The resins in quartz are damaged by direct sunlight. It's not repairable. Windows usually have UV coatings that prevent that from happening in a home with windows.

katgarr1:

It may be possible to abrade the top layer and polish to match but it would be expensive and difficult. I've never tried it. It is not a do-it-yourself project.

Was your slab left outside? I've not heard of quartz fading on an interior installation.

The resins in most granites are not immune from ultraviolet light degradation either.

This post was edited by Trebruchet on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 21:18

Yes it was left outside and one corner was exposed to the sun. I guess I'll have to put a flower pot on it. I was hoping there was something I could do. Thanks!

Did YOU leave it out? Or someone who is working for you? If you did not do it then you are entitled to a new countertop. If you did...well...bummer. :o(

It is possible to refinish quartz and get the color back. A few years ago we had a customer that absolutely HAD to have a discontinued color of Cambria. We had a slab in remnants but it was sun damaged.

WE had the entire slab repolished and the color came back quite nicely. This makes at least possible a talented fabricator could fix your top.

What's ballpark on repolishing an entire slab? I've only seen poor results from fabricators attempting to selectively top polish quartz. Can it achieve the gloss level of the original factory sheen? Either of you guys have any before/after shots?

Repolishing is typically about $6 per sq. ft. but that is for an entire slab done on a polishing line. Very few slab suppliers in the country have actual polishing lines as the slabs are typically imported already polished. It would be quite difficult (maybe impossible) to do it by hand or even with a radial arm router.

I'd take some garden variety diamonds to the quartz until I was through the damage, then follow with a blend with Steve's Polishing Pro System.

The customer would acknowledge in writing that the top was toast before I began. If I fail, no charge. If I fix it, pay up.

Polishing quarts is for professionals only, even they have difficulties at times. Many cannot do it at all.

Quartz Renew system from Regent Stone Products has been getting very good results. But it's still a job only for professionals.

" Is Steve's polishing system only for professionals?"

katgarr1:

No, but you could probably buy a new quartz remnant for what it and the tools are going to cost you. Steve's system is really the final finish match only; you may need diamond pads to remove enough faded material. I can't see a cost effective way for a DIYer to pull this off.

Dani Homrich will sell you a bottle of Perfect Finish for 20 bucks:

Here is a link that might be useful: Dani

You're going to have to grind away the top of the faded section and then re-polish it .... it can take a few weeks of work to really bring the shine back. If you have to go deeper than 2 millimeters, I think you'ld be stuck grinding and re-polishing the entire slab to match the new depth ... as others have mentioned, that's a professional job.

Might it be possible to do without that corner of the slab entirely? As in, cut off the corner and bevel grind/polish the new edge?

Does your fabricator keep remnants? Could you trade yours for a different remnant if they are doing the fabricating? If there's enough usable area left on yours for a small job and someone else could use it, they aren't out anything. We let the fabricator keep our quartz remnants and a year later went back and chose a granite remnant for a bath remodel. All we paid for was the fabrication. It didn't matter to them since they have no money tied up in remnants and they made money fabricating the vanity remnant.

May_flowers I think your is the best option for me. Maybe my fabricator can use this on a smaller surface and make some kind of trade on it. I thought it would be no more than a little polishing to restore the luster. That's why I checked with the experts!