That seam doesn't look that bad to me.

It's certainly NOT huge. Nor is it all that obvious. Counter material of any variety will never have an invisible seam. Even Corian seams are visible in the right light, and they are noted for being as good as it gets in the seam department. Yours is inconspicuous, which is the best that can be hoped for. Yours achieves that goal. It looks fine.

It would have looked better to fill it with the background color I think. It's not THAT bad, but it could be better.

I would be happy with that seam

Hi, Going through the same thing right now with Silestone. Although, from your pic, yours actually looks better than mine. I posted yesterday on here with a pic, if you wish to take a look. I have Silestone Lagoon, which has a similar look to your quartz. I can see my seam from 8 feet away. It looks like a small grout line, which is, in my book, not great. It needs better blending for sure. The fabricators placed the seam in the most conspicuous place they could find, right in front of me as I enter the kitchen, too. Not only are we not happy about where the seam is, but with the quality of the seam, so I can certainly feel your pain. As I write this, the company is here, now, trying to make it look better. We shall see. Best wishes and good luck!!

I would be happy with that seam as well. Pull back and look at the big picture. :)

Where is your seam? Is it at the corner of an L? Right in the middle of a run? Your photograph doesn't show the location and your description only says a "very visible area." I don't think the seam looks bad either, but location would likely determine how happy I was with it.

I think it's a decent seam for a man made material. Stone is formed in layers so there is an order to the "movement" but in man made material the contrasting colors are swirled in, so to speak so they are more random and difficult to match.

I wouldn't expect anything better really.

Thanks everybody for posting. I feel a little better. Guess I was spoiled with the installation of silestone in our new bath. There was no seam since only needed one slab.
If this is the worst disappointment in our kitchen remodel, guess we are doing pretty well. Thanks again.

I imagine it looks like someone took a pencil and scored a line on the counter. What color is the epoxy used?

Is he saying the light counter surface is just a very thin veneer over a dark center material? Like laminate? That is surprising. You must have seen a small sample block of material first to note the edges or back. I would call the manufacturer to see why they couldn't just use the background color (and blend the squiggles with a darker sharpie if necessary).

Otherwise looks tight and thin. Just the wrong color. The predominate one is cream not gray.

I am a fabricator.

Seam looks OK to me. IMHO you do have a valid complaint about not knowing where the seam would be. We ALWAYS make sure we review seam locations with the customer before we cut any stone. If the material has "movement" (swirls, whorls, seams, etc.) like many natural stone and a handful of quartz colors we strongly encourage the customer to participate in the layout of the parts on the slabs.

They used white. And I plan to call the manufacturer as soon as I can get out of the chaos of the plumber and some other stuff. They use "white" according to the fabricator. The bad news is that I'm pretty sure this could have looked better. Good news is that I'm pretty sure it could have looked a lot worse. I'll let y'all know if when I find out more. I also hope to post some pictures (thought kitchen not finished) of countertops at least fairly soon - after plumber installs faucets.

I suspect it could have been blended better too. Yes, please do post back what you learn so others can avoid this problem.

>>Counter material of any variety >>

Actually, that's not true. I have Swanstone counters (the earliest competitor to Corian) and have two large corner seams. With a LOT of natural light, btw. Three contractors at different times after install, stuck their noses down to the surface of my counters because they couldn't believe an invisible seam could be made, but had to admit defeat.

To a man they admitted both corner seams are invisible.

I watched the Swanstone installers when they put the counters in. They spent over half an hour on each seam just sanding/polishing each one to perfection.

From what I've read, Corian is head and shoulders better regarding seams than anything else. So if you don't want your seams to show, besides picking a good fabricator, go with Corian.

elphaba: You are correct about Corian, but that applies to all solid solid surface products with the exception of engineered stone.

I have a seam in my River White granite. My input was sought on seam placement and fabricator cut the slab so that the most "line-y" part of the slab would have a seam running through it, parallel. So that part went well.

I was disappointed that the installer didn't take it to the next level though. I realize it's simplest to slap a single colour in. The installer gave me the choice of a lighter and darker epoxy. But he wouldn't apply the two epoxy colours in a dotted pattern so that the line of the seam didn't stand out as much. That would have made it much less visible. It's a visual principle that if you break up a line with a pattern it stands out a lot less. I will probably DIY some acrylic lighter colour at some point to improve this situation. I am positive that I can make the seam less visible this way.

Some companies have actually made a specialty of improving seams:

FWIW, elphaba, I don't think your seam is too bad.

feisty68:

I can't imagine how your pictured seam could improve that much by topical treatment only. They'd have to pull the tops, machine the edge, and reseam with color matched adhesive.

My Minuet seam is not good either. Make sure your installer uses the same slab. I don't think mine did - there was a difference in thickness and color.
Regardless, the seam is quite obvious. Thanks for warning others so they can set their expectations accordingly.

This is an old thread that has popped to the top. But, I want to ask a question of the fabricators. If you have a quartzite product, in my case LG Viatera Rococo, what color do you want to use to fill a seam. The lighter element, the darker element, a blend of both or striated? Opinions please. I'm getting close to fabrication and would be interested in the best possible results.

I am hoping to place the seam at the middle of the sink. This is what I would do if I were using marble.

I'm trying to fill a seam in Compac Carrera, a cream-grayish white with gray swirl mix, similar to the Minuet. Would also be interested in how to match the epoxy to best hide the seam. The fabricator put in bright white epoxy first and it looked like a thick line of grout. Awful. When I complained, he put in dark gray. Again, I complained. Then he added more white to the gray. It's still not right as the lighter background is more of a cream with gray swirls.

I think you had a better fabricator/installer than the one my contractor got. He simply added the white epoxy and pushed the pieces into each other on the job, no clamps, no other equipment. Therefore, the seam wasn't tight. You sound like you had a much better installer.