White spots on new Absolute Black

[Samantha]

Hi there, We have just remodeled our kitchen and have not yet been able to enjoy it. We have been wrangling over our Black Absolute counter tops. They were installed scratched all over on every counter. The fabricator came out to buff the scratches out but left unsightly white spots scattered throughout. What have these people done???

Thanks in advance for any and all replies,

Sam

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[doitright]

Hi Sam, Welcome :)

I'm moving this thread to the Cleaning and Restoration forum.

Is there a way you can post some photos?

Do a search on Black Absolute, and see if anything catches your attention.

Find out if the fabricator sealed these tops. Also try the acetone test.

[krysti0423]

Hi there, We have just remodeled our kitchen and have not yet been able to enjoy it. We have been wrangling over our Black Absolute counter tops. They were installed scratched all over on every counter. The fabricator came out to buff the scratches out but left unsightly white spots scattered throughout. What have these people done???

Thanks in advance for any and all replies,

Sam


Hi Sam,

I asked our technition here at work about your problem as I was curious about it myself. Here is the reply she gave me :

This has been a common problem on many black granites. The reason why this is occurring is because black pigments are being added to black granites to darken them up. This is a common practice that is happening overseas. It has nothing to do with their fabricator or installer.

When certain drinks such as alcoholic beverages, juice, soda, etc., contact the stone, the black pigments fades out. The only way to correct it is with the black wax that we sell and then maintain the stone with SCI's Marbamist.

SCI's Stone Spray N Seal cannot stop this problem because the sealer can only bond to the stone, not the pigments. The white rings that they see are not stains, they are areas that have faded out.

Here are the directions for using the Black Wax.

-Clean the surface first with SCI's Marbamist or Clean EnCounters.
-Apply the Black Wax like Car Wax to the surface using a white terry cloth towel.
-Apply is a circular motion and buff it in to the surface.
-Let it set for three more minutes and buff off the excess with another clean and dry terry cloth towel.
-For routine maintenance, clean with SCI's Marbamist or Clean EnCounters.
www.stonecare.com

[GraniteGirl]

Hey Sam,

The wax option is temporary at best. Is there any way you could post a picture to illustrate your problem. Black Absolute is a difficult beast and a lot of things could be blamed for your predicament.

Regards

Adriana

[scrappy]

I have also heard many companies are using wax to make the black "really black". ( I had encountered this problem as well!)

The prior entry says to use black wax. Is this found on stonecare wedb-site or somewhere else?

[kcstoneguy]

if you do research, you will find that most absolute black is not really granite, but basalt. The cheapo stone suppliers in India and China are soaking the stone with dye to make them look black. The scratches all over the stone is a pretty good indication this is not the hardness of granite.

I recently was called to a similar situation, and the homewoner tried to cure with black wax..the color did not match, and it left smear marks. their problem was every time he sat a glass on it, the water would pull out a ring of the added color....

I would suggest you go to www.ntc-stone.com/phorum, you can find many posts on this very topic.

I dont know much that will rectify this other than having the stone replaced.

John Jackson
Integrity Stone

A very good link for information is this link: it explains what I mentioned about absolute black granite:http://stone-network.com/absolute_black_granite.html