What Are These Holes in Your Granite Countertop?

You run your hand across a granite counter and feel tiny pinholes, fine lines, or shallow dimples. Under a pendant light they look like damage, but most of the time they're a normal part of natural stone.

Homeowners mix up these three features all the time. Some need no repair, others need epoxy chip repair, and filling the wrong one makes the counter look worse.

Pitting, fissures, and chips

Feature	Pitting	Fissure	Chip
What it is	Tiny dips where softer minerals polished away faster than the crystals around them	A natural line inside the stone	A piece broken off by an impact
Size	Pinprick, up to a few mm deep	Hairline, up to several inches long	A piece you can see is missing
Feel	Tiny dimple; may catch a fingernail	Often smooth; may be slightly open	Sharp, rough edge
Risk	Cosmetic, unless deep and trapping grime	Usually stable if it isn't widening	Can spread if the edge takes more knocks
Fix	Epoxy fill when deep enough	Usually leave it and keep an eye on it	Chip repair and polish blending

Pitting is normal in granite. Many slabs have their fissures reinforced at the factory, and filling a stable fissure with coloured epoxy can leave a line that draws more attention than the natural one did. Chips are always worth repairing on edges and around the cooktop cutout, where the stone takes the most stress.

How to tell what you're looking at

• Where it is: Damage on an edge is almost always a chip. Random pinpoints across the surface are usually pitting.
• How it feels: Chips feel sharp. Fissures often feel smooth under a fingertip.
• Light test: Move a phone flashlight across the surface. Chips cast sharp shadows, pits show as tiny gaps in the sparkle, and fissures look like dark lines inside the stone.
• When it appeared: Chips follow an event, like a dropped bottle. Pitting and fissures are usually there from installation.
• Colour: An orange stain in a pit isn't part of the stone. See stain removal.

If a hairline is getting wider, pulling apart at a seam, or letting water under the stone, stop any DIY work and send us a photo. That may be a structural problem.

When to fill: Fill pits that trap food, feel rough under a cloth, or bother you under pendant lights. Leave stable fissures and shallow pits alone if they clean easily. Repair chips on edges soon.

Can pitting be fixed?

Yes, if the pit is deep enough to hold filler. Very shallow pits may not take epoxy cleanly, and forcing filler into a hairline leaves a visible smear.

How we fill pits:

• Colour match: we tint the epoxy to match the flecks in your slab, not a generic grey.
• Fill and scrape: the hardener sets quickly, so we work fast and scrape off the excess before it cures.
• Blend the finish: diamond pads bring the sheen level with the stone around it.

Done well, filled pits disappear in normal kitchen light. Done badly, they leave shiny spots that look worse than the pits. See stone pitting.

Why we recommend professional filling

DIY granite repair kits are everywhere. We often refinish counters where someone:

• Used the wrong colour tint
• Left epoxy high spots that catch the light
• Filled stable fissures that should have been left alone
• Scratched the polish around the repair while trying to level it

A professional repair usually costs less than fixing a DIY mistake.

Fissures: when to worry

Most granite fissures are cosmetic. Worry when:

• The line gets wider over months
• One side sits higher than the other
• Water darkens along the line after the counter dries
• The fissure runs through a narrow section near a cutout

Don't inject epoxy into a fissure yourself. We check whether it's stable first, and sometimes the right answer is to watch it, keep the counter sealed, and leave the line alone.

Protecting granite from further damage

Pitting and stable fissures rarely spread. Poor care and new knocks do the damage:

• Clean with a pH-neutral cleaner. No vinegar or harsh chemicals.
• Reseal when the water-bead test says so. Lighter granites often need sealing more often.
• Blot spills fast. Oil and wine can stain even hard stone once the sealer wears off.
• Protect the edges, where pots and appliances knock the stone and chips start.

For more on granite care, and when to restore instead of replace, see when to replace granite countertops.

Buying, selling, or moving in

Take photos of the counter with a light held low across the surface, so you can tell natural features from new damage later.

Home inspectors flag chips and cracks but rarely pitting or stable fissures, and buyers can treat those as normal stone. If you're selling, list stable pitting and fissures as natural features on the disclosure. Having chips professionally repaired before listing avoids last-minute price credits, and filling pits on the most visible counters costs little and looks good in listing photos.

Getting an assessment

We assess from photos when we can and do chip and pit repair across the GTA. Request an assessment and we'll tell you honestly whether filling is worth it for your slab.

Related: Selecting the right granite · Granite · Scratch repair