What should I do about a gap between a quartz countertop and backsplash?

Question

I had new quartz kitchen counters installed yesterday. On one side by the cooktop there is no gap between the counter and backslash. The other side, by and behind the sink, was left with a gap between the counter and backslash! One side looks great and other looks unfinished!

My concern is that water can spill easily from the faucets to that area and seep behind into the gap and cause water damage or mold to grow in the pine wood cabinet below.

How do I resolve the gap issue? Should I grout the gap using a color close to the (tan) quartz? Should I caulk it with kitchen/bathroom caulk? Or using clear, or white, preferably tan, silicone to fill gap? I would have to then do all lines between the counter and backslash in all areas to accomplish a consistent look: would that be OK?

Answer 1

Did the countertop installers also install the backsplash? If so call them back and have them correct the issue. That seam should be sealed for appearance and to prevent any water from getting in there.

If the backsplash was already there it could be that they did a poor job leveling that section of countertop or the backsplash wasn't level.

Either way, call them in to look at it and correct it. Might just need to run a bead of caulk and they'll have the right color to work with the stone you selected.

Answer 2

It's not unusual for there to be a gap between a backsplash and the wall, especially if the wall is uneven or made of something irregular like brick. The common solutions are to either float the wall so that it meets the backsplash (usually before the countertop/backsplash is installed) or to caulk the gap with silicone.

I'd wager caulking is your best bet, at this point, and it's neither difficult nor expensive, you should be able to do it yourself in an hour or so. If the gap is more than the width of a pencil (1/4 to 3/8 of an inch), you might have trouble because the caulk will shrink a little, pulling away from the wall and/or backsplash. Even in that case, I'd still caulk and see what happens because it's not hard to pull the caulk out if you have to try something else.

If you haven't caulked anything yourself, you should practice, as it requires a little precision to get a nice result.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Misreading the question leads to entirely unhelpful answers ;-) It is not common to have an unfilled gap between the countertop and the backsplash. That being said, you can still squirt some caulk in there to keep the water out until you have the time/money/etc to fix it for real.

Wish I could be more help :-/

Answer 3

The folks who did my kitchen quartz (natural brown and beige colors) counter-top ran a bead of white silicone caulk between the backsplash (drywall painted light blue) and the counter-top. It looks really nice to us. I watched the guy do the caulking and when he had caulked about six or seven feet he used a squirt bottle to mist the caulk. Then he pulled down the entire length with his finger. That smoothed the caulk surface as well as forcing it down into the gap.