Granite Re-Conditioning

Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
15
Location
Phoenix AZ
Name
Bryan Thomson
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When your customer asks....”Will it look like new again”......You can say YES, and even better then new!

This granite was only 2 -3 yrs old and had a nice reflectivity, but the customer noticed that it would darken slightly after water sat on the edges around the sink.
When I inspected the stone and installation, I noticed that the backsplash grout had failed / separated, especially the backsplash area just behind the faucet.
This is an extremely important area to keep sealed water tight!
If water gets under the backsplash behind the sink faucet area, or at the sink seal itself, major damage can occur over time from what is called a “rod failure”.
Rod failure can and will cause the front sink edge or areas around the faucet sink edge to severely crack and actually fall apart !
However, that is a separate discussion for another time.....the key to stopping “ rod failure” is to keep the water from entering these sensitive areas.

This particular granite countertop needed a good cleaning, sealing, polishing, and re-seal the backsplash.

The customer was selling the home so they wanted to “brighten up” areas of the home for resale.
We would normally recommend using SGA to reseal the backsplash however, they were trying to keep the costs down so we used a “siliconized sanded grout caulking” instead.....we generally charge twice as much for SGA.

The granite re-conditioning consisted of a 5 step cleaning, sealing and polishing process.
I think the results speak for themselves and needless to say the customer was simply amazed and said....”It looks like new again”....actually it was better then new, but if the customer is happy, I’m happy too.

If you have ever thought about offering this service to your customer, or wondered if your customer would pay for this service..... then sign up today for the upcoming “Hard Surface Repair & Care” 2 day class this September in Vegas to be held at the IICRC Global Center.
There is a link on Mikeys board forum to sign up.

I’ll personally demonstrate and teach you “how to” perform this service for your customers.....and not only that, but will teach you how “sell this service“ by educating your customer as to the importance of maintaining their investment in stone.

Also, there will be many other stone repair and care demonstration and actually “hands on“ working station with mock ups of backsplash, showers, countertops and more!

Hope to see all my friends in Vegas and make a few new ones to! 8B4762C2-C78E-4C4C-89B0-8CC0210099CF.jpeg D186D38D-CD24-4529-A075-EFE3485A6CAB.jpeg
 

clean image

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
968
Location
Orlando
Name
Carl Maddock
"5 step cleaning sealing and polishing process" ?
did you hone it?

I believe most rod failures are from using steel rods, i think most fab shots use fiberglass now. I understand some made it a job removing steel and replacing with FG

You are correct though, most time water getting into raw cored drilled for faucet that can darken/stain that area.
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
15
Location
Phoenix AZ
Name
Bryan Thomson
"5 step cleaning sealing and polishing process" ?
did you hone it?

I believe most rod failures are from using steel rods, i think most fab shots use fiberglass now. I understand some made it a job removing steel and replacing with FG

You are correct though, most time water getting into raw cored drilled for faucet that can darken/stain that area.

No....I didn’t “break” the original polish.
Mean I didn’t “resurface” the granite I “re-conditioned” the original finish / gloss.

I agree most good fab shops are using fiberglass or stainless steel rods now.
However there are a lot of aged granite countertops out there where the homeowner has no idea how much damage is happening under the granite because they fail to maintain the seal around the sink / faucet core holes or backsplash at the sink area.
 

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