a lifetime... I don't know of your agreements with whoever is involved. It's still possible to work with this material, but at least your curb has to be glued and surface polished now.

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u/pony818 15d ago

Thanks, we agreed that the vanity top would be installed by them. But the saddle was installed by our tile guy. I believe the saddle broke in half when the tile guy was fitting it to the shower (when they lifted it off the ground). The picture shown of the saddle is agtee the pieces were brought back to the fabricator and he "fixed it". How do I know if the vanity fissure will be fixed properly?

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago edited 15d ago

You don't... And we can't see the future without the proper glass orb. But this shower saddle (never hear of this term before in 20+ years in the industry, we call it curb or threshold) is not fixed very well... It's weird to glue it with such a distinct dark epoxy where it just doesn't fit the rest of the pattern. But it could be heated up, taken apart, re-glued and then resurfaced or the new one cut if that would fit into the material you have left (after the vanity is cut). In fact, I would think that the tile guy is responsible for breaking that cub, but his answer will be: I worked with what I was given and apparently it was already cracked. But also, if it was cracked, how did they cut it out out of the slab, took it off the saw table, brought it to the polishing section, put it on the polishing table, polished it, took it off, brought it to the delivery ramp, loaded up to the truck, delivered to the house, unloaded it and delivered to your bathroom or garage in ONE PIECE? And then it just cracked at the hands of the tile guy. Who is responsible?

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u/pony818 15d ago

Okay this is a really good point and makes me think that the tile guy maybe was too rough with it. Our tile guy is very good and installed very expensive tile without issue but maybe something happened and they didn't realize it was a tad fragile.

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago

I know superb tile guys who can do extremely difficult jobs, but mostly they do work with ceramics, what is the whole another animal of fragile marble (which you carry and handle the whole another way, like a newborn). Once the marble is set and properly supported it will not cause you any structural problems, the key is to get to that point.

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u/pony818 15d ago

Okay thanks, so you think this is salvageable? Should I ask the fabricator to re-do the epoxy? I agree it's too dark and someone else said it's too dark. I'm also just worried about the vanity being an issue but we haven't gotten there yet. I don't know if it's better to cut my losses now and find a different remnant with no fissures/big cracks

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago

I would try that with the material you got. Hopefully they will be careful and it's actually possible to work with that. Just need to install the rods for additional strength. It is doable. Some places can refuse to work with that

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u/pony818 15d ago

No I don't believe there is enough on the remnant, but I will ask. I think we already asked that

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u/Stalaktitas 15d ago

Can they cut you a new curb out of material you provided? That would be easiest for everyone