I am not affiliated with this company but I am so pleased with how it works I thought I would post information for anyone else who might be interested. If anyone else has tried it, I'd be intersted to hear what you think. Wondering if there are any uses for it I haven't thought of yet. I purchased an 800 g container more than a year ago and went out to get a new one today. Lasts a long time and I would almost call it a "miracle cleaner". I have stainless appliances and this removes all the water/drip marks and makes the steel look new. It also cleans my black granite counters beautifully. No water marks. I use it in the kitchen and bathroom with great results. It polishes my polished nickel kitchen faucet as well. Removes the tarnish marks. I have used it to polish silver pieces as well. While I was getting a new container today I met a lady buying several. She runs a local cleaning company and said she uses it as their primary cleaner. She said her clients love it. I took the following from their website: The Universal Cleaning Stone 100% SAFE NATURAL CLEANER THAT WORKS ON ALMOST ANY SURFACE The Universal Stone, is a highly effective, non-toxic, low odor, long-lasting, all-purpose cleaner from Germany that cleans, polishes and protects almost every hard finished surface. It's hard, reminiscent of a stone; this means not a penny is wasted shipping water. Plus, with Universal Stone there's nothing to drip, spill, evaporate, dry out or freeze. We guarantee you'll be impressed. This is not a whimpy cleaner. It will outperform just about every other cleaner you own. But don't take our word for it; read the testimonials and watch the video. Non-toxic, acid free--100% safe for the chemically sensitive, children and pets Winner 2008 PTPA media Award--Parent Tested, Parent Approved (US and Canada) Made from six natural ingredients--earth/polishing clay, glycerin, green soap, soap flakes, natural vegetable oils and citronella. Gentle on the skin--will not dry or damage your skin Non-abrasive--Safe for silverplate or heirloom silver; you polish less often because Universal Stone effectively retards tarnish. Also this is the best DVD cleaner Easy to use--just add water to sponge and squeeze to make a foam Long lasting--depending upon use, lasts 6-24 months, saves even more money Unlimited shelf life--won't spill, leak, drip, dry out, evaporate or freeze Residential use--kitchen, bath, silverware, floors, windows, auto, boats, lawn furniture and much more Commercial use--schools, hotels, restaurants, cleaning services Here is a link that might be useful: Universal Stone

IF your Fabricator is willing to guarantee that your seam wont separate from the heat cycles and vibration patterns that occur every time your dishwasher runs and heats up the glue in the seam - then hey - God Bless Him.... AND You !!! However........Since it IS an Engineered Stone product, AND IF he's using an epoxy - and NOT a polyester to glue the seam - he's got a better chance of it lasting longer. The "this is the way we've always done it" defense never hold up in court when the job fails - I know this as I am a Fabricator and I testify as an "industry expert witness" on lots of cases where seams fail all the time and I am brought in to show the mechanics of why some seams last and others don't........ In your case - the seam placed over a dishwasher will be subjected to daily - if not multiple times a day - heat cycles where live steam will be vented out of the dishwasher and make direct contact with the stone at the seam line. The assembly (the stone top with the seam in it) will also be subjected to vibration from the dishwasher unit dunning each time it cleans your dishes. Combine the vibration and the heat - multiple times a day, or even daily - over time - this can weaken a seam line, and the first thing to let go would be the glue. In your case - ES (engineered stone) is made up of epoxy glue and quartz particulate fashioned into a slab - (kind of like terrazzo). When the seams are glued - most ES manufacturers recommend that an epoxy glue be used in lieu of the more conventionally accepted polyester that most guys like me swear by when doing seams in Natural Stone. Epoxy is NOT Polyester. Polyester is NOT Epoxy - the two are vastly different glues and react differently. Epoxy and Polyester are many times - not compatible with one another and will not bond together at an optimal rate. IF your guy uses EPOXY in the seam directly over the DW - your installation will last longer than if he would have used polyester, but due to the placement of the seam (over the dishwasher) it'll be just a matter of time until you start to see degeneration if the seam - due to the daily exposure to the heat and vibration from the dishwahser. It's kind of like this analogy - if you have a seam that you hit one time with a hammer - you may chip the stone - you may not... but any damage will be limited to the one time you hit the stone with your hammer. But....... if you keep hitting the same spot in the stone over and over again with the same hammer, with the same force and the same velocity - eventually, you're going to break the stone and / or break the seam..... At the end of the day - why would you want to hit the stone with a hammer to begin with? I don't mean any disrespect to your Fabricator, but I'd suggest keeping the seam away from the dishwasher and going with two seams. IF he's good - and uses a Seam Phantom and Gorilla Grips to dress & set his seams - you will prolly not even see the seams - or at the very worst - you'll struggle to find them every time you go looking for them - remember that ES seams are harder to notice that Natural Stone ones - primarily due to the monolithic nature of the color distribution within the slab...... If on the other hand - he's never heard of the Seam Phantom OR Gorilla Grips or doesn't have either - well, your seams will be much more noticeable :-0 just my .02 cents worth = hth kevin

First of all, I loathe elevated burner grates because a pot can slip off those really easily when you're moving things around and there's not much space in the front. Also, you are constantly leaning in and over pots on burners set in the center like that. I think this is one really bad design -- not intrinsically but how this is installed. It looks like a catering set up and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a full range in there somewhere else. As for burners in a row, why not? But at least choose Wolf wok burners with flat grates (or any modular with flat grates). The loss with this arrangement is the ability to move things across the stove easily. However, another issue with this arrangement is no bridge -- i.e. no griddle use. With the functionality of a 22K "wok" burner, the idea is to be able to use a 14" braiser or a 20 quart stockpot. That's nearly the diameter of the unit. So care must be taken. This kitchen is in a NYC neighborhood with a lot of private townhouses that are prized as family residences because they are near all the private schools. You're in the 6-8 million house range here. Here is a link that might be useful: Wolf 15 This post was edited by rococogurl on Sun, Sep 8, 13 at 18:44

They are basically a French restaurant bar item/look so fabricators tend to be commercial. They haven't gained traction here over the last 10 years since the durability is an issue and, coupled with low demand, few fabricators specialize. Brooks Custom, which did mtnrdredux's pewter apron for her hutches, can do them (Brooks is ultra high end and does every type of counter superbly). For me, the beauty of a zinc counter is in the edge details which tend to be elaborate as you can see in trailrunner's link. If we add a fitted hutch to my kitchen, which I'm still debating, I'd do a 6-foot zinc counter on that as it essentially would be a breakfast, coffee and drinks bar. One purpose would be to have the elaborate edge as a finishing element. It's one of the ultimate "living" counters since as someone pointed out upthread, it will ding, discolor etc. For a hutch, that's no problem for me at all. I also could see a section of regular kitchen counters in zinc. A full kitchen would no doubt be gorgeous but ya gotta love maintenance.