I have discolored granite edges. What can I do?

[skipper297]

I recently had granite countertops installed in my home.  I purchased a stone that I had not heard of before, Hefestos.  After the slab was fabricated and installed, I noticed that the edges of my granite are much more dull and lighter in color than the top of the stone.  The difference is very noticeable.  The granite has deep brown, black, orange, and gold tones with small specks of white.  The edges are very light with a peach color tone and faded.  The story I'm getting from the fabricator is that it is due to the type of stone that I purchased.  I'm told this sometimes happens with stones covered with a thick coat of resin.  I'm going to contact the sales guy that I bought the granite from this week to try and get to the bottom of this and see if there is anything that can be done to darken the edges.  Anybody familiar with this problem?  I'm hoping there is some aging products or something that can be used to fix this.  The difference is very noticeable and, frankly, it takes away from the beauty of the entire job.  Thanks in advance for any help on this.

[Mark D.]

Well you have come to the right place! There are 3 reasons to resin a slab, but the 2 most common are for strength (if the stone is fractured or easily could fracture), or if the stone needs some color enhancement (when it came out of the ground it was ugly so they color enhanced it for beauty to help sell the product). A common side affect of fabricating a resin enhanced slab is the the contoured edge is lighter than the face of the slab. This can be corrected by using a color enhancing sealer on the lighter part and an invisible sealer on the darker stone. The color enhancing sealer will give it a wet look (picture your sidewalk, then picture it 20 minutes after a rain...the difference is a deeper darker richer color).

Purchase the Ager by Tenax to color enhance your edges and use they Hydrex by Tenax for the top. You will have to buff off the Ager as it is a resin based sealer, but the Hydrex dries invisibly and quickly.

Here is the link for Ager:
http://www.defusco.com/ager-liter-p-1437.html

Here is the link for Hydrex
http://www.defusco.com/tenax-impregnator-and-sealer-liter-p-2095.html

Glad to be of service,
Mark

[skipper297]

Thanks Mark.  I did read about the Tenax Ager on your website.  My question is:  Do I need to have the fabricator apply this to my stone or is this something I can do myself?  I certainly do not want to worsen the situation as I know NOTHING about treating granite.  Can this product be applied to the granite even though it has already been sealed?  Or does the sealer need to be removed first (if that is even possible)?  Thanks again!

[Mark D.]

What makes you think this fabricator (who obviously is new at this game) sealed the granite? You can check by doing the lemon test - put a couple of drops of lemon juice in an inconspicuous place and see if the stone absorbs it in a few seconds, but less than 60. If the stone absorbs it then it is safe to assume that the stone is not sealed.
If it is sealed then you can remove the sealer with an alkaline solution like caustic soda and water (or Drano for that matter). The alkaline solution will not hurt the stone or the finish. Once the sealer has been removed clean with water, and let dry.

Now that you are already to seal - here is how you do it:
Get a clean rag. Apply Ager to the rag. Wipe on the stone - if it gets wet you have coverage. Let stand 20 minutes and apply a second coat, always using a clean part of the rag. Let stand another 20 minutes and buff off with a clean dry rag until the smeary, greasy residue is gone. This residue is because Ager is a resin based sealer.

I would use the Ager on the lighter edges and the Hydrex (a mineral based sealer, so no color enhancement and no residue to buff off) on the top surface. Any monkey can be trained to seal granite, and since you are much smarter than a monkey you can do it also 

Glad to be or service,
Mark