Granite Countertop Crack and Chip Repair Guide

In today’s day and age, granite countertops are becoming more and more popular in both new home construction and remodels. They are an excellent countertop source for a variety of reasons. Granite is available in hundreds of colors and offers many great benefits such as scratch resistance, durable beauty, heat resistance and easy care. It is hard to beat the beauty of granite countertops. Unfortunately, certain conditions can cause imperfections in your granite countertop’s. Granite being a natural stone, may contain fractures and fissures otherwise known as “cracks”, as well as divits or “chips”. These issues can easily be repaired in most cases and the results should be very satisfactory. Many times in stone repair a craftsman will be faced with large chips or cracks in the granite which will require professional grade epoxy’s and tools to repair but we’re going to focus on the simple chips and fractures or cracks which I mentioned earlier.

First you will need some supplies which should be available at your local hardware store. Acetone to clean the granite surface, straight razor blades, cyanocrylate (better known as super glue), and a permanent marker. Lets get started. Apply acetone to a clean rag and thoroughly clean the area of countertop to be repaired. let the granite air dry and apply a small of Cyanoacrylate into the repairable area. If you wish to hurry the drying process you may use cyanocrylate accelerator which is available in a spray bottle at most hobby stores. Once the cyanoacrylate has completely dried, use a straight razor blade to remove the excess cyanoacrylate by “fanning” the excess material away. Fanning is done by holding the razor blade perpendicular to the granite surface and dragging the edge of the razor across the surface in a sweeping motion. Do not dig the razor blade into the dried cyanoacrylate. You may need to add additional cyanoacrylate to the repair area and repeat the “fanning” process once more. Once desired results are achieved, you may wish to use a colored permanent marker such as a black “Sharpie” to color the cyanocrylate. Usually a few small dots in the repaired area will give the look we are looking for. Do this before you add any sealer or wax to the granite surface. You should now have a smooth surface which looks and feels great.

You should apply a Granite Sealer once a year to your countertops. Darker stones are not as much risk of staining as lighter stones but it’s still not a bad idea to apply a sealer. Many people think that the sealer will fill the little divits and chips but this is untrue. Sealer is almost as thin as water and will soak into the pores of the stone and dry. There are many cleaners on the market today made especially for granite, many of which contain sealants.