I just had my bathroom redone. I have travertine and natural riverbed stone. I had gotten two different kinds of sealer for the workers to use. One was a stone enhancer to be used in only a few places. The other was a matte finish to be used everywhere else. They put the stone enhancer over everything. I need to know if there is anyway to remove it from the stone I don’t want it on. - Margie

Hello Margie

Yes, to remove most stone enhancers you can use Acetone and a green scrub pad. This is the safest procedure. However, it does not work, let me know and I will find a more aggressive product for you to try.

We we are in the process of remodeling our kitchen. Our cabinets are a honey oak and we would like to use granite on our countertops. We are not sure if we want to go a light color or dark color granite. We will be selecting stainless steel appliances and our flooring is taupe color 12X12 tiles and will be painting our walls a light beige color. We are interesting in the brown/black/beige colors. Can you make some suggestions as to granite that might compliment our cabinets/color scheme.

Thank you,
Darrell

Hello Darrell,

There is a granite color called Taupe which sounds like it will work very well. You can see two versions of it at www.GraniteStock.com. I think that would be perfect. My very best wishes!

We are moving into a new home that has off white cabinetry in the kitchen. The floors are a dark wood. There are 3 windows over the sink but they really don’t bring in a lot of light. We will have stainless appliances with black hardware. What color granite would you suggest and what color should I paint? You’re help would be greatly appreciated. Pam

Hello Pam,

I suggest looking at the Whites and yellows on www.GraniteStock.com. Definitely, consider the ones with veining that accent your wood but also look for a little light yellow and a spot of black to bring in a paint color and your fixtures. Bianco Romano Granite may work.

We are in the process of choosing the right color choice. We live in the country on a lake and our colors are earth tones. Our kitchen cabinets are soft olive green with a brazilian chery hardwood floor. We have a large window in the kitchen for natural light. I tend to go with the ubatuba color as it goes so well with the golds, greens and tan colors. My husbands concern is that it may be too dark. The granite places we have been to are also telling us that ubatuba is a good color choice with what we have. This is our first experience with granite as we have laminate that needs updated and were going to put laminate or corian in our kitchen. But when we looked at granite we were impressed and there is really no comparison to the other products. Thank you for your time. Please advise us on your opinion with our color choice. — Debbie

Hello Debbie,

Color is such a personal thing. I can tell you that Ubatuba, when properly hand selected, is stunning with stainless steel fixtures. I would not use it unless you choose stainless. Given your earthy environment, if you can handle a little more higher maintenance stone, then I would look at two stones from India, called Rainforest Green and Rainforest Brown. You can see both on www.GraniteStock.com. There is also a beautiful example of an installed Rainforest Green Kitchen on the Showroom Page of www.HomeGranite.com.

I am currently having approx 750 sqft of my home tiled with walnut, honed, chipped and unfilled travertine. It is being installed in a Versailles pattern. After the first day, I have noticed several hollow spots by tapping on each of the tiles. I would say that about half of what has been installed is like this. they are using They are using Mapei Keraflor and I believe they were using something different in the kitchen. Also, the tiles are being butted together in several places. The manufacturer recommends a 1/4 inch grout line. They have also installed the tiles over the existing vinyl sheeting in the kitchen. I was most concerned about the hollow sound as I’ve heard that natural stone must have 100% adhesion or it will fail. This was my original concern until reading several posts on the web including this one. The tile installation company is reputable from what i have gathered and has been around for a while. Do I need to stop everything? What should they be doing differently and will the tile already installed need to come up. I am starting to think that I have made a COSTLY mistake. What do you think? - Michael

Hello Michael,
There are several issues here. First, installing over vinyl in the kitchen is a practice when there is a crawl space under the house.

The vinyl is a good moisture barrier. However, cement board must be screw in over the vinyl to provide adequate tile adhesion. It might sound solid today, but it will not in a year from now as the house expands and contracts. Don’t cross your fingers. Get a warranty for adhesion of the tile at this location.

Secondly, the tile you described should be installed with a 1/4″ grout joint and sanded grout. Perhaps a little tighter if that is your preference, but never butt tight. That is not the correct look for this tile or this pattern. You can find many photos by searching google images, “Versailles pattern stone flooring”. Also, be sure to apply a good sealer to the grout and tile when done or this will be maintenance nightmare.

Lastly, the hollow sounding is usually caused by the installer not using a deep enough trowel. Personally, I recommend a 3/8″ or 1/2″ square notch trowel. Anything less will not provide enough thinset under the stone tile which is required to compensate for irregularity in the subfloor. Also, each corner of the stone tile should be ‘back-buttered’ with a glob of thinset because this is the weakest spot and the most common hollow sounding locations. It is best to flat trowel thinset over the back of the entire stone tile before setting in place. If you floor sounds hollow now, you grout will crack in the near future.

Sorry for the bad news and my very best wishes to you.

Can you recommend a home remedy to make for cleaning an off white marble fireplace platform that has rust from water that came in through the chimney? - Susan

Hello Susan,

Yes, use a product called “Iron-out” from your local home improvement store. Test it first in a small area to see the final results.

You may need to apply it several times.

Hi,
I am thinking about using 3cm thick granite as a counter top. About 58 sq. feet. I am concerned about the weight. This will be placed near the center of the house, not a lot of support from the basement. Will this cause the floor joists to sag over time?

