Just get some silicone caulking to put on the top edge of the cabinets.

We just had granite installed in our kitchen last week. They used clear silicone on lots of edges and inside the drawers where they could reach the granite. Not sure if that is typical or what.

If you do use liquid nails, I think it was somewhere in this forum I read of a person 's fabricator used it and it seeped up thru the granite to the surface and showed as a stain. I know you are using marble and not sure of how different that makes it. But apparently the gist was there is one kind of liquid nails to use and the other is not good for securing stone counter tops. So just a heads up to make sure the adhesive you are using won't cause a problem.

You can buy liquid nails for mirrors, stone etc (read if it is OK for marble) but of course the installer should do this for you!

*sigh* I just don't understand, really, why i pay someone money to come to my house and do a good job yet I have issues such as this. ugh.

anyway, I suppose I will be fixing this myself. probably be easier. Does any one else have advice on what kind of silicone?

Silkin, does the clear silicone seep through your granite? I wish I had a piece of the marble laying around to do a test on

gpraceman have you dealt with this issue personally? would you suggest clear silicone as well for marble?

Absolutely call the fabricator - this is their mistake and their job to fix it. If you try it yourself and screw up any way, you will have no recourse. This is a major mistake - you paid for a good install - get them back to do it!

i AM A FABRICATOR. best would be to wait till next week and insist the fabricator return and complete the job. this is imperative if you have a loose seam. if it's just individual parts you could try to set them yourself as below.

use ONLY 100% silicone caulk. products with even a little oil in them will eventually bleed oil thru the stone and leave a stain which shows on the top of the stone.

yes, you got a deficient install.

heres the best way to reset the pieces.

1. get the pieces positioned so the overhangs are consistent.

2. there is typically some variation in contact between the underside of the stone and the cabinet. some places will be resting solidly on the cabinets and there will be gaps in other places. shims should be pushed into areas with gaps every 6" or so. use thin strips of something (preferably non compressible) or wood shims if you have nothing better.

3. buy "painters tape, which is brown and has adhesive along only one edge. (painters tape won't damage freshly finished cabinets) use this to tape the cabinets as close to the edge where the stone is as you can get it. perfect is having the edge of the tape go exactly along the edge of the wood. this can be very time consuming.

4. use masking tape or better blue masking tape (which is much easier to remove) and tape the underside of the stone along the joint with the cabinetry. now you ar ready for caulking.

5. next put a very thin bead of 100% silicone caulk in the joint between the cabinets and stone. Take anything with a 90 degree corner (a shim works good) and push along the caulk line with a corner of the shim to force the caulk into the crack. If you get big globs of caulk on the shim while doing this youj used too much caulk.

6. remove the tape while the caulk is still wet. Careful because it's awkward and the tape has caulk on it so its easy to get caulk on the cabinetry. once the caulk sets in a few hours the tops will be secure.

In a typical kitchen this activity will take 2 experienced people the better part of an hour including the splash.

.... or you could do what a lot of shops do: squirt a bead of caulk along the stone/cabinet joint and then smear it in (and on to the stone and cabinet) with a wet finger. takes about 5 minutes but it does have the disadvantage of leaving big smears of silicone caulk on stone and cabinets.

if your tops went in right before the holiday my guess is the installers skipped the caulking because they had a long day. shops like mine get very busy right before holidays and its easy to overload the installers in a poorly run shop.

While you wait for the installers to return, my advice is to resist the temptation to lift up any of those marble pieces to show the neighbors or whathaveyou. I can totally see the slab breaking under that circumstance.

Good luck - I hope you get a quick and fair resolution!

Ours was 100% silicone and they did a beautiful job in a way described by oldryder. You can barely see any caulk but it holds everything in place. I agree, you should make the fabricators do it in case it voids any warranties by doing it yourself.

If there is any rocking, it requires shims, or it could snap from stress. Stone has less tensile strength than other materials and is not particularly flexible or forgiving.
Casey

An alternative to oldryder's time consuming method would be to insert a 2" thick shim in the front between the bottom of the tops and the cabinet top. Apply dime-sized dabs of silicone every 12-18" or so. Pull the shim and check for consistent overhang.

You'll probably get a little squeeze-out, but you can simply let it dry in place and cut it off later or dab it up with a Q-tip dipped in acetone or denatured alcohol while it's still wet.

If you're worried about holding power, I've broken Corian tops trying to remove them after having been installed this way. This is also the manufacturer's approved method for installing engineered stone, as opposed to a continuous thin bead. See page 20:

Here is a link that might be useful: Installation Instructions

This post was edited by Trebruchet on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 11:39

fav.auntx2, how long ago was your counter installed? Unless this was some house I bought and the counter was long past the new stage, I wouldn't even consider fixing myself what should be a component of a professional installation.

Oh my gosh thank u everyone for the responses.

The marble was installed Oct. 17.

I will be calling them monday and see what they say. In the event that they insist they are done with my little project I will be stuck doing it. Fingers crossed!

There has been NO abuse to the island countertop. I have made 100% sure of that. Is it normal for installers to leave a job this way?

>>>I will be calling them monday and see what they say. In the event that they insist they are done with my little project I will be stuck doing it.

