We had some stone bench tops installed in 2019. We were reasonably happy with the benchtops although there are a few issues that I did not bother to raise at the time so won't now. Fast forward 4 years and we have a hairline crack in the stone. I had been told that we had a 12 year warranty on the stone at the initial consultation but stupidly did not carry out my own due diligence beforehand to find out what that involved. I checked the folder into which I have all my United Stone paperwork and can find nothing spelling out the terms of the warranty. When I called on Monday to report the crack I was educated about the warranty conditions by Phil. He explained that the warranty only covers faulty installation and defects in the stone and as the crack did not appear until 4 years later it would not be covered by warranty. I asked how he could be so sure when he hadn't been out to inspect the crack ( and hadn't even suggested they would) and received the answer that, as the crack hadn't occurred in the first 3 months, it couldn't possibly be due to these warrantable causes. My take away from that is that my 12 year warranty turned out to be 3 months. They did offer to make a chargeable service call to see if they could help improve the look of the crack although were limited in what they could do as they no longer can use dust producing tools to repair engineered stone due, understandably, to silicosis concerns but I decided to spend my money elsewhere. I did make the point that they should spell out more clearly that the warranty is very
limited. He said he would take that on board but I just want to warn potential customers to check the warranty terms themselves prior to signing up. I have taken great care with the benchtop ( I never stand on it or put heavy things on it and always use trivets under hot cooking utensils and appliances but the crack happened anyway) . I'm not saying the crack was definitely due to a warrantable cause as I am in no way qualified to say ( I believe that subsidence can be a cause but we are on a slab so that should be less of a concern although it could have happened - how could I possibly know?). I just assumed however that, as nothing had happened my end that I was aware of to account for the crack ( only my husband and I in the house and he is not aware of anything either) I assumed that some kind of investigation would be conducted but was met with supreme confidence that the issue would not be covered by warranty. From my research other stone companies would handle this in the same way so no reason not to use United Stone just be aware of the warranty conditions beforehand so you don't get disappointed like I am. Anyway I have someone coming out to effect a repair next week. Should I be unhappy with the repair or should it fail in the future (no warranty there either but at least I know ahead of time) I will just replace the benchtops and probably will go back to laminex.

Approximate cost: $7600