Easy Fixes for Common Countertop Problems

What happens when an accident happens? You accidentally grabbed a pan out of your drawer, you knocked into your countertop, and you chipped it. Or maybe a stain does happen.

These stone countertops are really, really great. They don’t just stain super easily. I mean, it takes a lot to stain them, but it can happen.

So let’s talk about ways to just keep them nice and clean and let’s talk about what happens when something does happen.

Well, first of all, even if it’s not a warranty item, you can always call me. I’m the owner of the company and I’ve committed myself even to non-customers to take those phone calls and provide resources to help people fix things.

If there’s something that’s out of my purview, like a really bad chip, I probably would refer you to a fixer. Literally all they do is fix things. It’s the skill set. Every day they’re fixing one, two, three, four jobs. They’ve seen it all. They’ve done it all. It doesn’t mean you’re going to like the fix, right? If it’s a really, really big chunk out of your granite, you’re going to see it. If it’s something easy, like a small chip, I might just set you up with my installer. Send him over there, you pay him a nominal trip charge, and you get it fixed and you’re happy.

Now let’s talk about what happens if there’s a stain. That would be calling me for sure. I will come out and help you attempt to remove the stain.

When it comes to granite, most stains can be removed with a poultice. The funny thing is, after you see me do it, you’re going to see you can do it on your own, right. It’s having the right product. You can even buy that online on your own. You put it down, you put saran wrap over it, you leave it for 24 to 48 hours, and it either pulls the stain out or it doesn’t. If it does half the job, you reset it for a second time. You try to complete the job.

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Quartz stains are much more difficult to remove. We’ve tried everything and we can’t control that success rate. The success rate on quartz stains are 10%, 5%, opposed to granite; it’s 95%. Quartz, there’s no sealer, so it’s just a matter of wiping things up immediately, not leaving things on your countertops for too long so they don’t get to eat into the surface, and not using harsh chemicals to clean it. With granite, you can put on extra coats of sealer to build up the prevention of stains. That’s in your power. And you can wipe things up immediately, not leave them on the countertop for too long, and you also can avoid using harsh chemicals that damage the surface.

Now stuff like scratches, that’s really, really difficult to fix. Scratch goes into the countertop, it goes deep, the only way to remove it is to keep polishing down low enough to get to the scratch to blend it out, and then you may have a dip. Plus it’s really hard to bring the sheen of where you polished it out back to the sheen that matches the rest of the countertop. It’s highly risky.

I recommend, for the most part, is you get a scratch by accident, however it happened, I probably would say don’t try to fix it. You might have to pay three to four to five hundred dollars for a fixer to attempt to fix it, and there’s a good chance that it could actually be made worse.

You’re talking chips, most of the time you can deal with. You’re talking stains, can deal with usually with granite. So a lot of this is in your control, but the things that are not in your control, you can always call me on. And even if it’s not a warranty claim, I will be there to help you guys out.