Thanks to someone who posted on GW, ours is polished. The granite shop wouldn't have done it unless I specifially asked for it. And I wouldn't have known to ask for it without reading about it here.

I'm glad I did it, but I think you will stop noticing yours in no time.....

My quartz is polished underneath also. The edge is a reverse bevel. It requires turning the slab over to finish it on that side.

Mine was never polished underneath. I never gave it a second thought.

Thanks for responses! Question #2 - the quartz is not glued down (long story). It is a small island. Those who have polished undersides, would you consider it important enough to haul your top to the fabricator and get it polished?

I don't even know what I am talking about cost-wise. A hundred dollars? A thousand?

Our granite fabricator always polishes the underside, it's not an extra. In fact, it was something he'd told me they do as a matter of course during my initial phone call.

My granite is not polished on the underside. I really don't see the point of polishing it. What is your concern with it not being polished?

sallysue_2010, it is normal to polish a few inches of the underside. Everyone has some amount of overhang. Everyone's fingers touch the underside of the stone. It is cleaner and "nicer" when the touch-able parts are smooth polished, or honed.

The factory that makes slabs and delivers them to "fabricators", showrooms, wholesalers, etc, only polishes one side instead of both sides, and that is normal too. No point polishing the entire other side of the slab when 90% of it won't ever come into contact with fingers.

Your query is not going to be seen as unusual. Your "guy" didn't do the normal work that most do. Perhaps he normally does not do it. Perhaps he will point to a larger competitor and tell you that they don't polish underneath either. Who knows. He will not act as though he never thought about it, has never heard about it, and has never seen it done. You can use this to ridicule his position if he seems to be hardening his stance about not_doing it. You can find out in one phone call (per place) if the competitors often or always polish underneath. How you deal with him next is your business. There is risk involved in moving heavy things around. There is risk involved in any contractual negotiation too. You take it from here.

Our quartz isn't polished underneath. We don't have an island, just a regular countertop. The only time I ever notice is is when I'm bending down at the DW and see that part of the overhang isn't polished. I used to think it would be nice if it were polished there, but I don't think about it anymore. If I had an island with a big overhang I'd want it polished underneath.

Thanks for all the feedback - it is really a tactile thing, no one but the spiders can actually see it...When I sit at the island I can feel that it is not shiny, and I sorta wish it were. Now I just have to decide how much I care!!

Thanks again GW - you guys are great :)

Sally -- I just posted about my experience having missed your post -- thanks to David for pointing it out.

Like you I hadn't thought about it. In so many ways Cat's fabricators sounds so wonderful.... sigh. It seems just like luck after the fact as to whether you wound up hiring an artisan or a slouch; personally I just can't see how to figure out the difference before hand. I must apologize to all the actual artisans on this list who are always posting about their perspective, alternately not understanding how we homeowners can be so blind as to hire their unscrupulous competitors, complaining about fixing that other work and also not quite understanding how undistinguished they, the real deal, wind up being a priori. This forum is very helpful for getting us one-time buyers to try to come up with the right questions and thoughts in advance.

As to your situation... it sounds as if you have a countertop that can actually be removed, amazingly, at this point and you are just deciding whether it is worth it to you in terms of cost, whether the niceness of the polish is worth the cost?

First, give a call to your fabricator and find out the cost so you know what you're actually evaluating. Use the info here to point out that you understand many do this without being prompted; just because you didn't know to ask this questions doesn't make it reasonable to expect you to accept sub-par work. They may actually offer to do it or at least do so with a generous price break. Somehow there may be some way to point out that your good opinion of them and recommendation would hinge on this.

Because here's my random opinion - it may be that you don't have a right to expect polishing below-board at the same price you paid, but it is something that the person familiar with the situation -- the fabricator -- should have brought up at the time of bid. I think this is integral-enough a part of the work at hand that it should have been brought up by the fabricator in the beginning. S/he shouldn't just hope that you'll never notice or think about it. Eventually you will -- and then where is he? With a dissatisfied customer at best, one who feels cheated at worst.

So I think they should have known to have prompted you about the issue before hand. I'm learning, belatedly, that the edges is what it's all about - where things end, how, what it's like on the underside, etc. And they should know this. So while you may not have a right to a completely free fix, they may be willing to accommodate their oversight for you. =0.02. And good luck with that; my own track record with such things isn't terribly good. I don't know if it's a sexist situation that results in some not really getting appropriate customer service. I'm guessing it's more complicated -- there's just this culture out there among some contractors... oh, forget it. Let's not get into this here! Point is, IMO you have a legitimate gripe which leaves room for negotiation. And hence it's possible getting it polished underneath might not be as expensive as you fear.

Then - how much will you prefer it? Depends on the setup, I should think. David, you're right that the roughtop underneath my overhang is the problem, but in my case it had to be there for support; I needed metal bars gouged into it and glued for support. The overhang is a lot. Sally, in your case? Can you post a picture? I'm guessing that if it's still bugging you after a couple weeks it may do so for a while if not forever; it may be worthwhile. And of course you're the only one who knows what your finances are like. But I can say that shiny surfaces are pleasing; they feel good. In a kitchen especially, it is my opinion that rough surfaces feel a little scary because they bring to mind, somewhere deep in the recesses of your brain, the notion of uncleanliness. It may be erroneous -- I have seen the reports showing how dirty even the shiniest of surfaces are, after cleaning even. Still; I am happier with the edges of my under-counters being polished. FWIW.

I couldn't tell from the title if this thread was going to be about storage of cleaning products or somebody who opened their trash pullout to discover an Eastern European immigrant hiding there.

aliris, that last line was like Prufrock being happy about something. Looking back at life. I shall wear the edges of my counters tooled.

fwiw, to one and all:
a little strip of the underside *can* be hand polished in situ, by you. Ask about the right "tools" i.e. types of file/sand methods. Tell them it's for feel and not for show, and that you want them to give you the right tools. Pay for these if they aren't being provided to you free of charge. I think it's unreasonable for them to just say a few key words and then hang up. They already HAVE all these products in their toolkit all the time, but you wouldn't know where to go, what to buy (and what to avoid), even if they repeated the verbal information a hundred times. Now, I'm not an expert in these finegrained details, so I'm not about to attempt to hone the right terms. Don't let the carborundums grind you down. You be the one who grinds them into the shape you want them to be for you. When in Rome, they'll start doing as you do. Because it is a far far grater thing that you do than you have ever grated before. Once you have the right set of sandpaper or whatever, you may hire a handyman. Any nationality will do. Any personality too, from cultured and polished, to true grit.