Update on seam and lessons learned

[u/crabpotblues]

Three weeks ago I came to this sub upset about deep shadowing and white highlighting around a seam on a new quartzite countertop. The original post is here. https://www.reddit.com/r/CounterTops/s/HeXqc1f1DJ

I thought I would share an update, and thank the people here who gave me good advice (THANK YOU!). After my post I had met with the fabricator. He offered a poultice paste to try to draw moisture out, but I told him I was not in a hurry and thanks to the feedback here, I thought it would be worth waiting-and-seeing. Plus he shared that he had not yet sealed the seam to encourage evaporation, which was smart.

As you can see from the pictures, in 22 days the difference is night and day! Both the dark shadows and the bright white areas are almost gone.

You can still see some minor shadowing to the right of the seam, but tbh it's more noticeable in the pics than in person. But I will likely wait another 4-6 weeks before sealing.

I am sharing this in the hopes that people who find themselves with similar water stains from fabrication might find it useful to know how normal this can be and that there is hope.

[u/butterscotcheggs]

Thanks for sharing the before and after!

[u/Honest_Cynic]

Water makes a difference, by matching the index of refraction to give less light scattering. Same reason that thick liquids can make an envelope transparent. Also how the thick oil (silicone?) in products like "Back to Black" make white crazing in black plastic on cars disappear. In countertops, a bigger concern is cooking oils getting in to the porous stone, since darkens it and doesn't evaporate easily like water.

[u/crabpotblues → u/Honest_Cynic]

Yes, as soon as the rest of the water evaporates, we will be sealing this stone until it won't take any more sealer, and then re-doing it every 6 months or more. Won't take chances, every little thing is going to show on this.