Damage to granite in kitchen

[Michael Nahm]

Hi to all in the BP community.

I recently had tenants move out of my rental after residing there for a couple years.

Usually, I’m rather lenient on damage and wear and tear, and have rarely not returned a full security deposit.

I did notice that the granite in the kitchen has a rather large chip (on the edge, about the size of a quarter).

Since I recently redid a vanity countertop at another unit and am familiar with the huge cost it brings, I was wondering if this chip should be deemed wear and tear or not, and if not, how would you go about it.

I should add that these tenants were great while at the property.

[Jim K.]

@Michael Nahm

I've worked with granite and marble for about a decade. The first thing I would do is buy some clear knife-grade epoxy from Amazon. I have used this product in the past. knife grade epoxy

If you can repair the chip with this product, and you should even be able to if it's on the edge of an undermounted sink (which is where these chips usually occur) you should, and pass a minimal cost on to your tenant. I would normally say not to charge anything at all if you can fix it, but a quarter-size chip is pretty big. Granted, I don't know what kind of granite it is, but I rarely see chips larger than a dime in even the most fragile exotic granite held together by epoxy treatments.

These chips and their regrettable frequency are the main reason I don't like the idea of putting granite countertops with undermounted sinks into any rental, however high-end.

If you can't repair the chip with this product and you have to call in someone with the skill to fix this crack well, you're really in a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't position. In my case, I would call someone in to do the work, eat the cost, then chop the sink out the bottom and replace with a good-quality drop-in sink, or some variety of farmhouse sink installed as a flushmount. If the chip happened somewhere else, perhaps in an edge treatment more complicated than a simple eased edge, that just reveals more of the unpredictability of granite in rentals. There are in truth very few repair options or alterations that work well if you can't epoxy a chip along the edge of a granite countertop, and all of them require the skills of a granite specialist who really knows the work and therefore knows what his/her applied skills are worth. You would be unpleasantly surprised to know how few of these guys are really around (BTW, a surprising number of the very best in this field are women sculptors who work for a granite fabricator on the side to fund their artwork).

I feel for you, Michael. You were promised and paid for a luxury product in an undermounted sink. Now you have to deal with a dealbreaking detail of the reality of the luxury product, and it stinks.