The edge of a counter beside the sink, the corner of an island at hip height and the nosing of a step take far more knocks than the rest of the stone. A heavy pot handle, a steel degchi lid, a vacuum cleaner or a trolley can take a small chip out. It looks alarming but is usually one of the easiest stone repairs.
First, keep the piece
If the chip came off in one piece, keep it. A clean piece can often be glued back with clear stone epoxy and be almost invisible.
Small chips: fill with tinted epoxy
- Clean. Wipe the chip with acetone to remove grease and dust. Let it dry.
- Tint. Mix a two-part stone epoxy or knife-grade polyester resin (from a stone-care or hardware supplier) and tint it with stone colour pigments to match the stone. Match the background colour, not the veins. Test the colour on a piece of card.
- Fill. Apply a little more than needed so it stands slightly proud of the surface. On an edge, tape a piece of cling film or tape around it to hold the shape.
- Cure. Leave it the full curing time.
- Level. Carefully trim the excess flush with a sharp razor blade held flat. On polished stone, finish with very fine wet sandpaper and polish, or ask a polisher to blend it.
On a polished edge, the hardest part is restoring the shine without dulling the stone around the repair. If you are unsure, fill the chip yourself and have a professional do the final polish.
Bigger damage
- A large piece broken off a counter corner: a fabricator can glue it back or re-profile the edge slightly to remove the damage.
- Cracks running back from the chip: these need to be stabilised with resin before filling, or the crack can extend.
- Badly chipped stair nosings: the step can be re-profiled on site, or replaced with a new tread from the same lot if you kept spare stone.
Preventing chips
- Choose a rounded or eased edge profile rather than a sharp square edge, especially beside the sink and on islands. Our edge-profile guide compares them.
- Keep heavy pots off the edge; set them down in the middle of the counter.
- On stairs, rounded (bullnose) nosings chip far less than sharp ones.
A chip you would rather we fixed? Send a close photo with a coin for scale on WhatsApp +92 320 9900948.