You're wrong here. All work has an implied warranty of purpose - a countertop that is not secured is not acceptable - if they refuse to fix it, you have several avenues of recourse. If you paid by credit card you can dispute the charge - that will get their attention. Next option would be a lawyer's letter threatening to take legal action. If they still refuse - I would hire another granite/marble installer to fix the counters and sue the original fabricator in small claims court for the cost. Take pictures and document everything. There's is no way you should attempt to do this yourself - you could damage the marble and/or hurt yourself.

This post was edited by weissman on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 14:23

Agree that you are taking on the risk, responsibility and liability of the installation if you start messing with it. If they can't be trusted to fix it properly, then contact your cc company and have a reputable installer ensure it is adequately secured and safe, at their expense.

I have a general question about contacting the cc company. If the work was done Oct. 17, wouldn't the cc company have paid out by now? If so, how can they get the money back?

Edited to add: And the cc holder has already paid the cc company. It sounds like this flaw wasn't immediately noticed, so no money was withheld.

This post was edited by linelle on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 14:43

They can reverse charges as they control their account.

snookums2, so the cc company can then send the payee (e.g., the counter installer) a bill for what they were actually paid? Is that part of the deal/agreement payees make when they accept payment that way?

CC companies don't pay the company with a check. They need not "bill" the company. They can just deduct the payment from whatever banking system they are using to bill it in the first place. (It is a whole banking system within the banking system, so to speak...)

I don't know how the dispute process works other than the cc company can only dispute or take a claim after the charges have already been processed. They are then able to process a claim to reverse charges on the merchant's account. That would automatically credit the customer's account .... or so it would seem.

CC companies also offer extended warranty coverage for some purchases.

linelle - I once ordered some DVDs that when I got them turned out to be illegal copies from China. They were shipped from two different addresses in China in Chinese. I went back and checked the ad, which originated in Canada and tried to track them down. No go. I did dispute the charge with the credit card company - endlessly. They kept saying that I had to send these illegal products back to these potentially false addresses in China to allow the company to refund my money. I don't read or write Chinese. Could I really have gotten the address correct anyway? Both the products and the matter of shipping them through the U.S. Mail were illegal. After a great deal of dispute, the cc company did reverse the charge and I threw the DVDs away. That's got to be a lot more complicated than the stone fabricator close to home. I don't think fav.auntx2 would have a problem going there if it became necessary.

Frankly, you're all misunderstanding how the credit card dispute process works. Yes, you can call the company to dispute the charge, but the first thing they'll ask is what efforts you made to resolve the problem with the vendor. If you haven't gotten satisfaction from the vendor, then the CC company will investigate the dispute (in the meantime they will issue a temporary credit to your acc't). After they investigate, they'll either make the reversal permanent or they won't. I would NOT hire someone else first and expect to recoup the cost. The CC company is there to help you but they are NOT an independent guarantor

Didn't mean they wouldn't investigate when processing a claim. Nothing is that easy where money is involved.

You can dispute the charge while you are still trying to resolve the issue with the vendor. However, because you have 90 days after the transaction, you should try to contact your installer first and see what he responds.
In fact, at least for my credit card, you can look up your online statement and dispute the charge with a click online.

CC companies aren't in the business of adjudicating quality. (I'm not even sure who makes this decision: there can be on the order of a half a dozen companies in the chain between the vendor's bank and yours.)

If you google for "credit card dispute services rendered" you'll see that in many (most?) cases, disputes based on quality of service are settled as valid charges if some sort of service has been rendered.

It can't hurt to ask, if there are no other avenues left, but this is probably a small claims thing.

As has been said, when you dispute a charge, the CC company sends notice to the vendor and I think they immediately chargeback the vendor, just as they credit you, until the dispute is resolved. So I'd save this until direct resolution attempts had pretty much totally failed since it's going to further strain any remaining relationship.

Here is a link that might be useful: google for credit card dispute services rendered

This post was edited by aptos_ca on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 21:45

Good luck. I hope the fabricator stands behind is work.

This post was edited by oldryder on Sun, Dec 1, 13 at 8:45

I called the fabricator yesterday. of course they acted as if I didn't know what I was talking about but they agreed to come be on Dec 12 when they are "in the area" (they are 1 1/2 hours away from me)

After their insistence they siliconed the marble i investigated further. sure enough, the siliconed 6 inches on each end of a 5 foot island; both of which have not held. So. heres hoping they do a good job the second time, but you bet your boots I'm going in after them with silicone and fixing it myself also.

So incredibly sick of paying to have quality jobs done and dealing with issues such as this quite literally every. single. time. I know I seen a thread around here along that same vein.

I highly doubt this issue will be taken to any level that requires CC companies or court, etc. I have neither the patience or time to deal with all that. I will simply take responsibility of fixing this issue for good once they come to investigate.

On that note, neither of the fabricators I spoke with would install the counterbalance supports for the island. And both made it very clear in the event the marble broke or had any issues because of the counterbalance supports all responsibility and cost to fix was on me. Is that normal also?

Thank you everyone for your input and advice!!!! So appreciated!

"On that note, neither of the fabricators I spoke with would install the counterbalance supports for the island. And both made it very clear in the event the marble broke or had any issues because of the counterbalance supports all responsibility and cost to fix was on me. Is that normal also?"

Assuming you mean "corbels" for "counterbalance supports" and they installed the top without their being in place, no responsible fabricator leaves a top installed improperly. If corbel installation wasn't in his contract, he should have installed them and back-charged or left the top uninstalled until they were installed by others and charged for an extra trip.

No, it is not normal to do a sub-par installation then tell the customer you are not responsible.