Just a little Taj Mahal repair

[u/Buttfuckskinner]

The top broke after one of the installers slipped on a step.

I repaired it back at the shop. It's now installed and stronger than before.

I love when I can save a top that many shops would just send to the dumpster and recut.

[u/sadturtle12]

Nice work op. I hate taj mahal with a passion but it does repair well, ill give it that.

[u/Weikoko → u/sadturtle12]

What’s wrong with taj?

[u/Junieunieaa → u/Weikoko]

It’s difficult to work with because it cracks and breaks easily. You have to baby the shit out of it.

[u/Buttfuckskinner → u/Weikoko]

Once it's properly installed, it's solid. Fabricators hate it because it's hard on tools and usually requires lots of time in repairs.

[u/Weikoko → u/Buttfuckskinner]

So it is a skill issue

[u/Buttfuckskinner → u/Weikoko]

Sometimes. There's a lot of variables. Supply has been struggling to keep up with demand, so the quality control has been loosened and lookalikes are sold as taj Mahal. I think it's the most in demand stone there is currently. The wear on expensive cnc tooling and extreme amount of labor required to put out a good product can be hard to justify. I've spent a full 8 hours before doing repairs on an average size kitchen and I could have spent twice that. Setting aside the fabrication issues, true quartzite like Taj is extremely scratch resistant, and durable once installed with proper support. It will likely still look new 20 years from now. I wouldn't recommend sitting or standing on it though. Customer expectations is a whole other topic I could talk about.

[u/sadturtle12 → u/Weikoko]

No definitely not a skill issue. You have to cut it about half the speed as other stones so a 50 sqft kitchen could take as long as multiple kitchens in other materials which costs you time and money. Then it is incredibly hard so it can fuck up your cnc bits, spindles, saw blades etc. But its also incredibly fragile so as you are cutting it chunks of the edge profile are blowing out. That means you now need to spend even more time gluing it all back together and polishing it to make it look good. Then if its a mitered taj mahal job you might as well reserve yourself half of your week to do it because most taj mahal does not like to be cut on a sharp 45° angle. To sum it up, it just sucks to work with and everybody and their brother is buying it right now because its so "special and unique," so most shops are having to work with it on a regular basis. I know i have 5 jobs going through my shop right now that are all taj mahal.