Pre-Fab
The Day of Disaster
A surprising day of disaster may be looming in the near future in those kitchens installed with pre-fabricated granite countertops.
During one of my inspections at a factory in China, I was reviewing the quality of pre-fabricated granite countertops. The tops were cut to standard kitchen widths and had a laminated full bullnose edge detail. I asked for several of the countertops to be pulled out of the crate at random and then place upside down on a table. The bullnose looked beautiful. I took a piece of wood and tapped the back of the bullnose and the laminated granite popped right off.
The bullnose edge detail on these granite tops are laminated in China in order to take advantage of extremely low labor costs. Along with this big savings, come big problems with quality control.
In this article I do not mean to lump all pre-fabricated countertop manufactures into the same concern, but consider the following. The strength of the two-part epoxy that is used to glue the front edge together is dependent on the critical quality control aspects of mixing proportions, setting time, and a trained applicator. Even if quality control is a priority, the factors such as epoxy quality, training of the applicator and even atmospheric conditions are not optimal in low cost factories where humidity is high and experience is low. You also need to consider accountability. Ask yourself, will this manufacture take full responsibility for a long term latent defect such as the epoxy failing years from now.
For those that decided to go with pre-fabricated granite countertops, in the future the bullnose edge might fall off. To make matters worse, the installer might be out of business because this happened on all his jobs. If you decide to use pre-fabricated granite countertops, at least do a physical test of the epoxy strength at bullnose. Don’t judge it by how it beautiful looks!
