This is what heat lamps will do to "Absolute Black" granite. I had lunch in this pizza joint in Ellenton, Florida, this afternoon. The food was good despite the unsanitary cracks in the serving countertop.

Did I hear and watch the cracks form? No, but the cashier counter, the salad bar, and the drink bar were the same material and not a crack to be found. In fact, there were no cracks in the cracked sections where the heat lamps ended. The tops looked flat and level and there were no obvious percussive marks so circumstantially it looks like heat did the deed. The dull spots are from the repetitive abrasion of pizza pans.

I was there about an hour after they opened and you could just hold your hand on the stone. I'll bet in a few more hours that won't be possible.

Stoners, don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm not bashing stone. I am bashing improper detailing. This installation may have worked if they had tried to compensate for the movement of the stone instead of ignoring or fighting it. I'll bet there is full underlayment and I'll bet they've got a ton of adhesive bonding the stone and underlayment, and I like neither.

A decade ago, I had a commercial contract to install about a quarter mile of Corian windowsills. About half way through the job I got a call from the owner's rep telling me his clients were not happy with the 1/8" silicone joints between the 12' sills. I told him I had a shop drawing, approved by his architect in writing, detailing the sill as installed.

"Oh" he said, and that was the last I heard of it.

Had the Corian been hard seamed as his clients thought they wanted, the sills would have expanded in the sun and self-destructed. Since they've had plenty of time to call me and they haven't, I'm assuming the detail is working to this day. I will not be bullied by a customer, architect, engineer, or project manager; it's one of the luxuries of self-employment.

The designers of this project paid no such attention to movement, only esthetics, by trying to minimize seams and using hard seams at that. I filled out a comment card and told them I do repairs, but with as inexpensive as stone is these days I doubt there is anything I can do cost effectively. Perhaps a lighter color next time?