My stone counter just broke...
 

What's the fix for this? My counter just cracked. Apparently the teeny bit of heat from my crockpot did it. Can I fill it with some epoxy stuff? Are crockpots on stone counters a no-no?

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Epoxy, the gray stuff. JB Weld would work. Push it in with a putty knife leaving it stand proud (a tad bit high). Trim it flat with a razor blade the next day. Easy fix because of the gray marbling in your white top

Is it stone or ‘quartz’? Stone doesn’t care about your meager little girly crockpot heat. Stone cares about having adequate uniform support - it won’t bend it will just break.

I don’t know your install situation but you might want to talk to whoever did the work.

I’d look at what is supporting the counter and how well the shimming was done. Looks like it broke at the strong corner where the two cabinets joined. My guess the area around isn’t supportive enough or not planar.

Epoxy. There are companies that do this and you won’t be able to tell. Less expensive than you think.

Good luck!

If that’s carrera marble I’d reach out to a local stone company. Mix marble dust w epoxy, fill crack, and immediately wipe the area with acetone or something to clean everything but the gap. Nice counter but marble is relatively fragile


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Thanks for y'all's helpful replies. Unfortunately the only info I have on the counters is that they came with the house.

Dang that sucks! Epoxy seems to be the answer but I'd want to know what caused that. I can't believe the crockpot did that.

I'm pretty sure that's marble, and its a great surface but not hard like granite or quartz. And yeah, the crockpot is likely not the issue as the crack doesn't appear to originate there

I'll add that I turned the crockpot off, and 30 minutes later the crack closed up. I wasn't expecting that much movement.

Here I am wondering what kind of machine counts stones.

Haha! Me too.

I cracked a friends granite countertop while cooking lefse many years ago because we didn't put a board between the griddle (500 degree F.) and the countertop and it was warm to touch when we were finished and it cracked while cooling. They had the company who installed the granite repair it for them.

I'm surprised that your crock pot created that much heat. Based on the movement that you saw, it certainly sounds like it was due to heat from the crock pot.

How tight is the crack now, practically invisible? If so, I think I'd run some thin CA glue over the crack, to seal it and give it some strength.

But you may be better off talking to a company that deals with that sort of thing. I'm sure that the type of material, synthetic "quartz", natural quartzite, marble, etc... may change the recommendation.

Marble is much softer than the others and can be scratched more easily or even etched by acids (wine, lemon juice, lots of cleaners, etc...) which makes it a bad option for anyone but the most diligent kitchen user.

synthetic quartz is ground stone mixed into a tinted resin. It's generally much more durable than marble but is not impervious to heat, chemicals, scratching/chipping/breaking.

Other natural stones have varying characteristics. Granite is usually the hardest, most durable, but even that depends upon the type of granite. From what I understand some quartzite can be damn near indestructable, but most counters sold as quartzite is actually a mix of multiple types of stone of varying hardness and chemical resistances.

That was exactly how I read it.

If that is the case here's how I would approach the repair. Heat up the area with the crock pot or heat gun until the crack is open . Remove heat source and mix up gray epoxy and force in as much as possible . Let it cool and close up . That " should " squeeze out epoxy causing a ridge above the surface . Clean the surface but leave the ridge . Next day use a single edge razor blade to cut the ridge to surface level . Or you can call " the guy " :D .

I think there is a good chance the repair will hold , only fear being will the crack continue inward . Normally you would drill a hole to stop the crack to continue on but I have no idea if you do that with this type of repair . Good luck with whatever you decide .

Yes, it's all but inviable. My new theory is it was already cracked, and the heat just made it open up.

Now you are going to have to turn the crockpot back on to see if the crack resumes for our entertainment.
It's in the name of science.;)

My in-laws have Corian solid surface countertops and had the exact same thing happen with a crockpot. Theirs is still visible and didn’t fix itself!

I’ve installed these sorts of countertops before, you typically use a color matched adhesive silicone caulking in the seams, sand it flat, and then polish it out. Any company that specializes in stone or solid surface countertops could probably make the crack disappear.

when I had some marble work done in my bathroom, I was amazed the guys would mix some marble dust in with clear 2 part, 5 minute epoxy, they would add some graining as they smoothed the epoxy, and fine tune with a single edge razor blade. you certainly could DIY, but I'd be tempted to call a pro and have them fix it.

I'd say this was a bad install. Counter has been under stress it's whole life and just needed some help to crack.
It needs to be supported properly or it will just keep cracking. Supporting it will probably make it crack even more because you need to lift it a bit to put the support under it.
I've done joins and all I have done is mask around the join and then work epoxy in with a razor blade. Let it dry and scrape the excess epoxy off.

I agree with your theory, it was cracked on install.
The mixing of marble dust with epoxy to color match is the way it's done for a one color stone. In your case your top is already marbled so just fill it with a gray epoxy and I'll bet you will be the only one who knows