My contractor recently installed my quartz countertop on the bathroom cabinet and there were some hairline scratches that bother the heck out of me.

I tried using some dishwasher steel wool to remove it but it only dulled the surface more and didn't really fix the scratches.

What is the best way to restore the quartz countertop? The quartz is royal white and has a beige/bone color to it. I've read up and have seen people mention the following:

1. Using finer steel wool to remove it and then buff with buffer and rubbing compound

2. Using superglue/epoxy and fill in the scratches and polish with rubbing compound

3. Using buffer and rubbing compound and buff it out without doing anything further.

Will using rubbing compound and buffer further damage the stone?

Thanks!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Quartz isn't Corian and isn't at all friendly to even think about DIYing. Replacing the top at this point would probably be the best choice, as hiring a stone restoration expert would cost about as much as having a remnant fabricated.

A stone pro restoring this would remove the counter and use diamond polishing pads with a water stream in order to polish the counter. And he would have to be careful with the pads speed and keep it moving to avoid scorching the resin component. It's a slow, slow, process. Working with quartz has more in common with real granite than acrylic solid surface, but the moment you forget and treat it like granite is the moment that the acrylic component bites you.

If you are willing to live with a duller finish than you started with, you possibly could attempt to dry polish it out yourself, but you are not going to end up with anything close to a factory polish. But, at this point, since replacement is your other best choice, what have you got to lose? And the good news is that a "honed" finish is a popular choice in counters these days. You can probably take the shine down to that level as you remove the scratch and just pretend that's what you wanted from the beginning.