September 2023 by Jacq Jackson
Many years ago I had a FANTASTIC experience with Fernando's. They helped me pick out a beautiful black granite counter for my condo in DC. When I bought a house a few years later, I immediately went back to Fernando's to see if I could get that same style of black granite for my new kitchen. I expected them to be happy to have a repeat customer, however they were less than pleasant to work with. They were abrupt, somewhat rude, and generally did not seem to want the job for my new kitchen (even thought it was almost twice the size of my previous job). The only reason I ended up going with them again was because I *really* wanted that same black granite and I could not find it anywhere else. I did get the same type of black granite from them that I had purchased previously, but the whole experience was unpleasant. They seemed perpetually irritated and annoyed with me. However, when it was finally done, I just loved my countertop, so I felt it was worth it. Fast forward ~15 years. My beautiful granite countertop started to crack and I frantically tried to figure out what was happening and what to do about it. It turns out that a metal support rod installed in the underside of the granite corroded and caused the granite to split. According to my research, it is common practice to grind out a thin trench in the underside of granite to install a metal support rod across cut out areas like a sink. This rod goes a couple of feet in each direction past the sink cutout. In my case, it extends nearly 3 feet to the left of the sink, which is just above the dishwasher. This metal rod needs to be WELL sealed to make sure water/moisture does not get to the metal rod, or it can corrode and cause the granite to split. Everything was fine until I replaced my dishwasher with a high end energy efficient model. These new dishwashers are more efficient because they do not use heaters/fans to dry the dishes. Instead, they pop open the door of the dishwasher at the end of the cycle, releasing all of the steam so the dishes can dry naturally. If that metal rod is not well sealed (as in my case), the steam gets into the rod and corrodes it. Within one year of installing the new dishwasher, my granite was cracked. Unfortunately, the fix is literally THOUSANDS of dollars, and I would still be left with a repaired crack in my granite. If I had known about this potential issue, I would have monitored the strip and made sure it stayed sealed. I would have expected Fernando's to informed me of this as part of the ongoing maintenance of the countertop. As it was, due to the unpleasant interaction with this installation, I wasn't given ANY maintenance instructions (I ended up googling it, but that didn't include any instructions for monitoring the underside to ensure the rod was well sealed).I also think that it is not wise to put a rod made of corrosive metal into a countertop in a kitchen, where humidity and water are common occurrences. Clearly it wasn't properly sealed in my case and I am now grappling with the decision to spend $3k on a repair, replace my countertop altogether, or try to do a temporary fix with a very strong epoxy designed for natural stone repair (e.g. Tenex Eliox).
