My husband purchased a granite countertop for our new kitchen four months ago. It had a plastic sheeting on it that peeled off in parts. He waited until last week to install it. When he installed it we discovered that the parts under the plastic discolored and ended up darker than the parts that weren’t under the plastic. The parts not covered by the plastic are the color that the granite was supposed to be. Why did this happen, and more importantly, is there a way to fix it so that we don’t have to buy a whole new countertop? We would appreciate any help since if it can’t be fixed, we are out more than $2,000.
You do have to watch what you do to granite, including what you clean with. There are granite cleaning products out there. My first step would be to contact the manufacture and ask them what to use in the case of discoloration due to their shipping material. At worst damaged granite can be resurfaced by a professional with the proper equipment. They move a block around on top and and remove small amounts of granite that is a fine powder.
Seems to me that the best place to get this question answered would be from the place where you bought the countertop.
However…I have a granite bathroom countertop that gets a darker color whenever water sits on it for a while (several hours, not just splashes from hand washing), like when it gets trapped under the soap dispenser. When this happens, drying the counter top off and waiting a while causes it to clear up. The longer the water has been sitting, the longer it takes to clear (can take days). Possibly this plastic was trapping some moisture in the granite, and the exposure to air will allow it to dry out over time.
I agree with Running with Scissors. It is extremely unusual to leave a protective film on granite and not good for the stone, we do not allow that on our installed granite for that very reason. You need to have the fabricator come out and inspect it.
DO NOT USE BLEACH OR ANY OTHER CLEANER TO TRY AND FIX IT!!!
The darkening is due to improper sealing. you want to use an oil based sealer with silicone in it, the water based ones only last for a few months at best.
Not to get into a really long story but we are building a new house and our contractor went belly up and stole about $25000.00. In order to save money we bought the granite from a company owned by a chinese family. Nothing against chinese families but they do not speak english well and are unwilling to help, since it was probably our fault for leaving the plastic on (they didn’t tell us to take it off); thus the “manufacturer” isn’t going to help us. Home Depot had the same product but was charging $4500 rather than the $2000 we paid.
We didn’t seal it (should we have?). The seller said it was already sealed. Could we seal it now? We don’t necessarily care whether the countertop is lighter or darker than what it should be as long as it is one color. Would sealing even out the color?
No, sealing will not significantly change the color. In fact, do not seal it until you figure out how to fix it, otherwise the discoloration will be sealed in.
Since you can’t get help from the vendor, and it appears that SD members don’t have the appropriate experience, I’m going to suggest trying elsewhere.
Here is a dedicated do-it-yourself forum that has a section on kitchens, and seems to be fairly active.
This article says that oils can discolor the granite, and recommends a cleaner. You might want to try that.
Here is an article on countertop care (although it probably won’t help you with your current issue, it may be of assistance in the future once you solve it).