Thanks, John

Hello John,

Regardless of the overall size of the countertops, you only need to consider the weight per square inch. Your countertops at 58 square feet (3cm thick) weigh about 1,040 pounds total. However, the gross distributed load (GDL) is .12 pounds per square inch (or 18 pounds per square foot) when resting horizontally on the cabinets. This weight will not create much pressure so do not worry unless your house was built with toothpicks.

My very best wishes,

Tom Cordova

Hi Tom,
We recently had Tropical Brown granite tops installed in our kitchen. We have a horseshoe shaped countertop area that required two seams. When the contractor was finished I noticed the third piece (which goes to the bar area) of granite was about an 1/8 of an inch thicker. The seams match fine on top but they used shims between the cabinets and counter tops. You can notice the thickness difference at the edge. The contractor stated that this was because the “difference in the rock”. Is this a common occurance? –Will

Hello William

No it is not common but does occur. It sounds like an honest mistake on the part of the contractor. The overseas supplier was sloppy with his gang saw blades and did not gauge the blades correctly. The difference in thickness does not look good. I would discuss this more with the contractor because obviously this in not acceptable without some sort of blending between the pieces.

Hi Tom,

We are thinking about using overmount sink for our granite kitchen countertop for our new home, even though the trend is to use undermount sink. We think that the overmount could be safer after we saw the sealant used in the model home undermount kitchen highly visible. When I wash my foodstuff in my current overmount sink, I often have the water filled to the rim. With this habit of mine applied to the undermount sink probably will wear off the sealant fast and also induce some residue from the sealant to my food. There is some advice out there that overmount sink for granite countertop will make the sink surround difficult to keep clean. My question is: Will sealant wear off faste when constantly immerse in water? Will sealant leech out some toxic when immerse in water. Why overmount difficult to keep the surrounding granite clean as some advice stated? Thank you for your advice. Hope

Hello Hope,

Let me present the pros and cons for both types of sinks and you can at least make a well informed decision.

Undermount sink: It can be debated that an undermount sink allows the granite to present itself better because a bulging sink does not stop the eye from admiring the beautiful natural veining and minerals. The polished sink edge along with faucet holes going through the granite also enhance the high-end upgrade for which you paid so much money. Another benefit is that you can clean your countertop by simply sliding what you are cleaning right into the sink.

Now for the cons of undermount sinks! Undermount sinks do create a maintenance situation at the caulking joint between the sink and the underside of the granite. The degree of maintenance is measured by the method and expertise in which the sink was installed. I have seen the worse and the best. If you go with an undermount porcelain sink, insist that steel ’sink-spreaders’ are used to hold the sink up. Do not accept cleated wood or notched and screwed wood anchors. These will not last.

Furthermore, the sealant used is traditionally a latex or acrylic-laex caulking. Sometimes 100% silicone is used but because the messy application process of silicone, most installers opt for the water soluble latex caulking. This caulking is sufficient to keep splash water from seeping into your cabinet but it is not suppose to be 100% submerged. Therefore, if you are the type to fill you sink all the way up, don’t use latex caulking.

In fact, I would only recommend a special caulking made by Vulkum Products which specifically states that it is 100% submersible caulking.

Top Mount Sinks: I really don’t like the look but they do have functional purposes. You can get a much bigger sink with a top mount sink because they are not limited in size by the cabinet walls. I feel that is the #1 consideration for going with a top mount sink. If you are going with a soft countertop stone, like marble, the a top mount sink would protect the edge.

Usually you will save $150 to $200 by selecting a top mount cut, instead of a polished edge finish.

Hi Tom,
We are using polished white marble (I suppose it’s like carrera white with light grey vening) on our bathroom walls but facing some problems. Once we started mounting the tiles on the walls we have watched them change color. They were sparkley white to begin with but after they are up they start turning darker more greyish all over. All of the grey and yellowish/brown hues that were faint to begin with are really coming through on each tile. I could send you pictures if that’s helpful. I’ve waited 36+ hours and they are not changing back to their original color. I thought the water from the wet saw and adhesive moisture was doing it but they seem permanently changed. I tried getting one wet and it dried back to normal color so all I can think of is the concrete backer board (which is dark grey) and/or the thinset. Our contractor is using premixed thinset from Home Depot. It comes in plastic buckets. The color is called ‘white’ and looks white to me, not grey. So I’m confused and unsure if we should tear everything down and start over, or if even the ‘bright white’ thinset sold by some of the tile stores will do the same thing.

We have not sealed the tiles yet because I’m wondering if there’s anything that can be done to restore their original sparkley white color before we seal. Any recommendations on what to do (if anything can be done) and the best sealer to use before we grout then seal again would be appreciated!!

Jill (Denver, CO)

Hello Jill,
The marble is just really soaked from the moisture in the thinset and it is trying to dry through the tile. The marble tile is more absorbent that the subfloor so this is path of least resistance for all the moisture in the thinset.

Sealing the marble before installing it would have been a disaster and created and permanent problem. Basically, you just have to wait and wait and wait. The tiles will dry at the corners fist because they have the most exposure to air. Because the marble is rough on the back, the water enters easily. However, because the tile is polished on the surface, it struggles to penetrate the surface.

You can also accelerate the drying by renting a large commercial blow dryer which is usually available at equipment rental locations. Somethime they are called ’salamanders’. They usually run on propane but some may be electrical. You will notice results within a few hours. This works as I have done it myself. Otherwise, you need to wait a couple weeks at least for the marble to dry out before sealing it.

Best wishes and let me know how it turns out!